In the modern era, bars are where people often go specifically to meet people of the opposite sex. Once upon a time, it was anything but that. Pubs and saloons were thought of as places where men went to get away from their wives, and women who went in could be risking their reputations. Many bars completely barred women from entering! Others restricted women from entering without an escort, who was expected to order for her while she stayed in her place. Some pubs saw that business is business, and went out of their way to make it possible for ladies to discreetly come in for a drink.
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One way they did this was with ladies entrances, which were hidden in an alley or otherwise shielded from crowds on the street. Another was to offer “snugs,” or private rooms. Men-only drinking establishments, and misogynistic restrictions on women in bars, only died out during the second-wave feminism of the 1960s and ’70s. Read about the way bars once were, and how that revolution came about at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Gerry Dincher)
Source: neatorama