We've come a long way since those dark old days, so now that the glass ceiling has been shattered, maybe we can look back with thorn tinted glasses at just how far we've come.

Nowhere were these attitudes as prominent as in advertising. One newspaper ad from the 1950's selling a new twist-off bottle top beamed the tag “So simple, even women can use it”.

Another advert from Hotpoint suggested their new washing machine was so good, husbands needed to remind their wives not to spend all of their time in the kitchen.

And what would today's career woman make of the 1960's poster campaign for a Lawnmower depicting a Doris Day lookalike with the slogan ”Ladies; as easy to use as a Vacuum cleaner”?

In these days of equality it tends to be men who are now the targets of humour. An American advert for reinforced roofing asks why hurricanes like Katrina are named after Women. Their answer; like hurricanes, women are wild and exciting, but when they leave they take your house, your car and your boat with them.