15 Freedoms Florida Women Weren’t Allowed to Have 100+ Years Ago

A mere 100 or so years ago, Floridian women—and American women across the country—couldn’t do a lot of things modern-day women don’t even think twice about today.

Things like voting, going to college, or wearing pants in public were either off-limits or caused serious drama. Back then, the rules were extra unfair and stacked against women.

So many of the freedoms women enjoy today came from years of fighting, marching, and not giving up—even when the world told them to stay quiet.

These are a small sample of the things women weren’t allowed to do 100+ years ago.

Get a Divorce Easily

Back in the day, if a woman wanted a divorce, she had to jump through flaming hoops. It wasn’t like today where you can file for “irreconcilable differences” and be done.

Nope—she had to prove her husband did something awful, like cheating or abuse.

And even then, courts often didn’t take her side.

Most judges 100+ years ago didn’t think women should be allowed to leave their marriages, especially if kids were involved. In fact, the system usually handed custody to the father. If the woman had no money or home of her own (which many didn’t), she could lose everything.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that “no-fault” divorce became legal in most states, starting with California in 1969. The American Bar Association explains how this gave people, especially women, a way to leave unhappy marriages without needing to prove someone was “at fault.”

It was a game-changer for women who had been stuck in bad marriages for way too long.

Get a Credit Card Without a Husband

Until the mid-1970s, a woman couldn’t just walk into a bank and open her own credit card account.

Even if she had a job, paid her bills, and was financially responsible, she still needed a man—usually her husband—to co-sign.

It mostly boiled down to banks not trusting that women were good enough with money to handle a loan. It wasn’t until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act passed in 1974 that women were allowed to take out credit on their own.

So, just a little over 50 years ago, a grown woman could be turned away for trying to buy a car or rent an apartment—just because she didn’t have a man’s signature.

Vote in All Elections

You’ve probably heard that women got the right to vote in 1920, thanks to the 19th Amendment. But here’s the thing—not all women.

If you were a Native American woman, for example, you were still out of luck. It wasn’t until 1924 that Native women were even considered U.S. citizens with voting rights. And even then, some states kept finding sneaky ways to stop them from voting.

Black women in the South? Same story. They were legally allowed to vote, sure, but they got hit with literacy tests, poll taxes, and other tricks meant to keep them away from the polls.

Basically, if you weren’t white and wealthy, voting was still an uphill battle.

Women fought like crazy to be heard. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that things finally got better. Yes, 1920 was a win—but it wasn’t the finish line.

Serve on a Jury

Can you imagine being told you’re too emotional to sit on a jury? That’s exactly what happened to women.

Even after they got the right to vote, most states still didn’t let them serve in courtrooms. The logic? “Oh, no, women are too soft and sensitive to handle criminal cases.”

Only a few states allowed women on juries in the 1920s, and even then, it was rare. It actually took until 1973—yes, nineteen seventy-three—before all 50 states finally let women serve as jurors.

So while men were deciding people’s fates in court, women had to sit on the sidelines, just because someone decided they weren’t tough enough.

Wear Pants in Public

This one sounds silly, but it was a big deal. One hundred years ago, women were expected to wear dresses everywhere. If a woman wore pants in public, people would shame her.

It was never really about fashion—it was about control. Skirts were seen as proper, ladylike, and acceptable.

Pants? Rebellious and unfeminine.

During World War II, women who worked in factories started wearing pants for safety reasons, and that slowly helped shift the view.

Still, it wasn’t until the 1960s and ’70s that girls could wear pants to school without getting in trouble. Many public schools didn’t fully allow it until the ’70s.

All that over a pair of slacks.

Open a Bank Account Alone

Not being able to take out a credit card was bad enough. But in the past, a married woman couldn’t even stroll into a bank and open a checking or savings account without her husband’s permission.

If she was single, she had a better shot, but it still wasn’t easy.

Banks often treated women like financial risks. They assumed women would mismanage their money or didn’t know how to handle accounts.

Some banks flat-out refused to do business with a woman unless a man was involved.

Thanks to growing pressure and the feminist movement in the 1970s, things finally shifted. The same law that let women apply for credit on their own—the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974—also helped them open bank accounts without a man standing next to them.

Speak Freely About Sex or Menstruation

A century ago, women weren’t allowed to talk about their own bodies in public. Words like “period” or “pregnancy” were seen as inappropriate, even in health class.

Sex education barely existed, and when it did, it focused on what girls shouldn’t do, not what they needed to know.

Even magazines and newspapers wouldn’t publish ads for products like tampons or birth control. Talking openly about women’s health was considered shameful or “unladylike,” which made a lot of women feel isolated and confused.

It took decades of activism and public pressure for things to change. Feminist writers and doctors started speaking up in the 1960s and ’70s, fighting for honest, open conversations about women’s health.

