Let's just say things got a lot more rigid when it comes to which gender wears what, does what, is usually in charge and so on between your time and mine.
Pants are a dude thing, and men are seen as superior I guess to women, so expressions like "who wears the pants in this relationship" is supposed to mean "who's in charge" which is crap because no one should be above the other in a relationship, marriage, etc.