For generations women have fought for equality. The experiences of some of the women in my family reflect the journey.
My grandmother was the youngest of four daughters born in rural Canada. She was an outstanding student in the one room school which ended at eighth grade. There was no opportunity for her to attend high school but when her teacher resigned and a replacement could not be found she was hired as the teacher.
She saved her money and went off to train as a seamstress/designer. After she was married she and her husband moved to the U.S. Both of them worked hard and began to buy farms. She was in charge of the business side of their endeavors and her husband handled the day-to-day operations of three large farms. It was her dream that all three of her daughters would go to college but only the youngest, my mother, was interested so she was sent to boarding school to prepare for college entrance.
My mother majored in chemistry and physics, an unusual major for a woman at that time. In her senior year she and her classmates, wearing their caps and gowns, marched in a suffragette parade and women won the right to vote shortly after. Upon graduation she was hired to teach in a high school near her home town.
When she married she knew that she would no longer be able to teach since married teachers were not allowed in schools. As luck would have it the high school in her home town could not find a chemistry/physics teacher so they bent the rules and hired her.
My father took over the family business, the highly technical job of raising seed potatoes. When he died at a very young age, my mother had to take over the business but the company which had contracted to buy the crop put her on probation for a year since they had never dealt with a female grower.
A man wanted to buy one of the farms but my mother repeatedly told him it was not for sale. One year, about two weeks before harvest, he dumped loads of rocks to block the only entrance and force her to sell.
She secured a right of way, brought in a crew and heavy equipment and built an alternate road. People called it her Burma Road, a reference to the Burma Road of World War II, and the harvest was completed on time. She had no further problems.
I was never asked if I wanted to go to college. It was expected so I was sent to boarding school beginning with eighth grade. I earned a B.A. and an M.A. and taught in an independent college preparatory school for nearly 30 years. In the beginning it was no secret that women were paid significantly less than their male counterparts. And when I was expecting a baby it came as a shock that there was no maternity leave policy and I was given just two weeks. Thankfully all that has changed now.
When my elder daughter went for her first interview for medical school she asked for directions to the restroom and was told she would have to go across the street to the nursing school. When she began to practice medicine patients would sometimes tell her they had enjoyed talking to her and ask when they would see the doctor.
My second daughter became a real estate agent after college. Very successful and recognized nationally, she has done business with male agents who thought they could take advantage of a woman, but that was before they met my daughter. She is treated as an equal because she expects to be.
My granddaughter graduated from college and went on to earn her R.N. She works in oncology and experienced no equality problems until she was expecting her first child. She was given less maternity leave than her husband's paternity leave. Go figure!
I have a great granddaughter who has just entered pre-school and I wonder what the future will hold for her.
Currently women are paid 79 percent of what their male counterparts are paid. Analysts estimate that equal pay for equal work will not become a reality until 2059.
It is often said that women have to be twice as good as men to be thought of as equal. Perhaps Madeleine Albright, the first U.S. Secretary of State, said it best: "There's plenty of room in this world for mediocre men but no place for mediocre women."
My grandmother was the youngest of four daughters born in rural Canada. She was an outstanding student in the one room school which ended at eighth grade. There was no opportunity for her to attend high school but when her teacher resigned and a replacement could not be found she was hired as the teacher.
She saved her money and went off to train as a seamstress/designer. After she was married she and her husband moved to the U.S. Both of them worked hard and began to buy farms. She was in charge of the business side of their endeavors and her husband handled the day-to-day operations of three large farms. It was her dream that all three of her daughters would go to college but only the youngest, my mother, was interested so she was sent to boarding school to prepare for college entrance.
My mother majored in chemistry and physics, an unusual major for a woman at that time. In her senior year she and her classmates, wearing their caps and gowns, marched in a suffragette parade and women won the right to vote shortly after. Upon graduation she was hired to teach in a high school near her home town.
When she married she knew that she would no longer be able to teach since married teachers were not allowed in schools. As luck would have it the high school in her home town could not find a chemistry/physics teacher so they bent the rules and hired her.
My father took over the family business, the highly technical job of raising seed potatoes. When he died at a very young age, my mother had to take over the business but the company which had contracted to buy the crop put her on probation for a year since they had never dealt with a female grower.
A man wanted to buy one of the farms but my mother repeatedly told him it was not for sale. One year, about two weeks before harvest, he dumped loads of rocks to block the only entrance and force her to sell.
She secured a right of way, brought in a crew and heavy equipment and built an alternate road. People called it her Burma Road, a reference to the Burma Road of World War II, and the harvest was completed on time. She had no further problems.
I was never asked if I wanted to go to college. It was expected so I was sent to boarding school beginning with eighth grade. I earned a B.A. and an M.A. and taught in an independent college preparatory school for nearly 30 years. In the beginning it was no secret that women were paid significantly less than their male counterparts. And when I was expecting a baby it came as a shock that there was no maternity leave policy and I was given just two weeks. Thankfully all that has changed now.
When my elder daughter went for her first interview for medical school she asked for directions to the restroom and was told she would have to go across the street to the nursing school. When she began to practice medicine patients would sometimes tell her they had enjoyed talking to her and ask when they would see the doctor.
My second daughter became a real estate agent after college. Very successful and recognized nationally, she has done business with male agents who thought they could take advantage of a woman, but that was before they met my daughter. She is treated as an equal because she expects to be.
My granddaughter graduated from college and went on to earn her R.N. She works in oncology and experienced no equality problems until she was expecting her first child. She was given less maternity leave than her husband's paternity leave. Go figure!
I have a great granddaughter who has just entered pre-school and I wonder what the future will hold for her.
Currently women are paid 79 percent of what their male counterparts are paid. Analysts estimate that equal pay for equal work will not become a reality until 2059.
It is often said that women have to be twice as good as men to be thought of as equal. Perhaps Madeleine Albright, the first U.S. Secretary of State, said it best: "There's plenty of room in this world for mediocre men but no place for mediocre women."