What was life like in the workplace if you are a woman or bringing up a young family in the 80s?

[Martinii]

I was only a small child in the 80s, so I can't really remember it.

There's always people saying how wonderful the 80s were, and you can't deny the music, films, and fashion were great. But that's always from women who were either a child or teen during the decade where life can be fairly carefree (like any decade as a young person).

I'm watching Working Girl, and it made me think how women were expected to wear skirts, tights, heals, etc. My mothers experience of bringing us up in the 80s as a single mum wasn't rosy, and I know she wouldn't look back in great fondness (except maybe the music).

So if you were working (as in an adult rather than a teen doing shifts for pocket money) or you were bringing up a young family, what was it like?

I was teaching in the 80s. Had 14 weeks maternity leave (6 before and 8 afterwards) then went back to work. With 2nd child I resigned at 7 months pregnant and had 3 years at home. Went back to teaching, taking the elder child with me (in another class) with younger one in Nursery. My days started early and ended late - it was knackering but I loved it.

Dress wise we could wear what we liked (except jeans) but I always dressed smartly and wore high heels because I liked them - God knows how I did it!

Downside was no car so I had to take both children on a 45 min bus ride there and back, grappling with a buggy, children, bags and my briefcase (often an umbrella too!). Later, we moved within walking distance of the school (I still wore my high heels!) and later again to a village, by which time I had a car and both children in school with me. I also had help by then eg a cleaner who did my laundry too.

The 90s was easier as the children were in secondary school and caught the school bus. I became a headteacher (still wearing smart clothes and heels) and increased the help at home.

These posts are really insightful and interesting, thank you

Nurseries were from 3 and just 3 hours a day.

Primary ones only went to school in the morning until the October holidays.

There were no breakfast clubs or after school/holidays clubs.

But it was socially acceptable to leave your kids with a 14yo neighbour while you went on a night out.

If you had a kid young you'd get a council house and got benefits with no requirement to look for a job until your youngest was 16.

Kids walked themselves to and from school even from 5 years old. They'd be out playing until it was dark.

You'd cook dinner and kids would eat or go hungry. There was no cooking to taste. No ready meals or deliveries though.

Kids clothes were expensive & there were no second hand /charity shop options. Things would get fixed )by mum).

Babies had cardigans knitted for them.

Most siblings shared rooms.

Baths were once a week.

Most women didn't drive so had to get shopping from small shops more often. Supermarkets were smaller.
Lots of girls esp WC were expected to leave school at 16 and get a local job eg shop/ clerical and pay rent at home.

If you wanted to live with a boyfriend you had to get married, likewise if you got pregnant.

Most babies were formula fed from birth with all the days bottles made up in one go.

Nappies were terry towling that were steeped in Milton then washed. They were fastened with a big safety pin. Bums were cleaned with cotton balls with baby lotion on them.

Women retired at 60 so lots of grannies did childcare. Most women didn't work when they had under 5s then worked part time when kids were at school.

Severely disabled babies were removed at birth and raised in institutions. It wasn't even expected for families to visit them.

Most MC families could afford private schools. Two professional parents could afford boarding school.

More like 1950s than 1980s

My Mum worked in an office - she always had a ‘business suit’ smart shoes and tights! Before she worked in an office she did hours around us. Once the local Montessori opened my younger sister went there after school which meant my mum could do office hour type work.

No flexibility- it had to be 9-5:30. I did ask her once what it was like for her - she said it was definitely harder for her (she has me very young so was only 29 when she went back to work!) Men around her always got promotions before her, she has the same low level role for years and had to fight for any additional training. She said around 1999 it felt fairer in the workplace.

I worked in a bank too, no kids then. We used to wear platforms to work when I first started and changed into scholl sandals to work in. It was a bit of a sexist environment but not as sexist as the 70s. We had a fabulous time. Pub most lunch times and ashtray on every desk although you weren't allowed to smoke in front of customers, only in the back offices.

