“Good old days” had their drawbacks

Remember the days when women couldn’t enter a public bar, serve on a jury, become a priest, breast feed in public or continue their teaching career after they married? In some cases, they couldn’t even open a bank account without their husband or male relative’s permission! As ridiculous as it might seem now, those days weren’t so very long ago. Here’s a look at some of the things that have and haven’t changed for women over the last 70 years or so:

Occupations: In the 50s, most working women were employed as secretaries, sales clerks, bank tellers or teachers. In 2010, the picture wasn’t too different with secretary, cashier, teacher, nurse and nurse’s aide still being the main jobs women filled.

Pay: There’s been some progress – in the 1950s  women were earning around 70 per cent of the average male rate, where today it’s more like 90 per cent.

Mothers: Just under 20 per cent of mothers were in the workforce in the 1950s, compared to 63 per cent in 2014. The mean age for becoming a mother in the 50s was 25, compared to nearly 28 today.

Politics: Two of the 80 members of the NZ Parliament in 1951 were women, compared to 46 women of 120 MPs in 2018, including the third female Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.

Crime: There were 48 women prisoners in 1986, compared to a present female prison population of 800.

Police: In 1951, there were 38 women police officers. They did not wear uniforms and their duties consisted mainly of investigating complaints in respect of women and children. Today, 19 per cent (or 1669 of 8831 officers) are women and seven are ranked as superintendents or higher.

Leisure: According to a US study, men spend five hours more time than women on leisure activities such as watching TV, playing games and sport.