the whole pants thing reminded me of my first collective action. when i was in junior in high school, i had a part-time job as a cashier in a supermarket with doors at each end of the front, where the registers were. During the winter, both doors would open, and  a huge blast of cold air would blow through the front of the store. 

this was 1967, so, of course, women were not permitted to wear pants. i was getting tiring of chapped knees and complained loud and long, but no no avail. so… since saturday was the store’s busiest day, i convinced enough women that if we all wore pants, they couldn’t send us all home and still keep the store open. 

seems positively quaint all these years later.

I also came of age in the 1970’s and worked for years as a journalist.  I remember how much gratitude I felt toward the women who came before me — who opened so many doors. 

I also know that despite our advances, the situation for women is not as rosy as Gail, the media and society in general would want us to believe.  Gail has been fortunate to live a privileged life as an upper class white woman who started her career at The New York Times.  And that made all the difference……

Most women still work in pink collar ghetto jobs where the pay is much less than comparable jobs that primarily employ men. 

Women now have two full-time jobs — the one in the office and the one at home.

Women still struggle with sexism every day. It’s the most pervasisive and ignored bigotry that remains.  It’s only the most privileged who can be as giddy as Gail and Lesley about how wonderful things are today.  I cannot imagine a leader of the civil right movement rejoicing as Gail does at how good black people have it today. 

Women entering the workforce now have many more opportunities, but they are in for a terrible shock if they believe the struggles have all been won.  Sexism is thriving and getting worse.  The backlash isn’t something that just happens when your car gets rear ended.

I was there to watch as the doors opened for women and anything seemed possible.  I also was there to watch as the doors began closing while almost no one seemed to notice…….

If the world were truly as wonderful for women as Gail’s book presumes then I too would be as giddy as Gail.  Though she and I are both female and close to the same age, our lives as women have been very different.

So many wonderful sharings on this sight. Of course there are still many injustices….and on the other hand I sat with a group of men in a coffee shop today who have been unemployed over the last year and believe that only minority women are getting the jobs. These guys are over 55 and feel it’s hopeless for them.

It’s so intresting-the power of perceptions coming from every individual. Some say you can or can’t have it all as a woman. Most of my over 80 yr old gals I care for had unfulfilled career dreams and were housewives who raised their kids, were widowed and married 60+yrs. They often share some of their remorse yet mostly talk about the richness of their relationships and how precious their families were to them. There’s no perfection, yet we need to keep moving ahead and never give up regarding these important areas. I believe that living a loveless life is a tremendous tragedy. I’ve been on both sides of the fence and come from a heritage where my grandfather gave all his daughters something unusual for that time- "normal school" and college eds (in the early 1900’s). My five, well educated aunts all loved their work-but said that their jobs paled to loving their dear ones. I can only speak for my own experience having owned a business, taught school for years and still doing jazz gigs as well as art shows-but I too, believe that a healthy love relationship is so satisfying and washes away so much that is not satisfying. I was tougher about my feminism and fought hard when I was younger…but now-give me a bowl of popcorn, my sweetheart and a good movie.

How often we think we are gaining something but it ends up chasing the wind. Each woman has to decide for themselves what really counts in life. I am working at letting go,avoiding blame, forgiving and accepting life on life’s terms. These things I’m getting from the wisdom of elderly women in there 80’s.  I know that the equal pay deal is not where it should be-and that domestic violence is very prevalent. A sad scenario. But we are accountable for our own choices and there will be consequences we will each live with based upon the choices that we each make for ourselves. Hopefully those decisions will be rooted in love. 

I read Friedan and Greer at 19.    They made a lot of sense to me.   Took women studies courses in college as well.  Still consider myself a femininist of the old school.   May or may not have had a unique upbringing in that respect.   Before Friedan and Greer I was told *get and education because you need to be able to support yourself no matter who you marry*.   Did so. As did my sister.  Fortunately, no need to *fall back* on our education as …. funny thing… our (non Ivy League) education led us to choose good men too…and we both have enjoyed our careers and marriages.

Unfortunately,  the movement I supported in the early 70’s was quickly hijacked by extremists without principles and there is only one agenda.   And, I am not talking about choice or sexual preference.  I’m talking about the agenda to serve men who despise women and the eagerness of women who, wearing heels or not,  are still on their knees before them in order to be *cool*.   When the current President of the United States refers to an underling as *honey*…when a certain recently deceased Senator and a current one are not called to account for their drunken advances to women working in restaurants (*waitress sandwiches anyone?)…when a former President is excused for lying under oath and hiding evidence in a sexual harassment case because its *only about sex* are idolized (if not sanctified)  while  a woman who manages to overcome her working class upbringing and become the governor of a state while raising 5 children is vilified  because she isn’t a Democrat, I say screw *feminism*. 

