There isn't anything more difficult for me in family history than searching for the first OR last name of a female ancestor. Women were rarely listed on federal censuses before 1850. Daughters and wives were mentioned in wills, marriage records, and an occasional land record (should her husband die before her). The ubiquitous family bible disappeared when the third wife of the patriarch became a widow.
Did you know in gentler times society mandated a lady's name was not ever to appear in a newspaper article except when engaged to be married, in a wedding announcement or an obituary? It was not socially acceptable. Even then, a lady may have been identified as "the daughter of J. P. McMurry" or Mrs. Kenneth L. Watson--with no first name.
Newspapers contained news of a coarse nature. It wouldn't do to have an article of Mrs. Bullock's glorious trip abroad on the same page as Goody McCormick's third arrest for public intox. ("The term "Goody" is an old expression that is short for 'Goodwife.' It is a polite title once given to married women among the poorer classes." You're welcome).
I thought those times were long past.
But I found this today while pulling an obituary from the February 10, 1969 Columbus Evening Dispatch, p. 27 (Ohio). Imagine the need to protect against men seeing the name or photo of an "attractive matron" while reading the morning paper, I can't even! By all means, cover up, girls. Look upon no man when out and about. The subtext is clear: We are responsible for the wayward arousal of men.
Yet I find plenty of bra and lingerie advertisements in the papers of the 1960s.
Elizabeth Post, remove thy girdle. Let your freak flag fly! It was 1969, for crying out loud.