Some of the history is surprisingly recent too, still in living memory. My mum has a newspaper front page clipping of her friend being led away in handcuffs for

Some of the history is surprisingly recent too, still in living memory. My mum has a newspaper front page clipping of her friend being led away in handcuffs for the heinous crime of wearing a bikini. I think Grandma was the first generation of women that was allowed to swim at all and at least in some places they had gender segregated times. To add insult to that on the way back from the weekly beach trip Grandad liked to stop at the pub for a couple, women and children weren't allowed so they had to sit in the car. Through the 20th century the beach has been a close parallel (usually lagging) of gender equality.