When I was in high school or so, I made my mother get a new Filene's charge card, because she was still carrying one that said Mrs. My Father's Name. That she got when he was in grad school and she was supporting him. No way he was paying that bill, and they still wouldn't give her a card with her own name on it. She asked.

My mom's said that she had trouble applying for a credit card in her own name before she was married. She couldn't convince the credit card people that she was single and supporting herself. (This was maybe 1970 or so, and she was working as a computer programmer.)

That shit was so ridiculous.

Jolie really got the majority of her looks from her mom. That resemblence is striking.

That shit was so ridiculous.

Yup. My mom ran into similar-mainly that dad's credit history became hers, and hers ceased to exist. It was less a practical issue because neither bought anything on credit until they needed to apply for a mortgage and discovered they had virtually no history. They bought a $20 matress on credit to create one. Cracks me up to think about that. (Also, blows my mind that their mortgage payment for 20 years was $170/month. $30 less than what they'd paid to rent the same house previously.)

When my parents were in the process of moving to Arizona, my mother was told by BofA that she couldn't close their checking account because her name was never put on the account. Turns out that when they opened the account, banks never bothered to put the woman's name on the accounts. Of course, they had let her write checks on the account for over 30 years.

Unbelievable. That women were treated as not-really-adults so very recently. Young women now don't really get it, how totally different their world is than the world our mothers, and even we, grew up in.

I had a baby blanket and a onesie emblazoned with the ERA logo. Given to me by the woman whose name is my middle name.

It actually kinda frightens me, how recent things like what we've been discussing were the reality. And at the same time, I've come up against biases rooted in the same in my adult life, so why should I be surprised?

OK, Jane Eyre time.

Hello.

I am back from teaching and from Full Force (which is like Model Mugging). I feel weird. Guilty for enjoying myself how I did.

I'm going to punish myself with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Not like that. Don't be gross.

I got my SSN when I was 23. Because that's when I moved to the US.

My mother last worked outside the home during WW2. After the war ended she did the raising the family thing. After the 4 of us were gone she decided she would go back to work. My father was outraged. Forbid her to shame him that way. She had no clue he felt that way. It was the mid 70s and she had been married since 1944.

In the end she decided that his feelings on the subject were stronger than hers so she just worked on a zillion political campaigns, community boards and so forth. He didn't care that she was out being productive full time, just couldn't stand the thought of her getting paid. It really surprised his 3 daughters because he always encouraged us to rule the world. We didn't know about the double standard for his wife.