7414 Seducing By Scents …
Legislation proposed in England in the 1700’s: “All women of whatever age, rank, profession, or degree, whether virgin, maid or widow, that shall impose upon, seduce and betray into matrimony any of His Majesty’s subjects, by scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled shoes or bolstered hips shall incur the penalty of the law now in force against witchcraft and the like misdemeanors and that marriage, upon conviction, shall stand null and void.”
—House & Garden
7415 Typewriter And Typists
The word “typewriter” originally referred not to the machine itself but to the young lady who operated it.
The first functional typewriter was not patented until 1868. This early machine was mounted on a sewing machine stand with a foot pedal. Pressure applied on the pedal moved the carriage to the right and rolled the platen upward to space the lines.
There was quite an uproar when it was suggested that women could operate this complicated contraption. A six-month course was developed to train the girls to be “typewriters.” But to prove the skeptics wrong, 8 young ladies—the first secretaries—graduated without suffering from any ill effects that could have been acquired while operating such a heavy contraption. Thus the field became open to respectable girls who wanted to earn a living. From then on, the secretarial course became a field dominated by women.
7416 “Mixing Of Sexes” In Public
In 1854, three young women employed as copyists in the U.S. Patent Office were threatened with loss of their jobs. The Commissioner of Patent wrote the Secretary of the Interior, Robert McClelland, on behalf of one copyist and received this response:
“There is every disposition on my part to do anything for the lady in question except to retain her or any of the other females who work in the Patent Office. I have no objection to the employment of females in duties they are competent to discharge, but there is such obvious impropriety in the mixing of the sexes within the walls of public office that I have determined to arrest the practice.”
The “lady in question” later distinguished herself in exclusively male territory: the Civil War Battlefields. Clara Barton then went on to found the American Red Cross.
—Abigail Van Buren
7417 Changing Women’s Minds
In 1920 the state of Kansas was swung into line on the suffrage amendment as the result of an open debate, in which a suffragette merely uttered a single sentence. When the opposition argued, “Women could not be relied upon to exercise good judgment in voting, they change their minds too often,” a young woman carried the day by shouting, “I would like to ask my honorable opponent if he ever tried to change a woman’s mind once it was made up?”
7418 When Napoleon Got A Reply
When Napoleon told Madame de Stael that women had no business being interested in politics, she replied, “In a country where women have been decapitated, it is only natural for other women to ask “Why?””
7419 Chinese Feet-Binding
The practice of binding the feet of Chinese women existed more than a thousand years. The ancient Chinese considered small and lotus-shaped feet the acme of beauty. Parents realized that girls with normal feet would be hard to marry off.
The deforming process was begun when the children were between two and six years old. It is difficult to describe the appearance of these poor feet. Tight bandages raised the arches upward like a tent and shortened the feet. The big toe was turned outward and other four toes were bent under the soles. When the mutilation was complete the heels and four smaller toes bore the weight of the body.
Thus, the gait had no resilience or spring and the women walked with a stamping gait like wearing wooden stilts. It was almost impossible to go up and down stairs, walk on a slope, or run.
7420 First Woman Driver
The first woman driver in the United States was Mrs. Eva Mudge Nelson who drove a Waverly Electric in New York City in 1898. The following year she began driving in races.
7421 Grandma Kills Time by Flying
Cairo (AP)—An 84-year-old American woman who flew solo across the Atlantic on an around-the-world trip, landed here saying she was “exhausted but very happy.”
Wearing a colorful midi dress, Marion Rice Hart, dubbed “The Flying Grandmother” nonchalantly hopped off her single-engined plane to a warm welcome by friends and told them she was hungry and sleepy.
Mrs. Hart, a slender, short woman who told an interviewer that “flying alone helps me kill time,” said she had started her trip in Washington a couple of months ago and has since been to Iceland, England, France, Italy, and Greece.
She is scheduled to stop over in Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf countries where women are not allowed to drive cars.
7422 Japan’s Crusading Wives
Tokyo (UPI)—Watch out for Misako Enoki if you are married and having an affair with another woman.
Enoki-san is a “dreadful fighter” of Japanese married men keeping mistresses outside their home and a powerful supporter of housewives suffering from their husband’s extramarital activities.
