There was a time when, if a lady got onto a crowded bus or train, a gentleman would
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stand up and offer her his seat. No more, though. Today a gentleman will probably look out of the window, or if he feels a bit
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, hide behind his newspaper. Either way, the lady will have to stand until someone else
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.
You can"t entirely blame men for this change in manners, though. The days are gone when women could be referred to as the weaker sex without causing
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. A whole generation of women has grown up demanding equality with men; not just equality in jobs or education, but in
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attitudes. Hold a door open for some women and you"re likely to get an angry lecture on treating women as
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, unable to open doors for themselves. Take a girl out for a meal and she"ll probably
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paying her share of the bill, though on second thought perhaps that"s not such a bad idea.
It"s no wonder, then, that men have
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some of the automatic gestures of politeness and consideration which they used to show towards women. On the other hand, automatic male politeness is perhaps slowly being
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by true consideration for the needs and feelings of women, so that men can see women as equal human beings, rather titan as sex-objects or
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property.