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Woman's Own / 29th September 1967
Here’s another agony aunt: this time, Mary Grant of Woman’s Own. Obviously there’s around 10 years difference between this page and Mary Marryat’s, but there’s a definite difference in tone with Mary Grant, and I like her a lot more. Her advice to the poor woman being hounded to have more children (I wonder if her husband would have the same opinion if he had to carry the child and give birth to it?) is sound, with her advice to just about everyone else on the page also fair and level-headed. In the context of the time, her advice to the last writer does make sense, although nowadays, thankfully, the writer would be freer to leave a man who was treating her badly and to sort out her life. In 1967, it was very difficult indeed to be a single mother.
Tags: marriage, Mary Grant, motherhood, pregnancy, problem page, social history, teenagers
2 Comments
Tanya Jones on 5 November 2009 @ 6pm
Yes, it’s when I read stuff like this that I realise how lucky I am to be in the prime of my life now, rather than then. Of course, contraception was available then, but the sexual revolution took a long time to kick in for most people, and getting access to contraception was a lot harder than today.
Gillian on 5 November 2009 @ 4pm
The response to ‘Embarrassing’ is interesting – now she would be advised to complain to her HR department rather than change job. Similarly for the teenagers – it would be unusual now to suggest girls did not want to have sex (‘give in’) and contraception would be advised.