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Middle-aged and divorced in 1969

No one invites her over for dinner anymore. That's just one of the drawbacks of being divorced in 1969, explains an anonymous middle-aged woman in this clip from CBC's Matinee. The radio show, which has increasingly tackled tougher subjects since it debuted in 1952, addresses the realities of going through a divorce. The divorcée interviewed refers to the process as ugly and acrimonious. And she frankly warns about an unhappy period, in which some women turn to pills or alcohol.

Money is also a problem, and her friends treat her differently. In 1969, a social stigma is still attached to divorce.

"Strangely enough your friends find you an embarrassment and a threat to their own marriages ... They'll invite you to lunch [or] tea but they will never invite you in the evenings unless you have a man of your own," she explains.

Middle-aged and divorced in 1969

• Divorce rates tripled at the end of the Second World War. Marriages broke down as couples were separated when men went abroad to fight.
• The rate nearly tripled again in 1970, the year after legislation legalized divorce in Canada. The new law granted a divorce to couples who had a "marriage breakdown," defined as three years of separation. Before the law, couples who wanted to split needed to present concrete proof that one party had been adulterous.

• In the 1960s, single women were looked upon as spinsters. A 1960s editorial in Maclean's advocating singleness as a woman's right was a rare occurrence. Contrastingly, Saturday Night encouraged women to chose education that would lead them to "women's careers."
• By the late 1970s, popular television shows portrayed single women more positively. Mary Tyler Moore, which ran from 1970-76, suggested single women were "going to make it after all."

• Similarly, Laverne & Shirley (1976-1983) depicted two unmarried women supporting themselves working as bottlecappers at Shotz's Brewery.
• A 1990 Chatelaine article reported that although prominent broadcasting women, such as Barbara Frum, Pamela Wallin and Wendy Mesley, were in front of the camera, it was still "a man's business" behind the scenes. It charged that even at the CBC, the majority of editorial decisions were still made by men.

• In 1967, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson called a Royal Commission on the Status of Women. It was headed up by journalist Florence Bird, and it was also referred to as the Bird Commission.

Middle-aged and divorced in 1969

Medium: Radio

Interviewer: Thelma Dickman

Duration: 6:20

Last updated:
April 24, 2008