Were the 90s better for women? 

For some, the final decade of the 20th century was an era when women were finally allowed to party and enjoy themselves in exactly the same way men were. 

It was, after all, the decade when the term ‘ladette’ was invented. 

For others, it was the decade defined by the vilification of White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, who had an affair with Bill Clinton - suggesting little had changed for women.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Katie Puckrik, who invented the term ‘ladette’, said sexism certainly existed in the 90s - but much of it was an “innocent celebration”. 

“Of course, it did sour and curdle over the intervening decades,” she said. 

“To begin with, just to look at the lads; that was a little bit of... masculinity - [but] not quite toxic. 

“It was a way for boys to be playful and do a little bit of working class cosplay like, ‘Oh, I love to go down to the pub, watch the football and be loud.’”

Presenter Ciara Kelly, who was a young woman in the 90s, recalled there was a regular comic strip called ‘fat slags’. 

It was something, she suggested, that would certainly not be printed in the 2020s. 

“I think the get out of jail free card in the mid-90s was definitely irony,” Ms Puckrik said. 

“So, if you can say it with a ‘wink, wink’ there were kind of audible quotation marks around things like ‘fat slags’. 

“It was kind of like, ‘Oh, we’re all in on the joke’ and ‘We’re just sort of making a joke about the joke.’

“Of course, nowadays, people would be called on it.” 

Women drinking in 1996. Picture by: Alamy.com

Ms Puckrik also said many millennial women were more sanctimonious than the generation of women before them. 

“I would say po-faced for a good reason,” she said. 

“As I mentioned before, there was a little bit of a fallout where the irony dropped off.”

You can listen back here:

Main image shows women in the 90s. Picture by: Alamy.com