[Mavis Gallant] moved to Paris in 1950, after discovering that women could not be served alone [in restaurants] in North America, even at New York's Algonquin Hotel.
Um, why? On what basis? What would happen if a woman went to a restaurant alone? They mention this like it's either common knowledge or irrelevant to the story, but it's bizarre and I've never heard of it before and there's a whole story behind it that I can't seem to google up.
1 comment:
My take:
It's not that they couldn't be, ever. It's that single women were not treated well, were ignored by waiters, were generally looked down on and made to feel uncomfortable and out of place.
This changed only recently -and would still be the case in some conservative midwestern towns, I think.
I don't beleive there was some kind of rule that women dining alone were not to be served, period. I think it was social convention.
On the other hand, I'm sure unconventional women - writers, artists, "bohemians" - flouted it all the time.
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