Special to the Reporter

The Mercer Island Historical Society will present “And It Has Pockets! The Battle for Women’s Clothing Equality” at 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 at Aljoya Mercer Island senior living (2430 76th Ave. SE).

How many times have you heard someone wearing women’s clothing say, “and it has pockets!” Comparisons have shown that modern clothing designed for women has about half the “storage space” of clothing designed for men. From their invention, pockets in women’s fashion have represented independence — so much so that in the 18th century, laws were enacted to strip women of their personal liberty by making the contents of their pockets the property of their husband. The right to have pockets went hand-in-hand with the right to vote. People today are still speaking out about the inequality between men’s and women’s clothing based on this simple storage system, the pocket.

Speaker Diane Johnston, a costume designer, will dig into the pockets of the past, tracing the history of the humble pocket to determine if the battle for equality may still be decided by a few inches of extremely influential fabric.

This program is presented thanks to a generous grant from Humanities Washington.