I was a single parent of a 4 and 6 month old when I got a new job. I'd been let go from my previous job when I told them I was pregnant with no. 2 and my husband decided he'd had enough of being a family man.
On my first day at work, the woman from hr came to my desk and told me off for wearing smart trousers and flat shoes. The dress code for women was skirt and heels. I didn't own a skirt. I had to borrow one from my next door neighbour for a month and just keep washing it in the sink every few days until I could afford to buy one

This was the 60's and 70's for me, certainly not the 80's

In the 80's I was once asked during an interview for a job at a well-known building society whether I was planning on having children any time soon. I told him he really wasn't supposed to ask questions like that, and walked out!

In another job, I was continually passed over for promotion until I let it slip (I lied) that I was infertile and couldn't have kids. Cue an almost immediate promotion.

Go figure.

Well my contract of employment was obviously different to yours. I definitely got a year.

Started part time work in late 80s around a levels and uni

what i wore wasn’t an issue as had a uniform - no expectation of heels. My managers were nearly all women.

going to pub at lunchtime or after work was very common. Fridays especially most ppl went for a quick drink after work

That's pretty much my experience of a 1980s childhood.

My mum mended everything.
School uniform was bought enormous and turned up. This led to blazers that you could barely move your arms in.
One year she couldn't afford school uniform so made it herself from material from the market - nobody would do this nowadays!

DM taught me to sew, my first item was a ra-ra skirt recycled from a pair of curtains. Textiles were expensive so got reused.

She was prepared to avoid cooking some foods when I made it clear I'd prefer to starve. But other than that it was eat and say thank-you. The arrival of Delia was a godsend, flavour arrived!

I entered the workplace in the second half of the 80s. Women not permitted to wear trousers, had to be a dress or skirt. Lots of sexism. Behaviour that would be outrageous now. You definitely were 'lesser'.

It was v unusual for women to come back after having a baby.

Agree from my experience.

I had babies in the early 80s and all the other mums I knew had given up work. It wasn't done to just take a few months off and return to work. Unless you had a DM who could help, there was very little childcare.
I started working in the NHS very part-time when the DC were small. When my DC started school and I applied for other jobs in the NHS, I wasn't getting short-listed for jobs I had the right experience and qualifications for. I asked HR why not and they said they would not employ women with children of primary school age.
Many female pensioners now have very small pensions due to the lack of career opportunities when our DC were young.
Having more time at home with the DC than most modern mums did give many of us a less rushed and stressed life than now.

My memories working in a police station

Several officers begging not to be sent on the miners due to commitments at home, I had a stand up row with the Superintendent when they were insisting an officer was going to be disciplined for refusing to get on the coach as his wife had just phoned from the hospital to say she was in premature labour at 26 weeks and she had the toddler with her. Some officers loved it because despite the terrible conditions they were housed in they were getting mega money.

During the riots I had to collect all the epaulettes with their collar numbers on as they were being fire proofed. Puzzled young officer asked why they were just fire proofing them and not the whole uniform, his sergeant said it was so they would be able to identify their bodies when the rioters set fire to them. The murder of PC Blakelock stopped that sort of comment being funny.

Fire bomb coming through my office window, it didn't go off but by December I was seriously complaining about the cold and they eventually got it fixed.

Friend of mine tried the wide eyed flirting with the officer and insisting she had no idea she was doing nearly 40 when she was stopped for speeding, his reply was "When the big hand goes past 30 that means you are doing more than 30." and gave her a ticket.

By the way if you like working girl, have you seen 9-5? If not, watch that and come and start a thread about the 1970s.

Surely by the 80s it would have been illegal to dismiss a woman for being pregnant?

This happened to me in 2023 when I was 8 months pregnant. She told me the team didn't need another person in my role, but then hired someone (no children) to do my role. This was a prestigious company too. I was heavily pregnant and distraught. I was so stressed.

My parents were children of the 80s so that's why I'm on this thread. When I was at primary school in the 00s, most mums were either SAHM or worked part time.