The tall and slender 30-year-old housewife has become a nationally prominent feminist activist, author of a book calling for open sale of the pill and leader of a women’s group advocating equality for the fair sex.
Wearing a pink helmet and carrying a placard, she has led women activists in demonstration and invaded office buildings and conference halls for confrontation with men she believed were having an affair with persons other than their wives.
“Be aware of Enoki-san” is a remark often whispered by men in companies and bars.
“When we go into the room, all men from the division chief on down become pale,” she said. “They say, “give us the name of a person you want to see,” and when they find they aren’t the one we are looking for they become relaxed. They all must have guilty consciousness.”
“We feel sorry for them but we have no choice but attack the men (suspected of being engaged in extra-marital affairs) for the sake of the rights of women.”
Mrs. Enoki said her organization has 1,200 members and 500 of them are regarded as members of the group’s “Action Corps.” They are ready to take to the streets at any time.
She said her husband, a physician, is a “very understandable person.”
“I am no good at cooking and washing,” she said, “but my husband doesn’t say anything. I appreciate that.”
7423 Women In Uniform
The number of women in uniform in the US armed forces has increased from 45,000 in 1972 to 112,040 in 1976. Women now comprise 5% of military personnel.
In 1975, the nation’s service academies accepted their first women students for officer training. And in 1976, the minimum 18-year-old enlistment for women was lowered to 17—the same as that for men.
7424 “Thomas Horton And Daughters”
Everyone has heard of family publishing firms like Charles Scribner’s Sons, and G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Now there is a new one in New York called Thomas Horton and Daughters.
—Bits & Pieces
7425 Women’s Names For Hurricanes
In Miami, Fla., women’s liberation advocate Roxey Bolton asked National Hurricane Center Director Dr. Robert H. Simpson to stop the use of women’s names for designating hurricanes.
Mrs. Bolton says names of United States senators should be used as they delight in having things named for them.
—Associated Press
7426 No More “Men” Working
Los Angeles (UPI)—The city council has made it official: There are no more “men” working for the city.
The council has voted 12–0 to strike the word “man” from all municipal worker job titles, such as “councilman,” “foreman,” “fireman” and “kennelman.” The purpose is to avoid discouraging women from applying for the jobs.
7427 Rulings On Ad Wordings
Under the new ruling laid down by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, employers can be penalized if they advertise under the heading “Help Wanted—Male” in situations where women are also qualified.
In the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette an employment agency listed a number of openings. Halfway down the list was this note: “Unless the government rules otherwise, people for the following jobs should use the Men’s restroom.”
One rancher meets the equal-opportunity rule by advertising for a “cow person.” He specifies the applicant must be “proficient in profanity to avoid inferiority complex in the presence of experts, must share bunk-house with three cowboys who seldom bathe.”
—Wall Street Journal
7428 Girls In Boys’ Scouts
Was it merely another triumph of Woman’s Lib or a conquest by curious young males? No matter, another masculine sanctuary has fallen. The Boy Scouts of America revealed that one of its more mature divisions is accepting girls as full members. Designed for Scouts age 14 to 20 who wish to pursue special interests, the branch is called, appropriately, the Explorer program.
7429 Noodle Company Gets Protest
Tokyo (AP)—A woman says, “I am the one who makes it.” A man says, “I am the one who eats it.” And feminists groups say “discrimination”—in the case of this television commercial for instant noodles.
The groups filed a protest with the noodle company, saying they may organize a boycott because the commercial gives the impression that cooking is a women’s job.
Officials of the groups said they also are studying discrimination in a number of other commercials.
7430 Only “Ms” In Passport
London (Reuter)—Fifty women marched on the British passport office to protest against being known as “Mrs” or “Miss.”
They want their passports to carry “Ms” as the term of address.
7431 A Leer For Ms.
Since Women’s Liberation introduced “Ms.” as substitute for Miss or Mrs. the prefix (pronounced Miz) has been working its way steadily into the American vocabulary. There is, of course, institutional resistance. In California, for example, Sacramento County Clerk William Durley reports he has had to reject at least 20 voter registration applications because women have insisted on using Ms. instead of giving their marital-status designation as state law requires.
