On My Bookshelf - Women of the 1960s

On My Bookshelf  - a book by Sheila Hardy  that resonated with me so much.  

" Women of the 1960s" was a comprehensive look at  the decade that was  “More than mini skirts, drugs and pop music”, drawn from interviews, surveys and responses to questionnaires. It covered school, life after school whether work or studies, early careers, attitudes to parents, sex, marriage, motherhood, financial pressures. the home, women’s liberation, the freedom that came from owning a car, views on memorable events, fashion, and leisure. 

I was a typical product of a 1960s conventional, sheltered  upbringing.  My parents had both left school at 14 to go to work, and put great store on the benefits of education, and I was keen to do well.  I left sixth form school in 1962, went through university, (still living at home), had one year working abroad (an eye-opener)  and returned to life in Edinburgh, marrying in 1971. 

I could relate to  so much in  the book, especially in its early chapters on teenage years,  school life, respect for parents, etc.    I was at three high schools, because  of moving around with my father's work.   Until my final school year,  life  was in girls' only high  schools, with boys, apart from my younger  brother, very much an unknown quantity.    Pop  culture generally passed me by - my contribution to the “Swinging Sixties” was to turn up the hems of my skirts and dresses, do my best to create a bouffant hair style, and buy a duffel coat with my first university grant - I was no rebel.

I bought the book online on the basis of a brief description and the colourful cover,  but  must admit it  was more heavily texted than I expected,  and I found the few illustrations and photographs disappointing in  selection and  quality. Having said that the book was an engrossing read.

My interest waned a bit on the detailed chapter on housing and homes, though again I could remember the  decor and furnishings described. As late as 1967 I remembered visiting a friend’s home in a country town to find there was no indoor bath, just a toilet - a factor which shocked me. My parent’s comfortable middle class bungalow had central heating, yet there were city tenement slums not too far away with several families sharing one toilet on the stair. 

The later chapters looked at the role of career women in the 1960s and those married women who faced  being uprooted and relocating to another part of the country or abroad,   because of their husband's work.

I appreciated  the chapter on world events such as the Kennedy assassination, but some key happenings I hadn't thought of including here - It was also the era of the Cold War, threat of nuclear war,  Women’s Lib. Movement, Arab-Israelite War, Vietnam War, the space race, and the prolonged severe winter of 1963.

On a lighted note there was a listing of singers, music, TV and films that we might have enjoyed in the 1960s. 

So, if like me, you grew up in the  60's, the book offers  a  nostlalgic journey down memory lane.  Maybe, as family historians,  it wlll  also  act  as a prompt to record your own memories of life then - I am adding the project to my “to do" list! 

                       

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