She-nannigans

Founded in 1970, She-nannigans was the first bar in Chicago to employ all female bartenders at a time it was considered illegal—hence the “She” in She-nannigans. It all began at a time when a decades-old ordinance — informally known as the “Barmaids Ordinance” — made it illegal for any woman who was not related to a bar’s owner from tending bar. In a modest act of civil disobedience, She-nannigans began to employ some of the airline stewardesses who lived in the neighborhood to tend bar on their days off. Arrests were made, tempers flared and in 1974, a suit was filed against Mayor Daley, et al.; the case went to U.S. District Court and judges concluded that the ordinance violated the Constitution.