Women in governance- 1948 Clintwood VA's "Petticoat Government"

[underpants]

Clintwood is a town in Dickenson County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,414 at the 2010 census.

In June 1948, the town of Clintwood elected an all-female town council for the period from 1948 to 1950. The "Petticoat Government", as it was nicknamed, implemented change in many areas, including cleanup of the town, eliminating parking problems, organizing a systematic garbage disposal system, eliminating several traffic hazards, organizing the town's fire department, and purchasing a fire truck.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clintwood,_Virginia

[Squinch]

1. "Petticoat government." How stunningly sexist. We should call all male governing

bodies "Tighty Whitey Governments."

[MineralMan]

2. I'm thinking "Jockstrap Governments."

A little more colorful, perhaps.

[Madam Mossfern]

5. Look at it in terms of the time

I was born in 1948, it was not sexist in intent.
Petticoat is not a pejorative word. Women wore petticoats back then - no big deal.

[Squinch]

7. Men wore tighty whities, too. No one ever called an all male government a tighty whitey government.

No one would ever dream of calling an all-male government after men's underwear.

It WAS sexist in intent. It's just that, at the time, sexism was casually tossed around and not seen as a problem. Which, in itself, was sexist.

[Sudsy]

3. Nice town.

[Yonnie3]

4. tRump country now days

77% for trump in 2016

in 1948 it had 57% for Truman

Figures are for the county (Dickenson) rather than the just the two Clintwood precincts. The State website didn't break down the vote further than the county for the 1948 election.

[underpants]

6. 98.52% White

there are about 70 people there who aren't white

Yes that is RED zone.