Fifty Years Ago, Married Women Got a Charge Card

Those "Her reaction is Chemical" ads we showed you "might have a place in Ms. magazine's hall of shame," Jim Gust suggests. Actually, the idea of a woman hiring her own investment adviser probably raised a few eyebrows among old-school males.

Here's a better candidate for the Ms. hall of shame. This 1967 Carte Blanche ad assures the traveling man with a wife back home he'll be glad "to have someone with influence looking after her while they're away."

But remember the context of the times. Married women were routinely denied credit because it was assumed they had no income. Carte Blanche comes to the rescue by offering them a card of their own, though surely backed by their husbands' credit – and it's pink!