Categories
1900-1949 Women

Feminists Condemned, 1939

I’ve posted before about the frisson of anger-enjoyment, perversely getting a bit of a kick out of things that wind you up. I had it in abundance in this curmudgeonly-in-the-extreme Advice for Wives article from 1895.

But here my feminist hackles are raised, good and proper. It’s a report from “The National Association of Schoolmasters” 1939 conference, where “a resolution opposing the principle of equality of salaries between men and women teachers was passed.” Well, they might have had to even go so far as to change the name of the association.

“It declared the application of equal pay must compel schoolmasters to accept a lower standard.”

The kicker is from Mr H. Meigh, mover of the proposition, who stated that “the feminist movement was a case of the tail wagging the dog. A small politically-minded section of advanced feminists in the teaching profession, who cursed their Maker because He did not allow them to enter the world wearing trousers, were prepared to cast aside the superiority which all true men automatically accorded them in favour of mere equality.”

Isn’t that annoying? All true men apparently consider women to be superior, in an undefined and unapparent way, and so why should women “settle” for equality?

I can’t help but be reminded of Bic’s recent woefully backwards-looking advert released for Women’s Day in South Africa – here. It’s a similarly irritating attempt to maintain the sexist status quo while cack-handedly pretending to compliment or inspire women. If Bic really thought that any one of their shameful statements was in any way progressive I’d be amazed. And never mind “Work like a boss”, how about “Get paid like a boss?”

Sheffield Telegraph, 12th April 1939
Sheffield Telegraph, 12th April 1939

Women, know your limits.

Categories
Victorian Victorian Slang Women

Victorian Slang of the Week – Gander month

Today, a slang phrase that actually rather shocked me. In 1865, what was good for the gander wasn’t good for the goose.

GANDER MONTH, the period when the monthly nurse is in the ascendancy, and the husband has to shift for himself.

The Slang Dictionary, 1865
The Slang Dictionary, 1865

This refers to the four weeks “lying-in period” following childbirth, when the new mother was kept in confinement to recover. And when the poor neglected husband of the house was allowed to go and seek his fun elsewhere for the duration.

Grose’s “Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue” from 1811 also refers to it, describing it as the time when “husbands plead a sort of indulgence in matters of gallantry”.

Although later, elsewhere, E. Cobham Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” from 1898 gives it a much milder description, as a time when the husband is ignored or, rather, – “…the master is made a goose of.” Possibly the meaning of the phrase had changed by that point and attitudes had changed.

Categories
1950-1999

Feminist or Sexist? The Feminine Fix-It Handbook, 1972

The Feminine Fix-it Handbook, 1972
The Feminine Fix-it Handbook, 1972

Hmmmm. Tricky.

Kind of neither. And both.

Despite the slightly jaw-dropping language (can you even imagine a “traditional” DIY book requesting its male readers put on their hunkiest overalls before they begin?) it’s all very “Go, girl!” *fist pump*

I can see this book being aimed at Mary Tyler Moore, the Liver Birds, all those swinging 70s ladies living in flats and feeling pretty damned independent in a way that was quite new to most women. And who apparently had right tits as brothers in law.

It’s written well, very clear and informative, and I feel slightly shamed by the fact that I actually do need to know most of this stuff. I am rubbish at DIY, but then I am a woman and confused by electricity. And this despite the fact that many years ago I was actually a DIY buyer for a shopping channel.

(I was also the Erotica buyer as it happens, but that’s a story for another day).

And, well, frankly, I like this:

Feminine-fix-it-handbook-5