1961 women's employment - wow!

Mid eighties I worked in retail and I vividly remember my female area manager turning to me as I was about to go on maternity leave and said " you do realise that if you want to come back we can send you to any store within a thiry mile radius" she knew I didnt drive and using public transport would have been a nightmare what with dropping off baby at a childminders on route, ironically I worked for Mothercare.
I remember communial changing rooms being around in the late seventies, early eighties, I did my best to avoid them.
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This is bizarre. I went to uni in 1978, opened a bank account (Lloyds because they offered the best perks) as did all my fellow female students, no male signatures required.

It was 1992 that polys became unis. I was there.

Marriage bars in teaching ended... at various points, depending on your LEA. They were mostly suspended during WW2, of course.

Marriage bars in other professions also ended at various points. I think the 1973 civil service ones were the last official ones, but of course, they continued through convention in many places afterwards- women were often expected to want to stop work, and were strongly encouraged to. Some banks asked new husbands to write a letter to confirm they were happy for the new wife to continue working there, into the 1980s.

The Equal Pay Act was passed before I was born, but I've never been able to take it for granted. My biggest payrise was 23%, after they did a pay audit on the department- I had questioned my salary a couple of years earlier, and just been told, "it's a stackable offence to discuss pay." And even when I've had evening up payrises, it's never been backdated, nor pension contributions, which are done on a percentage of pay. I've never had time out on maternity or for caring, but I'll still have less pension than my male peers.

When I started work back in the late 70's , couldn't go for a drink after work unless had a male with us, unless the pub had a lounge

1979 I was the best Pool player in my store - yet I wasnt allowed on the team - because I was female

Same year I wanted a hifi on credit from woolies, even though I had wage slips proving income, even though I was staff, I still had to get a guarantor

Mm, I went in 1989 and the figure WAS 10% going onto university specifically. So no, they haven't got it wrong at all, and it isn't the wrong decade.

The polys didn't become universities for at least a couple of years after that, it was in my final year I think, which would've been 1992. I was at Sussex Uni, there was Brighton poly in the town (which then became Brighton University), but there was definitely a bit of hoo-ha about the changeover.

Violinist 64, I was grammar school educated, turned 18 in 1982, and the careers thought suitable were teaching, nursing or office work. Only 4 girls out of our cohort went to university. I was told off for wearing trousers in thd office in 1984. I applied for a credit card in 1986 and was asked if my husband was aware I wanted a credit card. I wasn't married 😁

End of the 80s.

I don't find it hard to believe actually. Are you really suggesting the poster is lying?

Although for many of us, there generally weren't problems from the mid-late 80s onwards (I got my first student bank account in 1989 I think, no problems at all), you've got to remember that some of the most senior people (men) working in banks then would've been old school.If it's at the discretion of the bank manager (which it often was) and he was a old fashioned old git, I can see that that still might've been happening in some branches. There were some old school tossers who were really stubborn about it and thought it asserted their 'authority' over women and their 'conservative values'. I remember, for instance, in 1988/89, that our new deputy headmaster at my school when i was in 6th form insisted that none of the female teachers should be allowed to wear trousers!

Quite incredible to think of now, but also common in a lot of workplaces then.

It sounds like you were luckier than most women, certainly in the 60s. My working class and working mum, for sure, always needed my dad's signature for stuff, and she ws married at 19. Before that, it was her father.

My first encounter with a new-style TiM was in the communal changing at Miss Selfridge in the West End. It must've been 1999 or 2000. It was a big room and a couple of women finished, leaving just him and me.

He was prancing around demanding my attention all the time, being 'sexy'. Very annoying, rather creepy and intimidating. I eventually told him I was on limited time and asked him to leave me alone to finish trying on my stuff - and he took umbrage. Got quite angry, so I got dressed in my own clothes and left the rest there, not buying anything.

