Why do women carry purses and men do not? We all have keys, identification cards and cash to carry around. Otzi the Iceman had the oldest known purse, dating back 5,000 years.
Men once carried coin purses. In early modern Europe, when women's fashions moved in the direction of using small ornamental purses, which evolved into handbags, men's fashions were moving in another direction. Men's trousers replaced men's breeches during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, and pockets were incorporated in the loose, heavy material. This enabled men to continue carrying coins, and then paper currency, in small leather wallets. Men's pockets were plentiful in the 19th century and 20th century trousers and coats, to carry possessions, such as pipes, matches, and knives.
The modern woman's purse, clutch, pouch, or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution, in part due to the increase in travel by railway. Industrialist Samuel Parkinson is considered the originator of modern-day women's purses. Those original travel and handbags that he owned are in the Museum of Bags and Purses in Amsterdam.
The verb "to handbag" was inspired in the 1980s by UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher having “weaponized” the handbag in the opinion of British biographer and historian David Cannadine. As “her most visible symbol of her power to command” the bag became an emphatic prop that she produced at meetings to show she meant business. She would invariably bring out of the bag a crucial document from which she would quote, her speech notes often being cut to size to fit inside. Because Thatcher was Britain’s first female prime minister, former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore wrote in his authorised biography of 2013, “her handbag became the sceptre of her rule”.
I wondered what age a girl would want a purse. How about the best toddler pursesheadline. Do you think a 1 year old can carry a purse? Definitely. There are lots of pictures to prove it.
I like this joke:
Today my wife went outside with her purse open. She'd heard there would be some change in the weather.
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