How to measure progress

This is one way to do see how far we have come:

This is the same page from two editions of Ladybird's Peter and Jane Book 1b. (The top one is the original 1964 edition and the bottom one is from an edition that I can't identify but appears to be about 10 years later.) At this crucial juncture in the narrative, Peter and Jane's parents are preparing for Christmas.  

We can look at the pictures for clues as to scientific progress (note that both parents have taken advantage of recent advances in hair dye) but I am sure you are most struck, as I am, by how male emancipation progressed through these years. 

In the decade or so that saw the UK affected by major developments, as The Beatles came and went, Concorde took her first flight and abortion and homosexuality were legalised, Peter and Jane's household has also seen a revolution: the father has been permitted to remove his coat and tie while sitting at home. Small steps, one might say, but the liberation of men from restrictive, oppressive and antiquated clothing has been a a major symbol of progress towards equality. Although we can't see them, it is a fair bet that the stiff black leather shoes worn in the first picture have been replaced by a more comfortable brown pair, perhaps in suede.

You will see that the father in the lower picture has been entrusted, like a small child, with a 'big and important job', namely holding the ribbon. It is apparent that he is delighted to be of service, but equally apparent (not least from his manifest reluctance to hold the ribbon by anything more than the faintest pinch), that he has no idea what he is doing and he is deeply afraid that he will be called upon to do a more tricky job such as cutting something or (horror of horrors) tying a bow. Such was the infantilised plight of men in the bad old days. The widespread adoption of sellotape in the home has subsequently revolutionised men's lives and I suspect that a 1990s reprint would show the father being entrusted with the entire wrapping process while the mother's supervisory skills were employed elsewhere.

The main development affecting women's lives over these years was the invention of the cardigan.