Will Things Change? Have Things Changed
We have entered a period where I want to believe that women can do what men do and get paid equally. Yet as I listen to and hear the men and women around me, those old-school voices continue to exist. It is the older men who tend to place labels on women and men. Expectations of old roles yet tremendous respect for successful women.
I wonder if it is just a slow change, at least in my world, of the times. Some scary groups nationwide, including our supreme court, are attempting to pull women back into times so we have zero power. Change forward scares the shit out of a lot of people.
Over the last few years, “bad” players have come to light and are being punished for it. Those punishments have changed the narrative at some level. What do we do about artists, scientists, or people who have significantly impacted our society that were misogynists, rapists, aka horrible humans? Does their behavior get chalked up to well, those were the times?
“If I’d been a man, I would have been extremely successful in business,” said Peg Yorkin, who recently died at 96 and founded the Feminist Majority Foundation and brought the abortion pill to America. She was extremely successful, and her impact is more significant than many know.
My Mom’s father, who died when I was barely 5, had two shoe stores in Bakersfield. When he died, his son took over those stores, and they both went under in under two years. Undoubtedly, if my Mom had taken over the reins, she would have built a chain of shoe stores across the country. I am sure her Dad knew how capable and intelligent she was, but that is not what my Grandmother wanted for my Mom. She wanted her to marry well. Did her father cede to the times?
My Mom continued to build businesses her entire life, never acknowledging her success. She was almost the same generation as Peg Yorkin.
I know so many successful women, and success is a broad word. As we look back, trying to figure out how to embrace while acknowledging the bad behavior of many iconic people of the past, are we moving forward respecting each other’s abilities to do whatever one chooses to do with their career?
Would my Mom have been given the keys to the castle today? Will the times change? Have they changed?