Have women become soft

[peeweehill]

Hear me first ive just got in from having a chat to my neighbour shes almost 80 really sweet lady known her for years.
Well we was having a natter while she was waiting for her daughter to arrive (she`s going away for the weekend) and i said something how society has changed a lot and how far technology has come.

She agreed it was all for the best and how we would of loved it back in the day. She then said the biggest thing that she as noticed the most is that women are getting softer.
I said what do you mean she replied with we all used to be tough as nails now most are gone soft.
Before i could reply her daughter arrived she said catch up when i get home on monday.

Now im waiting for monday lol😆
It got me thinking have us women got softer.🤔
Some of what i read on MN i think she may have a point i think i dont know.
What do you netters think.

It's irritating to be called out. I didn't say every single boomer voted to pull up the ladder.

You have not 'called me out' because I have done absolutely none of these things. You have merely made an unpleasant, generalised accusation with no back up data.

I think about what my mother (born in 1925) had to live through and I’m not so sure that we are soft so much as they had it hard and just had to get on with it. What I mean is it’s not a bad thing that some things are easier now (washing machines, food delivery, disposable nappies, our own bank accounts, etc etc). People do seem to get offended very easily now though and are very quick to say things ‘trigger’ them and so on.

My gran worked 3 jobs a day from 6am through to 8pm from the 1950s through to around 1988 when she retired, with only half an hour break between jobs, in which time she had to change uniform and get from one place to another.
She also cycled there and back to save money on car/bus.

She worked those jobs because they needed the money to survive, so they weren't thrown out onto the streets. My dad remembers eating basic food (think boiled potatoes level), and they grew as much as they could themselves.

She never had a washing machine, or hoover; everything was done by hand.

That's a pretty stark difference between then and now.

The 60s are now 55-65 years ago, but times have changed a huge amount.

I think things have changed a huge amount since my childhood in the 80s, and my childhood was vastly different to those in the 60s.

Yes, I thought this when I first read it. I imagine both when she was young and when she was raising her kids it was perfectly normal to give children a good walloping for misbehaviour. And of course children would have been caned in school.

It’s not just women.

We live in a society with trigger warnings and safe spaces so I can understand why younger people appear soft to her. Many children are infantilised to the extent that they become anxious young adults who struggle to function. The fact about brains not being fully developed until age 25 is used as an excuse by some to explain behaviour that should have been sorted as a teen.

I think that more people would cope with “harder” circumstances if they had to but in the UK we’ve had the luxury of no wars, no conscription etc which I’m grateful for. I’m grateful that I don’t have to handwash clothes and have gadgets like dishwashers and vacuum cleaners. I’m grateful for central heating and indoor loos too.

I think that women’s problems have changed. There was abuse and single parents in the past but today you can’t have children doing things like walk home from school and letting themselves in once they start school without getting into trouble with the police and social services. Women have to earn and work similar hours to men in order to keep the family afloat whether single or in a couple. Women are criticized for working, staying at home, having kids and not having kids. They are judged for earning more than men, longer hours than men or even leaving the kids with said man to travel for work. They are like several people in one body.

Here you go:

2024 GE with age breakdown
How Britain voted in the 2024 general election | YouGov

How Britain voted in the 2024 general election | YouGov
Using a sample of over 35,000 voters, YouGov looks at how voters voted at the 2024 election across factors like age, gender, class, education, income, work status, housing tenure and their vote at past elections

How Britain voted in the 2019 general election | YouGov

2019 with age breakdown

How Britain voted in the 2019 general election | YouGov
YouGov conducts one of Britain's biggest ever post-election surveys to chart how the nation's political character is shifting

General election 2015: how Britain really voted | YouGov

2015 GE with age breakdown

General election 2015: how Britain really voted | YouGov
The results of Britain's biggest ever post-election survey reveal the nation's changing political character

Brexit vote by age 2016| Statista

Brexit by age

Brexit vote by age 2016| Statista
In the Brexit referendum of 2016, 73 percent of people aged between 18 and 24 voted to Remain in the European Union, compared with just 40 percent of people aged over 65.

Had a horrid feeling that’s what the data would show. But honestly, it wasn’t me.
I do wonder what goes through some of these people’s heads, perhaps an inability to walk in someone else’s shoes.
I apologise.

There's no need to apologise, I wasn't blaming you.

Many non boomers voted for all this also. The great majority of " boomers" didn't even go to university. Who voted to underfund the NHS? I don't remember hat EVER being an option in any election .

As for the EU. If all the people that are whinging and crying about it now actually bothered to vote at the time then maybe it wouldn't have happened. The people to find want us to leave actually bothered to get off their arses and vote. It is what is is

My mum would have been 80 if she was still alive ( dad 86). I was never given the cane at xchool .Don't remember really getting a " good walloping" eihher

Because it's Tory policy and they voted for it in their droves. 14 years of Austerity, predominantly voted for by boomers.

I can only speak for myself of course. But I notice that I let more things slide now than I did before… not big things but I sort of pick my battles. I think mainly because I have had quite a rough few years (haven’t we all really) and I’m just constantly tired. But not everyone is the same.

I think "gone soft" can be how people phrase "are less traumatised".

Surely each generation is trying to make things better for their children?

It was a totally different option. David Cameron wanted to remain and was doing the " well the people will agree with me" so did the referendum. However it didn't go the way he expected so he threw his toys out of the pram and resigned. So how you say this is a Tory policy I don't know. Were you actually there as an adult at the time?

We seem to be having a parallel conversation and I'll side step the condescension.

I was talking about Tory austerity and you seem to be talking about Brexit.

Either way, both austerity and Brexit were predominantly voted for by boomers. Brexit has cost billions and austerity has brought services to a standstill. The NHS is barely functioning and councils aren't able to offer more than the essentials.

Do you think the " boomers" make up such a high percentage of the population? Or merely that others cba to bother voting?

As if the 30% or so of " boomers" wanted the Tories, surely the 70•% of " non boomers " of voting age could have prevented it by voting themselves? I'm neither a boomer nor a youngster so no skin in the game

And btw it was you who had a whole paragraph about brexit which was what I was replying to

Boomers have been shown to vote Tory in high numbers. Turning up to vote doesn't necessitate voting Tory.

You responded to this:

Because it's Tory policy and they voted for it in their droves. 14 years of Austerity, predominantly voted for by boomers.

No Brexit, hence the confusion.

But all the non boomers IF they turned up to vote are a higher number than the boomers? So why is it ONLY the boomers blamed for Tories?

I originally replied to your previous post actually

MiloMinderbinder925 · Today 19:10
Evidence is readily available given how boomers voted for Brexit and the Tories in vast numbers over the years.
Voted happily to get rid off student grants, dissolve the welfare state, underfund the NHS and take us out of the EU with all the advantages that had. All the things they benefited from with their triple locked pensions.
Edited

Because they predominantly vote Tory. If they turned up to vote and voted across the political spectrum they wouldn't be blamed for pulling up the ladder.

And what do the " non boomers " vote? There's more of them

I provided the stats up thread.

I think that the generation who grew up in WW2’were particularly tough. Wouldn’t say that this means that younger people are necessarily soft, although I agree that many posters on here are lacking resilience (by that I mean those starting certain threads).

Yep. Not answering the door is a prime example. Or maybe that's a MN thing!