>However, by the late 1970s, really *old* women started wearing pants and
pants
>suits routinely in significant numbers, doubtless for the same reason as
your
>mom (comfort, right?). I remember this because I thought it unusually
>progressive of them, until I considered the comfort factor.
I quite agree; however, let us not forget that women in the business
world were at that time very much trying to gain respect and recognition in
the work place, and I can remember quite clearly myself, my mother and
others in the late 1970s eschewing the dress or skirt suit in favour of the
pant suit, simply because it made us a little more androgynous. Pants forced
men to look at us not as women but as people. I can even remember women
(myself among them) wearing ties with our suits if the suit had a jacket.
For me, at one establishment at which I was the bookkeeper, I can
remember choosing pants over skirts because of the gross sexual harassment
by one of the senior partners. God help me should I be in a skirt or dress
that zipped up the back! It was because of him I started wearing
front-closing bras because he had a knack of being able to, with one deft,
swift flick being able to pop the closure on your bra. The beast had me in
tears so many times, and at that time there was no recourse for sexual
harassment charges. You either put up with it, or you quit.
So, indeed, for many the pant suit was a comfort issue. But for some
it was also a political and social issue.
Regards,
Lorina
Five Rivers Chapmanry
purveyors of quality hand-crafted cooperage, embroidery supplies; fine,
original textile, pen and ink, and watercolour art. Now available: Recipes
of a Dumb Housewife, by Lorina Stephens
519-799-5577 [EMAIL PROTECTED] - www.5rivers.org
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