I had lunch with my Mom today. I thought I was going to be able to get her internet back on, but apparently it won’t be on until 8:00 tonight. This was after spending about an hour a couple of months ago trying to figure out why she couldn’t connect to the internet. I found out she had “cancelled” her internet. But we all forget things, don’t we?
So we ordered pizza and my younger nephew Joe and I visited with her. She makes me laugh. My older nephew Kennith is in town and he had told her he would take her to buy groceries when he got back. I asked her “Where are you going to buy groceries?” She squinted her eyes, trying to recall. “I know its not Walmart, I hate Walmart. It starts with a Q.” She got up and left the table. I think she went to find what ever sale paper she had been looking at. When she came back she said “Kroger. He’s taking me to Kroger.” “That doesn’t start with a Q!” I say. “No.” she said, “But it has a G in it.”
We were talking about unions and working and how big corporation treat their employees. She told a story that happened to her about 1966. She said she was working for General Dynamics. They were working at the North end of the building and it was Winter time. It was so cold and they had a hard time keeping warm. Back then women weren’t “allowed” to wear pants to work. So she and some of her female co-workers started wearing pants under their skirts or dresses. After this went on for a few days, they were called into a big meeting. Their supervisor told them that they couldn’t wear pants under their dresses because it was bad for the morale of the men. He said the women’s main role was to bolster the morale of their male coworkers. He also stated during that meeting that see through or low cut blouses were allowed. My mother said she stood up and said “You mean I wasn’t hired to do a job, but to flirt and carry on with my male coworkers?” She and her female coworkers banded together, refused to give in, and six months later were wearing pants.
I recently finished reading “Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady. This dealt with how women in England were treated during the Victorian age. Mainly concerning a divorce law that went into effect that allowed divorce through a civil court, rather than a church court. An interesting fact about this particular law was that a man could divorce his wife after “proving” one act of adultery. On the other hand a women had to “prove” two acts of adultery and also desertion, malice, etc.. Women worldwide were treated basically the same way. As property. After reading this book, talking to my mom today, and reflecting back on another blog. “Witnessing the Changing Role of Women.” It makes me realize how long it took for women to be treated as somewhat of an equal.
Of course now women have access all by themselves to lots of things that they didn’t before. BUT now it seems as if some outside agencies want to take control of our basic rights, decisions, and choices. But that’s another blog for another day.