On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:50:14 +0100, Jean wrote: >When letters are addressed jointly, ours are to Mr and Mrs William Nathan >(William being my husband's first name). I believe that strictly speaking I >should be address as Mrs William Nathan - think again!!!!! That implies the >old idea of a wife belonging/being subservient/being part of, etc her >husband. Would have been perfectly acceptable to women probably until WW2, >when women went out and did the jobs that men would have done had they not >been fighting. The custom persisted longer than that in some places. In my childhood in the 1960s I remember addresses on letters arriving for my mother only addressed to Mrs Alan Hollis. To a child it seemed creepy that letters to my grandmother were addressed with my grandfather's name, given that he had been dead for over 20 years.
At my local lace group we were having a clear out of the library cupboard recently and came across some issues of the IOLI bulletin dating back to the late 60s/early 70s. There were some lists of names and addresses, I think new members but it could have been office holders. All the people were female, and they were listed in the form Mrs Alan Smith (Jane). Only the single women were listed with women's forenames. -- Money can't buy everything. That's what credit cards are for. Steph Peters [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tatting, lace & stitching page <http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/index.htm> To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
