Solon and me in the Barbie car

I was not going to see the movie Barbie because I thought it was for teenagers, which I am not. After hearing a presentation at Fullerton College, however, I decided that I had to see this movie because of the real-life issues it raised.

The Barbie doll replaced Mattel’s “Baby Dolls” in the late 1950s to keep up with the times since not all girls wanted to be primarily mothers, and many also wanted the ability to have a career.

Barbie lived in Barbie Land, a fantasy land where females could be anything they wanted. However, challenged by Evil Barbie to go to the real world, Barbie soon discovers that men dominate it. Women were limited to feminine jobs, such as being a secretary for Mattel.

I can relate to career discrimination. When I was graduating from high school in 1957, I was considering a music career. I wanted to play in an orchestra eventually but was told by my teacher at Peabody Conservatory that only men played in orchestras.

What else could I take as a major in college? I excelled in math and chemistry, so why not major in chemical engineering? After registering at the university, I soon discovered I was the only woman in engineering, and most faculty and students did not want me there. After I married my husband, he persuaded me to become a psychologist, although it was extremely rare to be married and a mother in graduate school in the 1970s. Another obstacle, but one that I overcame!

Lessons in Chemistry, a book and film series, takes place in the 1950’s. The main character, Elizabeth, has a master’s degree in chemistry from a prestigious university, but the trauma of being raped by her professor prevents her from entering the doctorate program. She works in a lab with only men and is considered inferior to them because she is a woman, even though she is smarter than most. As a woman, she is designated to make coffee daily for the group.

Later, Elizabeth has an affair with a prized doctorate researcher who values her intelligence. She is an independent woman who does not fit the feminine prototype and refuses to marry him. After his accidental death, she finds out that she is pregnant with his child and is fired because women could not be pregnant and work in the 1950s. I know what this is like because I was fired in the early 1960s because I was pregnant.

Changes were starting to happen in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Greg, a single dad, and my husband were among the men who were examples of fathering independent women. Both stressed athletics for their daughters. Greg’s daughter played on a boys’ Little League baseball team and refused to wear dresses. Our daughter loved to build go-carts and tree houses and had an erector set that the boys in the neighborhood were in awe of!