As for typing.  Thank goodness for computers.  Still, I found the ability to type (however imprecisely) a big help in my career.   Back when computers were *new*, my boss gave me one before he gave them to my male colleagues because *she knows how to type and will use it*.  A nice advantage then.   

great discussion!  i graduated high school in 1975 - women were finally being told they could and should go to college for something other than their MRS.  i look around the small town (even if it is a state capital) where i live now, and have some things i’d like to pass on to women in their late teens and twenties - we helped women finally have control of the own reproductive health - stop throwing that away!!  i’m not talking about the right to choose an abortion, but the right to have effective birth control and the knowledge to use it available.  young women today talk a lot about abortion - the right and wrong of it, and their own feelings about it - but you’re right when you say the pill is what brought about the biggest changes for women.  in the early 70’s, young women were not taught about birth control, what was available, or even why they should know about it.  (abstinance (sp?) education anyone? didn’t work then, probably won’t ever work).  young married women were told they didn’t need birth control because "they were married and should be having kids now".  i knew a 29 year old woman, divorced with 3 kids, whose doctor refused to do a tubal ligation because if she remarried her new husband might want children of his own - so for this woman, a doctor and a possible future husband were deciding her reproductive choices. she finally found a doctor to respect her choices (a woman, rare at the time).  after roe vs. wade passed, birth control finally became more readily available for all women, but the ones who got "caught" were the "nice" girls - because nice girls didn’t "plan" to have sex by protecting themselves.  these days, i see women in their teens and twenties, sure that abortion is wrong (i won’t even start THAT discussion here), but also sure that for some reason birth control is also "wrong".  (it doesn’t help that i live in the "bible belt" of our state).  it seems to me that while they have embraced sexual freedom, they forget that there is a responsibilty to make good choices for themselves, their partners, and their future children.  i see too many young women around me throwing away any opportunity for an education/career because they "accidently" got pregant having unprotected sex.  they face a hard road, because while they think that relationship is "the one", their partners don’t feel the same.  here’s a hint girls - a guy 15 - 25 (give or take) will say you’re the one, until you get pregnant - then they’re less sure.  it worked when i was young, it worked when my mother was young, and it worked when my grandmother was young.  ask yourselves, why is it still working now?  so, while you embrace and even acknowledge what came before to win some of this progress for women, please don’t lose track that all you owe to the women who started this "fight" is to make your own choices wisely.

How well I remember the olden days of a working woman.  I worked for the Chesapeake & Potomic Telephone Co (Ma.Bell) here in the south and when I became Pregnant I was informed I could only work until I was 4 months along.  It was my first so I barely showed at that time and was not sickly.  It made it hard for my husband and I as we had been married less than a year and were still strugling to set up our home.  I had private insurance, thank goodness.  I could’nt figure out why, other than I was a Service Rep. and in public view to customers.  How times have changed, I have seen some employees at various business that look as if they could give birth at any minute.  This was in the mid-fifties.  But we made out OK, still married to the same guy for 54 years…The show Mad Men is a perfect example of how it really was in those days…

Barbara J.

I have to make small comment on the story about women and not being able to wear slacks in the 60’s.. In Orlando, Fl in the 1990’s a well thought of law firm was still requiring their female attorneys to wear skirted suits.. no pants allowed (granted, even having a female associate was new to them).  The gals in this firm worked longer hours and were paid less than their male counterparts too along with not being included in the downtown athletic club. That my sisters was in the 1990’s.. things have changed.. but have they really?!?!

It is amost beyond belief that there is still no ERA in the Constitution.

Without the ERA no woman has a guarantee of Constitutional equality.

The ERA does not even get out of The Constitution subcommittee in the senate.

The Shriver Report calls for equality repeatedly but no outcry for the ERA.

There are two classes of women in America: Those who have money and time to own and write nice articles in this forum and those who get beaten by men, earn 77% of what a man makes for the same job, do not own real estate, do not have money to hire people to take care of their home and children. It would be great if the "haves" gave back to the women who have not enjoyed the success of the moment and are still second class citizens. Those women who have made it have done so because of the selfless attitudes of women who fought the fight for them - Bella, Gloria, Betty, Shirley ….

If I were a woman I would demand the ERA now and not take any excuses. If the Congress refused to pass the ERA I would call for a general strike throughout America to show how much women are needed in the country and workplace.

Before we call ourselves an example for the rest of the world it would be nice if the majority in America had equal rights. Men in Congress know that women can’t get it together on the ERA and so it goes. Once women have made it they forget about the others - this is human nature.Where are the women in Congress, the women in the media, the women with money, the women who BS on talk shows all day, the women in business? They have all made it and just do not care about helping other women and their own daughters and sisters. And people think women have more empathy and compassion.