Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back
Crows Feet Prompt #29
The most significant societal change I witnessed in my seventy-odd years was the passage of new laws that prohibited the discrimination of women in several areas of their lives: employment, finances, education, and the ability to make life-altering decisions.
For example, I was fired for being pregnant and unmarried when I was eighteen. Later, I was turned down for jobs because I honestly answered that I had children or planned to have them. In 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed, which prohibited such occurrences. I must have been so grateful for these changes that I married an employment attorney.
In the ’70s, a woman could not get credit in her name. This was particularly difficult for women when they divorced. Any application required a male co-signer. Another woman who was gainfully employed did not meet the criteria for being a co-signer.
I had an engaged friend who was purchasing a home with her fiancé. Next to her name on the mortgage application was the label “spinster.” The irony was that she was the one who had the funds for the down payment. Now the woman was referred to as the co-applicant.
I had always wanted to attend college. Girls in my generation were not encouraged to get college degrees. I had already had four children when I…
