WOMEN: Grateful for choices

This is in response Jim Valentine’s letter to the editor on Feb. 12. Mr. Valentine describes what he sees as the ideal time for women, the 1950s. I would like to take a moment to remove Mr. Valentine’s rose-colored glasses as he seems to have forgotten a bit about that era.

Most professional jobs were closed off to women in the 1950s, and women, on average, earned 60% of what men did.

Women’s rights in the home itself were limited; this included limits on property ownership as well as limits on making contracts (including making her own will). In the case of some states, women were not allowed to control their own earnings as that was the legal right of the husband or father.

As if that isn’t bad enough, birth control was still illegal in most places and marital rape was not considered a crime, so women were almost legally obligated to have children if their husband demanded it.

There is so much more that can be said about the 1950s and the lack of rights for women, but a simple search of the topic brings enlightenment.

To those who think the 1950s were so great for women, you are incorrect in many ways. And as a highly educated, professional, accomplished woman, I am very thankful for the time period in which I live now as I have choices.

Meanwhile, I would have had many limits placed on my choices in Mr. Valentine’s “ideal” world of womanhood.

KATHLEEN HALL

Coeur d’Alene