Today, people talk more freely—but that only happened because brave women refused to stay quiet.

Be Taken Seriously in Politics

In 1920, when women got the right to vote, a lot of people thought that was “enough.” But voting and being taken seriously as a political leader?

That was a whole other mountain to climb.

If a woman ran for office, people would laugh or say she was just doing it for attention.

Very few women were elected to office back then. The first woman in Congress, Jeannette Rankin, made history in 1916—but she was the exception.

Most political parties didn’t support women candidates. Even if a woman had a great plan or lots of experience, people still believed men were “better suited” for leadership.

It’s only in the past few decades that we’ve started to see more women in politics. And it’s still not equal. As of January 2025, only about 28% of Congress members are women.

We’ve come a long way, but there’s still work to do.

Say No Without Being Judged

This one’s less about laws and more about how society treated women. A hundred years ago, women weren’t really “allowed” to say no—whether it was to a date, a drink, a job, or even just doing someone a favor.

If they said no, people called them rude, cold, or difficult.

Saying no wasn’t just frowned upon—it could actually be dangerous. Women were expected to be agreeable and polite at all times.

If they spoke up or stood their ground, they were often punished socially, professionally, or even physically.

Thanks to movements like #MeToo and decades of hard work by women’s rights advocates, that pressure is finally starting to ease.

Today, saying no is more accepted. But back then, a woman simply standing up for herself was seen as an act of rebellion.

Attend Some Colleges

If you were a young woman in the early 1900s and wanted to go to college, your options were… not great.

A lot of schools just didn’t accept women at all. Others would let you in, but only for “appropriate” majors like teaching or nursing.

Forget about becoming a doctor or engineer. That stuff was “for the boys.”

And even the schools that were co-ed often treated women like second-class students. They had different dorms, different rules, and in some cases, even different graduation ceremonies.

Even Harvard didn’t fully merge with its women’s college, Radcliffe, until 1999.

So, yes, women had to fight just to be in the same classrooms as men, let alone get the same respect.

Own Property After Marriage

If a woman got married 100 years ago, her property basically became her husband’s. Her stuff—even her paycheck, if she happened to have a job—was legally his.

She gave up her rights just by saying “I do.”

This was due to something called “coverture laws,” which said a wife’s legal identity got merged into her husband’s. That meant she couldn’t sign contracts or control her own property, if she inherited any.

States slowly started fixing this with “Married Women’s Property Acts,” but it took decades.

Even then, some states still dragged their feet. Women had to demand the right to own what was already theirs.

Get Birth Control

In the early 1900s, just talking about birth control could get you thrown in jail. Doctors weren’t allowed to give women any advice about it—even if it was for health reasons.

That meant a lot of women were left in the dark about their own bodies.

Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in 1916 and got arrested for it. She kept fighting, though, and helped start what would become Planned Parenthood.

Still, it wasn’t until 1965 that married couples were legally allowed to use birth control. And unmarried people had to wait until 1972.

So not only were women denied information, they were denied control. If they wanted to plan their families or protect their health, they had to do it in secret or risk punishment.

Run in Most Sports Events

Want to play sports as a woman in the past? Too bad. A hundred years ago, women were told sports were too rough, too dangerous, or just too “unladylike.”

The Olympics barely let them compete in anything once they were even allowed to play at all.

Marathons? Nope.

Baseball? Forget it.

It took women sneaking into races and breaking the rules just to prove they could do it. In 1967, Kathrine Switzer ran the Boston Marathon with an official number, and a race official literally tried to push her off the course.

Things didn’t really change until Title IX passed in 1972. That law forced schools to give girls the same sports opportunities as boys.

It was a game-changer—finally, girls could (mostly) play without being told they didn’t belong.

Keep Their Last Name After Marriage

In the early 1900s, if a woman got married and didn’t take her husband’s last name, people looked at her like she had three heads. In some states, she couldn’t even get a driver’s license or a passport without using her husband’s name.

Women who wanted to keep their names were seen as rebellious or “not real wives.”

But they pushed back. In 1921, a group called The Lucy Stone League started helping women who wanted to keep their own names after marriage.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that women could legally keep their maiden names in all states without jumping through hoops.

Today, it’s totally up to women. But back then, they had to fight just to keep something as simple as their own name.

Work in Many Jobs

A hundred years ago, a woman’s job choices were pretty slim: teacher, nurse, maybe secretary.

And if you got married?

A lot of places would straight-up fire you. They figured your husband would take care of you, so you didn’t need a job anymore.

Want to be a lawyer, doctor, or scientist? Too bad. Women were often blocked from taking the tests or getting the licenses they needed.

The National Women’s History Museum says it wasn’t until World War II—when men were at war—that people finally saw that women could do men’s jobs just fine.

It’s taken a long time to level the playing field, and we’re still not 100% there. But we’re miles better than what women had to deal with 100+ years ago.

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