That culottes example really struck me. When I was a kid in the 70s, and oh how people forget this, women wearing trousers or shorts were scandalous, at least in the heartland where I was raised.

My family, including my mother, fully bought into conservative values and fiercely opposed anything that smacked of feminism.

Girls were absolutely prohibited from wearing shorts, even knee-length shorts, in many schools. Trousers were highly frowned upon if not always actively interdicted.

Culottes became a way, even in my conservative family, to allow girls to wear more practical, comfortable clothing. Culottes could look like a skirt while acting like shorts.

It’s hard for a lot of people today to imagine how firey that bit of cultural warfare was, but it’s an excellent reminder of just how much sexist nonsense women and girls had to put up with.

That’s without even beginning to address pay disparity and gender equality in the workforce.