I couldn’t help myself but to feel the pulse of excitement while watching the flick “Makers: Women Who Make America”, a movie about the ‘breakout’ of the housewives to careerwives, highlighting Women’s Lib, Ms. Magazine’s impact on society, and the March for Equality. Could we really, possibly, hopefully….have a woman President soon? Could there be a greater than great chance that we will wake up to a new dawn that has been in the making of the female minds for centuries? Did we quiver with the thought, but then strengthened in the light of this new dawn?
I can speak personally on these feelings: as a pioneer in the auto industry in 1973, at the ripe age of 19, I was a female salesperson in a male bastion. Not knowing any better, and not caring whether I stuck out or not, I pioneered on to become a female stockbroker in the 80’s. That felt right, but I battled the bulge of the male dominated management who preferred to smoke cigars and drink scotch then to discuss the corner office for an up and coming female. With the exception of one great male manager Pat who was visionary and equal in his thinking. A ray of hope there was! Was I what was considered a female libber? Nothing compared to Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Katherine Switzer, and the greats. I was a ‘pea in the pod’ of so many women ahead of me and so many in the shadows. Actually I didn’t classify myself anything other than determined, ambitious and happy to work in what I saw as an exciting, vibrant, moving world of challenges and emotions. Like many women who did not want to be a stay at home housewife, I craved the energy and ‘life’ of a real career. Little did I know until later that a housewife indeed has a career all her own, also distinguished and honorable!
Nevertheless, to think that one decade upon another is now about to blossom to what may become one of the most significantly defined moments in our history, while we are alive to not only see it, talk it, and write it, but experience it, is beyond exciting. If you really deep down think about it, it feels like those decades of anticipation, emancipation, and democratic thinking are bubbling fast to break that glass ceiling, and with mighty force. Women Makers? The stage is set, the audience is full, the curtains are open...the act unfolds…...