Now two bills have been introduced in the state legislature to allow the liberated Ms. designation, or none at all, when women desire to register that way. Some federal agencies and congressmen’s offices now routinely address their correspondence to “Ms” in reply to letters signed that way.
—Time
7432 Women In The U.S. Military
In 1980, there were 150,000 women in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps—about 8% of the total—and the figure should reach 12% by 1985. Thus, the US has more women in service—and a larger percentage—than any other country in the world.
7433 Beauty Contest For Men
Salt Lake city, Utah (UPI)—A thousand coeds stomped, cheered, hissed and booed at male contestants parading in bathing suits during the University of Utah’s “1975 Boy America” beauty contest.
The girls ogled at rippling biceps and yelled insulting, sometimes crude remarks, about protruding stomachs, backsides and unshaved underarms. The men contestants were instructed to behave as they believed women would in a beauty contest.
It was supposedly all in the interest of mental health!
7434 Kiss-And-Run Terrorist
Boston had a feminine mash mystery. A woman kiss-and-run terrorist deeply scandalized the city of Puritans. It used to be a crime in Boston for a man to kiss his wife in public, but now it was a case of man being forcibly kissed, not by their wives but by a ruthless, seductive Amazon. She seized a shrieking male in her powerful arms, imprinted a kiss of brutal violence on his chaste and modest lips, and then fled.
The first word of the kissing woman prowler came when a big, burly Bostonian rushed into a police station and shouted: “Can’t a decent man go about the streets without being attacked by a ruffian woman?” He told how he was walking along, sedate and demure, when a woman rushed up to him, seized him, pinned his arms to his sides, and kissed him repeatedly. Then, before he could call for help she had darted away.
No wonder the men of Boston were terrified. The honor of manhood was threatened by a wild woman. So the men were calling upon stalwart American womanhood, pleading: “Think of your brothers, your sons, your husbands, protect them!”
7435 Against Rape In Marriage
The Australian state of South Australia has become the first area in the world to legislate against rape within marriage.
After a delay of some time in the upper house of the South Australian parliament the South Australian Labor Premier, Don Dunstan has announced that the new bill will be declared law.
Among other things the new South Australian law provides that the victim of the sexual offenses will not be required to appear at the hearing, unless the judge decides that there are special circumstances.
“For the first time in Australia and we believe in the world women have been recognized as full and equal partners within marriage and the women’s right of consent to sexual intercourse in marriage has been recognized. Now the law will protect every woman equally against rape whether married or not.”
7436 On Job Titles
The occupational title “clergyman” is one of fifty-two “sex-stereotyped job titles” that is being eliminated by the U.S. Census Bureau from its classification system. From now on, the job title will be simply “clergy.”
7437 Non-Sexist Bible
Durham, N. C. (AP)—Some Christians are taking the “him” out of the hymnals.
They say if humans were “in the image and likeness of God,” then God must be both masculine and feminine.
Under the Rev. Mr. Young’s guidance, a group of male and female Duke students are rewriting not only hymns and prayers but passages of scripture. Ultimately, an entire “non-sexist” Bible may develop.
For instance, in a translation, John 15:13 reads: “Greater love hath no man than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends.”
The Duke group has converted that passage to: “Greater love has no one than this that one should lay down one’s life for a friend.”
In the main, he said, the Duke group has been substituting “God” for the pronoun “him” whenever possible and, in some instances, praying, “Oh God, our Father-Mother.”
7438 More On Religious Sexism
The phrase “brethren in Christ” has been dropped by the United Church of Christ in its official language, replacing it with “kindred in Christ.” The effects of sexist language “are pernicious,” stated a denominational task force on women. “They limit our minds and our conceptions of humanity.”
The report, approved by the two-million-member church’s governing synod, called for widescale alterations in wording of educational literature, hymnbooks, worship materials, and other documents. “Mankind,” for example, has been changed to “humankind,” “Chairman” becomes “chairperson.” The pronoun “he,” used generically to include everyone, becomes “he or she,” “sons of God” becomes “children of God.”
