The Curious History of Dating summary

In 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act came into effect, and its repercussions were huge. Before then, whatever a woman owned or inherited automatically became the property of her husband after marriage. No longer.

The gender imbalance in romance still existed, but it was not quite so lopsided anymore.

In August 1914, the First World War broke out. Thirty women in the town of Folkestone in the south of England began distributing white feathers to men not wearing a military uniform. It was a snub to the men, a symbol of surrender and cowardice. With that act, they started a trend that went countrywide.

The intended message was clear: women were to be passive in this war and men were there to protect them.

Although marriage rates among women had dipped during wartime and the early 1920s, the 1930s saw them buoyant once more. The average age for tying the knot even fell to around 25 for women and 27 for men. That may seem like positive news, but the Great Depression meant that life generally was one of poverty and mass unemployment.

In short, dating had become a luxury. And on top of that, unemployed men were resentful of women with jobs, and that wasn’t exactly a recipe for romance.

In 1939, war came to Europe once more. Its impact was immense, not least on the interaction between the sexes. Weekend affairs and casual flings became quite the thing, but then again, so did marriage.

In 1938, 409,000 weddings took place in England and Wales, a number which rocketed to 494,000 in 1939 and 534,000 in 1940.

The war came to an end, but life remained tough. Rationing in the United Kingdom persisted deep into the 1950s, and income tax stood at double today’s rates.

As people sought to recover their lives, expensive dating was hardly a top priority. But the landscape of dating still evolved, most notably, once again, thanks to cultural imports from America.

The year 1967 marked a watershed in many ways, not least because the Sexual Offences Act was passed. This decriminalized homosexual acts in private between consenting adults in England and Wales. The open peace-and-love spirit of the age was also exemplified by interracial celebrity couples like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as well Michael and Shakira Caine.

This increasing sense of acceptance went hand in hand with an economic boom. People now had disposable incomes, since both men and women were able to get steady jobs at younger ages.

It’s important to remember that mores didn’t change for everyone at the same speed – even if society as a whole was gradually changing.

In 1970, for instance, you could pick up a copy of the daily newspaper the Sun with a photo of a topless model in it, but an unmarried couple couldn’t book a room at many hotels.

By the 1980s, dating was seen as something cheeky and fun by the British. Nothing exemplified that more than the wildly popular TV show Blind Date, which was first broadcast in 1985.

Three contestants were lined up behind a screen and answered questions posed by their potential date partner. She would then make her pick based on their answers.

In 1991, the Daily Mail ran a report on a new phenomenon they called “emancipatory impotence.” Supposedly, improved healthcare provision had allowed older women’s sexual libidos to flourish to such an extent that their husbands couldn’t match them in bed.

Clearly, even the conservative news outlets were aware that perceptions of women’s sexuality were changing.

By the time the noughties rolled around, much had changed in the world of dating.

For women, marriage and motherhood were no longer quite so central. More generally, people began to embrace their sexualities and preferences like never before.