Does Boston Still Enforce These Old Rules For Female Teachers?
Turn back the clock 100 years. Fenway Park was brand new and people were still talking about the unsinkable Titanic sitting at the bottom of the ocean. If you were a female teacher, and 99 percent of teachers were women that time, you would be expected to sign a contract with the Boston Public Schools. These are actual rules that you would have agreed to as part of the contract:
-You will not marry during the term of your contract. -You are not to keep company with men. -You must be home between the hours of 8:00pm and 6:00am, unless you are attending a school function. -You may not loiter in downtown ice cream stores. -You may not ride in a carriage or automobile with any man, unless he is your father or brother. -You may not smoke cigarettes. -You may, under no circumstances, dye your hair. -At school, you must always wear 2 petticoats.
How many of those rules are still being enforced in 100 years later?