—Pastor’s Manual
7439 Wives To “Submit”?
President Bernice McNeela of the St. Joan’s International Alliance, an international Catholic women’s organization, protested to Catholic bishops about the traditional Scripture text read at all masses on Holy Family Sunday in December. The text in Colossians 3 includes Paul’s admonition for wives to be in submission to their husbands. A liturgy booklet carried the explanatory note: “Paul outlines ideal family relationships.” The alliance says the reading is anti-feminist and unrealistic in modern times. A better selection would be the mutual love exhortations of First John 4, said Ms. McNeela.
—Christianity Today
7440 Omitting “Obey”
The Liberated Woman’s Appointment Calendar and Field Manual, compiled by two New York women journalists, is a compendium of feminist history, humor, sayings and survival lore.
For the week of Leap Year day, the calendar has tips on feminists wedding ceremonies—omit the word “obey” from the traditional vows, write your own marriage ritual: “We promise to love, cherish, and groove on each other and all living things. We promise to smash the alienated family unit … We promise these things until choice do us part.”
7441 Proposal: “Let’s Be Ours”
When a man proposed to a girl, he can no longer ask, “Will you be mine?” Instead, he will have to say something like, “Let’s be ours.”
—Wall Street Journal
7442 First Woman Rabbi
Sally Priesand, 25, goes to work in a New York synagogue (Reform Judaism) as apparently the first woman rabbi in history. And Judith Hird, 26, is America’s first woman Lutheran parish pastor, serving at a Toms River, New Jersey, church.
—Christianity Today
7443 First To Pray Before Senate
Philadelphia (AP)—The Rev. Wilmina M. Rowland of Philadelphia became the first woman to offer the opening prayer for the daily session of the United States Senate in 1971.
“I’m pleased not for myself but for the fact the Senate has reached the point where they feel it is normal to invite a woman to do this,” she said.
Miss Rowland, 63, has been director for 11 years of educational loans and scholarships for the United Presbyterian Board of Christian Education in Philadelphia.
A 1942 graduate from the Union Theological Seminary in New York, Miss Rowland did not become minister until 1957—a year after the Presbyterian General Assembly changed its laws to permit ordination of women. She served at first as associate minister at Indian Hill Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati.
The Rev. Edward L. R. Elson, Senate resident chaplain extended the invitation to say the prayer.
7444 The Minister Had A Baby
For the first time, a Lutheran Church in America minister has given birth. It was a baby girl—and the minister is LCA staffer Margaret Krych of Highstown, New Jersey. Mrs. Krych was the first woman ordained into the Methodist Church of Australia, and she was ordained again in the Highstown LCA church where her husband serves as pastor. She is one of eight ordained women in the LCA.
7445 Joint Names
Elizabeth Anne Stowe and Charles Edwin Hambrick, both students of Pacific School of Religion at Berkeley, Calif., were married in New York City and have taken the name Hambrick-Stowe.
Mr. and Mrs. Hambrick-Stowe said their decision to use the hyphenated name came after the bride began to consider retaining her maiden name. “It’s symbolic of the kind of equal relationship we feel marriage should be,” Mrs. Hambrick-Stowe said.
7446 Joint Living
A married couple—both ordained Presbyterian ministers—believed in equality and sharing everything. So they:
(1) Joined their names with a hyphen (Campbell-Schmidt);
(2) Share one position as “associate minister” of Newport United Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Washington;
(3) Each is on the job half the time;
(4) Each gets half the pay;
(5) Each does half the household work.
7447 Dishing It To Him
Helping his wife wash the dishes, the Rev. John Byrnell protested, “This isn’t a man’s job!”
“Oh yes it is,” his wife retorted, quoting II Kings 21:13, “I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.”
7448 Child’s Recount Of Eve
The Sunday School teacher asked one little girl if she knew the story of Adam and Eve. “First God created Adam,” she said, “and then He looked at him and said, “I think I can do better,” So He created girls.”
THE OTHER SIDE
7449 “I Blame Women”
Judge Beatrice Mullaney of Fall River, Mass., affirmed that women are almost entirely to blame for lowered moral standards in the United States.
“Women are anxious to exercise freedoms and permissiveness promoted by the women’s movement, and the result is dissolution of marriages, homes, and families. In nearly two decades as a judge I’ve heard more than 10,000 divorce, separation, and custody cases. And I’ve seen moral decay, especially in family responsibilities, divorce, permissiveness, and shirking of duties. I blame women almost entirely for lowering the moral standards of this country.”
