I think it is something which is up to those of us who have been through it, to ensure those who follow will minimally, be aware of the women’s movement.  If we don’t let them know from our own experience they will only learn distortions of the truth, in my opinion.  So, let us get on with it.  Let the young women of today, know and learn there really is and has been a huge struggle for all of us.

Until it becomes just another day in time, when a woman is elected President of the U.S.A., and until it is never questioned that a woman has the right to choose, and determine why, and how her person is touched, and with her permission, who touches her, and when, there will continue to be a need to stand up for women’s rights, everywhere.

The era of Victinhood is over. Women need to tell the story of overcoming but our young women today have the benefit of our fight, they don’t need to wear the badge of victim on their sleeves and are stronger because of it. Weakness was the only thing we had to overcome and todays’ young women are strong…

The turning point in my life occured in 1966 when I was driving down Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco and heard Betty Freidan speaking on the radio.  I went to the meeting that night and her speech opened a whole new world for me.  It grieves me to see that most of what was so hard won in those days has been slowly swept under the rug by the media and women today have not a clue about the battle that took place to get them where they are today.

     Television has created a schizophrenic split between fat and skinny women’s bodies, on the one hand they show huge quantities of lavish food so enticing God herself could not create it.  Then they launch into a constant commercial of diet products and render women sub-human if they don’t look like refugees from a concentration camp.  If that weren’t enough, we now have high heel shoes that make foot binding look like a desirable alternative.  Before women’s lib, women wore 3 inch heels that were the agony of the damned, I can only imagine what these new monstrocities are like.  The worst of it is women trot along after these gurus of what women ought to be like a flock of docile sheep.  The end result is a generation of young women who are too weak to function as normal human beings and could not run if their life depended on it.  

     We have come a long way in many areas, in the beginning each Med School had two women, same with Law school.  I am happy that we now have almost equal proportions, but we can’t move forward in other areas like equal pay until the new crop of women wake up and realize things were not always the way they enjoy them now.  The real change will happen when the second job women do is recognized as having some value.  Raising children, creating a home, maintaining a world outside just traditional male jobs.  These now are just freebees that women do for nothing and because women have always done them they are not valued.

     I remember when men started whining about the fact they had to go to work every day and women sat at home watching tv and eating bon bon’s.  Now women go to work every day and all the things women did like cooking balanced meals, looking after their families health both phycically and spiritually. caring for the elderly parents, in general creating and maintaining a civil society have fallen by the wayside.  Now we are wondering why everyone is too fat, children particularly, old folks are dumped in convalescent homes, and our civilization is for all practical purposes in the tank.  The women who stayed home and created this civilized life were considered to be unemployed, the only pay they got was when they could outlive their husbands and collect what "he" owned.  If he chose to dump her for a younger model at any point before he died, she couldn’t even collect his social security.

     Television is the main reason women have lost most of the gains they made in the 60’s and 70’s.  The main form of entertainment is seeing young girls murdered while men try to solve the crime aided by sexy women in low cut blouses.  The Bachelor thing is little more than a slave auction in which young women will do almost anything to be bought.

     One of the problems women face is that they don’t have time to watch tv, so it is difficult to see what is being done to our society in the name of entertainment.  The women of my generation paid dearly for the gains we made, but it was worth it to achieve even a small amount of freedom, I shudder to think what my life would have been like if we had failed begin the fight.

Who the hell wants to burn a Victoria’s Secret bra?  Wow!  I don’t care for the feminism crap except for equal pay for equal jobs.  I like the old traditional way of a marriage.  My husband sits in his chair in the living room and I bring him dinner.  He sits at the head of the table.  He eats first.  He takes out the trash and fixes the cars, I do dishes and laundry and take care of the kids (6).  We are happy with that. 

Laurie Anderson - Beautiful Red Dress

"OK!  OK!  Hold it!
I just want to say something.
You know, for every dollar a man makes
a woman makes 63 cents.
Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents.
So, with that kind of luck, it’ll be the year 3,888
before we make a buck.  But hey, girls?"

This website will hopefully keep reminding the newest generation of working women that those who have paved the way thus far are counting on them to continue building the road to equality.

I am forty and was so very fortunate to grow up with a mother, father and grandmothers who all said I could be anything I put my mind to.  I have been a caregiver for the mentally challenged, a technician, a senior engineer, a supervisor and now a full time mom.  I accomplished this all by working my way up the ladder, without a college degree. 

I started out getting $.35/$1.00 and after some long, hard battles got up to $1.00/$1.00.  Thank you to all of the woman who have fought and sacrificed so I can be anything I want.  I know that fairness can be earned if fought for because of these women.  

it was about 1972 a hot summer afternoon in Portland. I was riding in my father’s truck. I don’t remember where we where going but-we stoped in a fast food burger place to get a shake and What the heck a Girl was working there! she had a big trainee hat on but WOW!I said Dad look a girl is working here, He than answered Yes Kathy girls can work anywhere now , and someday you can work where ever you want.

In honor of women’s history month, and in memory of the late, great Ms. Baumgartner, here is a wikepedia article on the woman who helped pioneer women’s NCAA athletics:

Roberta Alison Baumgardner (December 13, 1943 Alexander City, Alabama - March 20, 2009), was a figure in women’s tennis.[1]

She paved the way for women’s varsity athletics when she joined the men’s tennis team at the University of Alabama in 1963 at the age of 19. Jason Morton, tennis coach at Alabama at the time, found Alison training on grass courts in Tuscaloosa in preparation for the U.S. National Championship (now known as the U.S. Open). He convinced her to attend Alabama and play on the men’s tennis team. This was the first official move toward allowing women to participate in varsity athletics in the Southeastern Conference of the NCAA.

She played on the men’s team for three years. She was in the No. 4 position her first year but played in either the No. 1 or No. 2 position in her second and third years. Some of the competing schools men’s varsity teams would default to her rather than risk playing against a woman and losing.

Alison won the women’s collegiate singles title in 1962 and 1963, and paired with Justina Bricka of Missouri for the 1963 NCAA doubles title. Alison also was a four-time Blue Gray champion, and a three-time Southern tournament champion.

She is a member of the Southern Lawn Tennis Hall of Fame, the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame, the Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Hall of Fame, and was in the first class enshrined into the University of Alabama’s Tennis Hall of Fame. The Roberta Alison Tennis Classic is held each year at the University of Alabama.

Alison also played the American tennis circuit. At the event in Cincinnati, she was a singles finalist in 1962 and 1965, and won doubles titles in 1962 (with Mary Habicht of Brazil), 1963 (with Linda Lou Crosby) and 1965 (with Stephanie DeFina).

Alison spent her life in Alexander City, AL. She was an animal lover and started the first humane society in the area - Lake Martin Humane Society.

On March 20, 2009 Baumgardner died.