1961 - Women weren't allowed to rent cars or fly jets or serve as police officers. ????

Fulton County Georgia School System ^ | 2010

[Liberty Ship]

Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Stone. At a time when women weren’t allowed to rent a car, play professional sports, fly jets, or serve as police officers, 13 strong women pilots sought the impossible: to be part of the Mercury 13 astronaut program in 1961. Non-Fiction. Lexile n/a.

[Liberty Ship]

I was looking at the Summer Reading List for the Fulton County Georgia School System, hoping to see at least one good classic. None, of course. But what I found was a list of "social engineering" books. I have posted the worst description above. It is a LIE.

The first woman police officer was Lola Baldwin, appointed in Portland in 1908.

Women's professional sports: All Girls Professional Baseball Team, 1943; Ladies Professional Golf, 1953; Professional Women's Bowling, 1959.

Women not allowed to fly a jet? The blurb itself admits that the candidates were pilots. However, for the record, in 1944, Ann Baumgartner was the first woman to fly an experimental jet plane; and in 1953, Jacqueline Cochran broke the sound barrier.

And I can't even begin to figure out how to address the claim that women could not rent cars in 1961. Does anyone know if this is true?

I am weary of the petty bureaucracy, staffed by morons, that we call the school system cramming agendas down the throats of children in the name of education. So I thought I would turn over this rock and post it here.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

Have you tried getting onto your local school board? Leftists do, that’s why the kids get that stuff

[cripplecreek]

The Chuck Yeager autobiography is one of my favorite books so Jackie Cochran was one of my first thoughts.

[esquirette]

In 1982 Maas Brothers wouldn’t give me a credit card in my own name. Ten years before I went to law school they did not accept women. There have been some changes.

[Amberdawn]

I think that the idea of women having these careers was largely derided at that time, though SOME did work professionally. I know that my mother was fired from her job in 1959 when she announced she was pregnant. There is a lot of politics involved in these stories and you are right to question their ‘facts’.

[Dr. Sivana]

In early 20th century P.G. Wodehouse, the thoughtless Bobbie Wickham was a professional ladies’ tennis player. Jeeves did not approve.

[nevergore]

Leftists don’t work that’s why.....

[calex59]

And I can't even begin to figure out how to address the claim that women could not rent cars in 1961. Does anyone know if this is true?

All of the claims are false but the above is the most outrageous. Certainly women could rent a car in 1961, and way before that. All they needed was a drivers license and the money to pay for it.

[a fool in paradise]

Revisionist history. It’s good enough for the Communist Party.

“Women’s Day” is an international Communist holiday.

[org.whodat]

And I can't even begin to figure out how to address the claim that women could not rent cars in 1961. Does anyone know if this is true?

Back in those days they only had rental business at large airports. Hell the first time I ever rented a car would have been in the mid seventies.

[a fool in paradise]

Babe Didrikson excelled in a lot of sports (fair at Tennis but more known for other endevours)

http://www.babedidriksonzaharias.org/achievements.cfm

Historical revisionists do nobody any favors when they deny the accomplishments of others to make their hyperbole “no one ever before” sound so good. “If it wasn’t for...”

[detective]

The book sounds like politically correct disinformation. However, the program it refers to was organized by Jackie Cochran. She had been in charge of women pilots during WWII and had broken the sound barrier in 1953.

In the 1960s, Cochran was a sponsor of the Mercury 13 program, an early effort to test the ability of women to be astronauts. Thirteen women pilots passed the same preliminary tests as the male astronauts of the Mercury program before the program was canceled. It was never a NASA initiative, though it was spearheaded by two members of the NASA Life Sciences Committee, one of whom, Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II, was a close friend of Cochran and her husband. Though Cochran initially supported the program, she was later responsible for delaying further phases of testing, and letters from her to members of the Navy and NASA expressing concern over whether or not the program was to be run properly and in accordance with NASA goals may have significantly contributed to the eventual cancellation of the program.

Congress held hearings to determine whether or not the exclusion of women from the astronaut program was discriminatory, during which John Glenn and Scott Carpenter testified against admitting women to the astronaut program. Cochran herself argued against bringing women into the space program, saying that time was of the essence, and moving forward as planned was the only way to beat the Soviets in the Space Race.

[mnehring]

I can't even begin to figure out how to address the claim that women could not rent cars in 1961.

I have a feeling this may be tough to verify but I have found some very old Hertz advertisements that actually catered to women. Based on the look of the car, this may be in the early 60s (old Mercury Monterey?).

I did find this old article from 1953 that describes a car accident in which the woman rented the car.
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10712F83D5B107A93C6A8178DD85F478585F9

This old article describes a woman renting a car and driving to New York in 1941.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QfcuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=s9sFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4963,607103&dq=first+woman+to+rent+a+car&hl=e

Finally, this ad from 1925 says any man or woman can rent a car from them and they'll teach them to drive in minutes.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/449055432.html?dids=449055432:449055432&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Apr+25%2C+1925&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Display+Ad+5+--+No+Title&pqatl=google

[forgotten man]

The car in the Hertz ad looks like a 1961 Chevy Impala.

[Liberty Ship]

Thanks. And here is a link to other ads, including a Hertz endorsement from Ester Williams in 1958. (Scroll down, bottom left for the most legible version.)

http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/search?q=Hertz&page=7

So, everything the Fulton County Board of Education posted was untrue. Q.E.D.

[The Great RJ]

An even worse oppression of women exists today in Muslim countries. Women are not able to drive cars, hold jobs, go in public without a male escort and forced to dress in burquas. In places like Iran and Saudi Arabia women are flogged or hanged for innocent flirtation or for having the misfortune of being a rape victim. This is the kind of oppression of women that high school kids should be taught exists instead of the PC crap.

[wintertime]

Have you tried getting onto your local school board? Leftists do, that’s why the kids get that stuff
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The solution is to abolish all school boards. Privatize all K-12 education. Close down all the government schools. Sell the building and lands. And...Throw every school employee out of work and into the free market.

What run for school board? You are kidding, right?

In the last two counties in which we have lived the school district is the single largest employer, with the most employees, and largest payroll, in the county. No other business comes even close! Then add to this **HUGE** and influential and highly organized group of people all the vendors who supply the schools and their employees. Even my dentist and his five employees depend in the school dental insurance that comes into his office.

The only people who win school board elections are those who hold the NEA imprimatur.

[Oldpuppymax]

Yeah. And it was also the women’s vote that put Hussein in the White House. Maybe that’s why they call it “suffrage.” We’re sure as hell suffering for it now!

[astyanax]

I'm sure it's just a typo.
They meant 1861.
;)

[Liberty Ship]

Yes, the clear message from the Fulton County School System is that you would be better off as a woman in Iran or Saudi Arabia today than you would have been in the United States in 1961 where you couldn’t even rent a car.