He shocked me a bit, and I was shocked again when I tried telling the staff someone was being intrusive and belligerent. They told me off, putting me entirely in the wrong. I felt I was speaking a different language - I now know I was, in a way! I'd unknowingly bumped into early genderism. I was nearly crying when I left.

At the time, I had loads of 'trans' friends. None of them were like this, it was incredibly weird. I used to like communal changing rooms, all the women would help each other with the outfits and give feedback on choices. When I saw this bloke in Miss Selfridge, I found it odd but assumed he'd be sharing the vibe. Wrong!

That probably explains all. I was in London and then Staffordshire.

I was just coming on to comment about Miss Selfridge's communal changing room in about '97 that was very open plan

I was married when I entered the civil service. I just took an exam. I don't remember being asked if I intended to have children, but it did come up when I decided to train as a teacher - neither job then had marriage bars, c.1972/4.

Also nearby. It's bonkers by modern standards. (Of course, that head post office on Claypath is now flats)

I think that it was still expected for women to give up work in many "acceptable" professions, around that time, in the event that they married.

It shows how fragile women's rights are, how bottom of the pile we are, this letter only 65 years ago. Equality Act only 16 years ago and already being attacked by men.

The marriage bar was very real and affected all women, professional or in ordinary office jobs, shops etc. I remember my teacher leaving when she got married - mind, she married a vicar which is a job in itself! Married women began to be retained as teachers in the 50s when the marriage bar was lifted. By the 60s many teachers were married women.

At my first job interview at 16, in 1973, I was asked about when I was likely to get married and have children...it was a civil service job.

Apparently it was 1982 when pubs were no longer allowed to refuse to serve women.
www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2012/nov/15/el-vino-women-ban-fleet-street-1982

Very late. I had my own bank account in 1968. I don't remember needing a guarantor - though since I was a minor possibly my father (my mother would not have qualified as a guarantor) may have needed to sign something. I was 18 and temping before going up to university. I arranged the bank account myself.

Glasgow.

My dm, who left her grammar school in the early 1950s, often tells of her “exit interview” with her headteacher. Dm was full of ideas for her career. Her headteacher said at the end “I expect you’ll get married”!! My dm went on to have a career in publishing and didn’t get married for another 10 years.

This is where I urge people who have not read or come across Can Any Mother Help Me? which has many first hand accounts of 20th Century women who lived in the time of the marriage bar.

Top Shop and River Island had communal changing rooms - rather dingy as I remember!

That's weird. I went into a pub with my parents in c.1966/7 (I was 16 or so) and regularly went to the local pub near my hall in 1968/9. Also, our tutorial group met in the same pub - a 'social' gathering. Women were allowed into pubs - indeed, in the early part of the twentieth century husband and wife were likely to go to the pub together on either a Friday or a Saturday night (depending whether they worked on Saturday or not). In the 50s my aunt would go to her local pub with my uncle. Sunday lunchtime tended to be all male, mainly because wives were at home cooking Sunday lunch. Where did your DM's boyfriend go to university?

Yes I agree with this. Definitely remember some - I think Monsoon and Topshop that I definitely went in to in the very late 90s / early 2000s!

That seems really late to me - I got a bank account and a credit card in 1989, no make signature required.

I had the same problem with Anglian, too. I started off patiently explaining that it was my flat, my money and my refurb. Guy insisted on a non-existent husband.

I wrote to head office telling them theirs had been the best quote, but I went with a supplier who'd accept a female client. 2002.

Had a lot more trouble than you with mortgages, though. XH1 and I couldn't get a joint mortgage in the North-East, 1980. We moved to London, where it was easy. Both salaries counted, same multiplier (I earned more than him).

But 18 years later, also in London, XH2 and I were trying to complete on our purchase and the building society wouldn't release the funds on my say! It wasn't that they needed to speak to us both, they insisted on him signing off the transfer. He was out of the country with no phone signal and we nearly lost the flat thanks to some stupid cow at Abbey National.

My first political action, in 1974, was leading a strike at the factory where I worked because there was no women's toilet.