Holding the door, against better judgment

I opened the entrance door to a restaurant for a woman the other day, which sparked a frayed memory of a time that’s no more.

From the early 1970s, when the women’s liberation movement took root, to the mid-1990s, it was possible to hear the following from a woman if a man opened a door for her: “Would you hold the door open if I was a man?” Sometimes the statement was punctuated with the phrase “you male chauvinist pig,” a saying that’s also become a relic.

Not all women reacted that way, but enough did to make many men hesitant. I had a woman go off on me once, and once was...