[jambutty]

Originally Posted by polly

I am old enough to remember life in Britain in the 60's and 70's. then men regularly ignored women and shook hands with the 'head of the household' eg the male.
It took the 1976 Sex Equality Act and lots of social changes, for women to be offered the opportunity to shake hands with men, so I see this attitude as being a great set back for women. Let this carry on and we will find ourselves back in the kitchen and by the way in a minority in the police force . I also remember when 'WPC's' did only the paper work and call outs involving children.God forbid we go back to that.
Did anyone else notice in the article that the mentioned that this women was a 'non asian Muslim' I think the key to the incident lies there. Converts always interpret a religion more zealously than thos born to the same religion.
As for shaking hands with a barrister, who would want to? Well ok maybe their bank manager!

Sorry polly but what you described was in Dickensian times.

In the Victorian era men would shake the gloved hand of a lady after being introduced to her or rather to take the hand a plant a gentle kiss on it, usually with a comment of “your servant”.

Being brought up in the forties and fifties as I was, I was taught to shake hands when introduced to someone, regardless of their sex. It was far better than having some hag slobber all over me, with cold sores and all.