When I was little Grandma used to tell me that by the time I was 14 if I wore my father's shirt tied at the bottom, or shorts, or went bare foot she would beat me herself! It was not considered to be 'lady-like'.
In the eighth grade all the girls were required to take a semester of home economics. The boys were required to take a shop class. I already knew how to make a cake, wash my hair. and change my underwear. I did not want to sew and am still not good at it. I did learn how to dry and arrange flowers. All in all it was a wasted semester.
The point is that they separated the boys from the girls. In high school I signed up to take calculus. I was told that I could not take the class. It was not too full. There were about 6 boys in the class. The reason was because I was a girl and a girl would never need calculus. Yes they told me that.
I have always been grateful to my parents because they never told us we could not do things because of our genders. If we wanted to we should try it. They were so smart.
When we were young, my siblings and I did all the chores together. There wasn't a single girl in my secondary school, so there was no chance for discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI can also remember that it was not considered imporetant for the sons of farmers to get a good education. They were not in school during planting season and during harvest. I do not know how they did it. Discrimination comes in many forms.
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