I started work late 80s straight from school. Local authority public facing for the first couple of years, then into a professional services firm.
Local authority, smart casual clothes, rigid rota with mandatory breaks. Very relaxed atmosphere, really nice people. Constant watchfulness for odd packages and people due to the threat of IRA bombs (I worked in London).
Professional services firm in an admin role, was asked at interview if I planned on having children and if I had a boyfriend. Dress code was skirts, blouses and tights for the women. Most of the male staff talked to my breasts 100% of the time. Everyone went to the pub at lunchtime. Lots of shenanigans in store rooms and offices (office were not open plan so lots of little private rooms). There was a tea lady who came round mid afternoon with a trolly with tea and cakes. No kitchen so you couldn't make yourself a cuppa. There was a water cooler.
No women at all at management level. I was told to lose my accent as it was unprofessional.
I worked 9-5 and not a minute more. I quite often took 2 hour lunches if I went out with the professional staff no one said a word.
We had an annual summer ball in a posh London hotel and they put on a coach from the office to ferry us all there.
It was brilliant, I had no stress, the job was easy, I had a lot of fun.
I think my mum had it harder with my younger siblings. She's did what she could for pin money, like school nurse, cleaning, babysitting. There weren't any term time or school hour roles, except in schools so a lot of competition for the few non teaching roles that might be available. she just had to find work where she could. Me and my older siblings all paid rent to our parents, which was the main reason I didn't go to college, our household needed the money we all bought in.

I had four children between 1980 and 1986. I'm in the US so I got a total of 6 months maternity leave for all four pregnancies. It was not easy. Child care was a patchwork process. We have vacation days and sick days, and we could use our sick days when our children were ill. I worked with a lot of men and they took turns with their spouses taking time with their ill children.

It's not the 80s I recognise either.
I started work in 1988 (British Telecom) and could wear what I wanted. By 1991 I was in the Civil Service as a graduate entrant. Everyone wore what they wanted. I'd say managers were 50/50 men and women.

My mother had me at 21 in 1965 and returned to her office job when I was 5 weeks old. She became a manager and was in charge of a large team of men and women by the mid 70s.

I remember lots of my teachers at school in primary (so 1970-1977) and secondary (1977-1984) getting pregnant, taking leave and coming back after their maternity.

Growing up, just one of my friend's mothers didn't work. Everyone else did. Both of my grandmothers worked full time and drove.

Really? One in seven women in the UK currently lose their job after announcing a pregnancy (me included) pregnancy discrimination is still rife. I can't imagine it was better 45 years ago.

Tbh I watched 9-5 a few years ago and I don't know if its the comedy factor of the film but it didn't seem as bad as working girl

Lots of people assuming their experience was what happened to everybody, and there's also a confusion between maternity leave and maternity pay. My memory is that in the 1980s women who'd been working for their employer for two years were entitled by law to take something like 28 weeks of maternity leave, i.e you had the right to time off and then to return to your job. You could take a few weeks before the due date if you wanted to, and the rest afterwards.

Separately, there was a right to a small amount of pay - six weeks, 90% of salary? - and then a tiny amount of statutory maternity pay for a longer period, possibly until the end of the maternity leave, or until you went back to work, whichever was earlier. This was paid by the government if you had enough National Insurance contributions.

Some employers, probably the ones with most women on the workforce, paid more than this in the hope of retaining female workers, and if you didn't go back to your job after your maternity leave you had to pay the enhanced bit back.

We lived in London and from memory there were very few day nurseries. Childminders weren't inspected in the way they are now and only fairly wealthy people could afford day or live in nannies. Some families had au pairs or mother's helps. It was still very common in my experience for women just not to go back to their jobs after having a baby. There was little discussion about the career progression and pension rights she'd lose by taking a career break.

Yes this also happened to me sadly in 2023. I think it still happens to one in seven women - it's sad how far we still have to go re pregnancy & maternity discrimination.

I was in my 20s.
Worked in the civil service. Dress was very casual, no dress codes, jeans perfectly normal. Flexi time, women managers.
Lunchtime drinking normal as was smoking in the office. Christmas party was a riot.
However there was no part time work so if you had a baby it was back to work full time or not at all although they did introduce job sharing in the 80s.
There was a contract with a local nursery so guaranteed child care but very expensive and no free childcare. I had my DC in the 90s by which time not only could you choose to work part time you could switch to a part year contract. So once mine were at school I worked term time only.