7450 On Verge Of Crime Wave
Los Angeles (AP)—The United States is on the verge of a “crime wave like the world had never seen before,” warns Los Angeles police chief Edward M. Davis. And he says the women’s liberation movement and politicians must share the blame.
In an address to the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, Davis said crime “is going to continue to go up, up, up,” primarily because of “the new morality which condones lying, stealing and killing.”
He said more mothers should stay home to instill old-fashioned values in their children.
“If you don’t have that culture in which to bring up that young human with love and discipline, he’s going to become some sort of savage if he wants to,” Davis said.
7451 King For A Day
For their tenth wedding anniversary, Danielle LeFeuvre of Toulouse, France, brought her husband a throne, a crown, and a sceptre. “All of this talk about women’s liberation and domination got him down,” she explained. “He’s a new man now that he knows the children and I consider him king and master in his own home.”
7452 Women’s Lib A Step Down
A noted anthropologist thinks that men are inferior to women, and women lower themselves by demanding equality with men.
Ashley Montagu, speaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, said a woman who claims equality with a man “has taken a step down.”
Montagu said that “only inferior people tell people they are superior, and this is what men have been doing.”
He said women discovered their superiority long ago and “have the good sense to be quiet about it.”
He said women are more intellectual because of their everyday experiences, which differ from those of most men.
He also said they are constitutionally superior because they bear and nurture children, and biologically superior because they have two X chromosomes.
—United Press International
7453 Divine Sense Of Humor
Conservative Episcopalians angered by their denomination’s decision to ordain women as priests have been quitting the Mother Church to form their own “Anglican Church of North America.” Last week members of Good Shepherd, the second oldest Episcopal church in Columbia, S.C., voted 104 to 48 to join the schism.
And where will the separatists hold services? At the Young Women’s Christian Association in downtown Columbia, that’s where. “Maybe this is God’s way of underscoring the fact that this is not an antifeminist movement,” said Irvin D. Parker, one of the new dissidents. At the very least, somebody has a divine sense of humor.
—Time
7454 “God Became A Man”
Prominent Church of England clergyman Henry Cooper of London told his denomination’s General Synod that he will resign from the priesthood if women are ordained as priests. He dropped this remark during a general debate requiring no decision, but one in which a majority of participants showed they were for eventual ordination of women.
“The ministry is God’s gift to the Church,” declared Cooper, “and he certainly chose no women.” “Besides,” chimed in lay delegate O. H. W. Clark, “God chose to be born a man.”
—Christianity Today
7455 Stubborn Professor
Leonard Lyons reports that one diehard professor at Oxford still chooses to ignore the fact that, because of the war, female students at the university far outnumber the males. He began all lectures to mixed classes, “Gentlemen.” Even when there were forty girls and ten men, he stubbornly addressed them as “Gentlemen.” This Spring he found that his class consisted of forty-six girls and one lone man. He gritted his teeth, sighed, and began his lecture, “Sir.”
7456 “Head Of Household”
Irritated by the 1971 Canadian census defining the husband as “Head of the Household,” I wrote in the space marked Householder Comments: “In this family my husband and I definitely share the household equally, and I wish to register my complaint at your archaic wording.”
Several days later, when I checked over the form before mailing it, I found to my chagrin that my husband had penned the following after my note: “Statements made by the employees do not necessarily reflect the position of management,” and signed it “Head of the Household.”
7457 Epigram On Women’s Lib
• These are difficult days for politicians. With the population explosion, they can’t even declare themselves for motherhood without losing some votes.
—Current Comedy
• This is not a man’s world. When he is born they say, “How is the mother?” When he is married, they say, “Isn’t she a lovely bride?” When he dies, they say, “How much did he leave her?”
• In Boston a youth went into the bookstore and asked the clerk, “Have you a book called Man, The Master of Women?” The pretty salesgirl merely tossed her head and said, “You’ll have to look for that in the Fiction Department.”
—Benjamin P. Browne
• At our local library, I overheard a man asking for a book entitled Man, the Superior Sex. “Fiction,” the girl at the desk told him frostily, “is two aisles over.”
—Women’s Own
See also: Husband and Wife ; Individualism.