Kate Long Profile picture

Mar 8, 2018, 26 tweets

Tonight's vintage mag snippets will be about a few of the ways 70s and 80s UK women lost out simply for being born women.

When male factory workers were banned from handling asbestos, the job was callously farmed out to women working at home.

The entire tax system was stacked against women, and that didn't end with the 1976 Discrimination Act because the government made sure exemptions were written in.

I'm guessing this blatantly unfair treatment of women impacted on their earnings, and I'm therefore tagging #WASPI_Campaign

"Mike received a rebate on her earnings and pocketed it." And that was entirely legal.

A reminder that at one time in the not-so-distant past, a woman eating alone could legally be thrown out on the street by restaurant staff.

Attitudes to redundancy:

Before 1981 an employer could sack a woman if he found out she had children.

Disabled married women had to pass a test to access their state pension.

That last was from 1983.

If you were a woman living on Sark in 1973, you might as well have been born in the 18th Century.

Thousands of working women were denied access to sick pay and pensions, *just because they were female*.

Women were routinely - and legally - turned away when they applied for credit.

In 1974, a woman could be sacked from her job the minute a man turned up wanting the position.

Here's the tax office again in 1977 - a year after the Equality Act - giving away a couple's mortgage allowance to the man.

In 1972, custody laws automatically favoured the father, whatever kind of man he was.

Even passports managed to be sexist.

Married women not paid carer's benefit because, hey, they like looking after people.

1975.

'Tis the Natural Order.

It's the MAN who's head of the household, dear.

So, there you are. Born a woman, living through the 70s and 80s? Your female body basically denies you the right to all manner of basic equalities.

Happy #IWD2018

You know, the loss of income here is bad enough, but the everyday humiliation must have been horrendous. 'Born with a uterus? The system will cheerfully treat you like a second class citizen.'

'And if you're married, you are a mere *limb* of your hubby.'

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