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Breaking Through the Ceiling The struggle for equality is far from over. This week Nancy Pelosi was installed as the Speaker of the House, the first woman to hold that position. In her speech before Congress she said: "It's an historic moment for the women of America. It is a moment for which we have waited over 200 years. Never losing faith, we waited through the many years of struggle to achieve our rights. But women weren't just waiting. Women were working. Never losing faith, we worked to redeem the promise of America, that all men and women are created equal. For our daughters and our granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling. For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit," the Chicago Tribune reports. Yes, we were working and not waiting. But some times I wonder if our daughters and granddaughters realize the struggles that have gone before. When I talk to young women today, they are more interested in surviving the world than in making a change in the status of women in it. When most women think of the women’s rights struggles, they think of the bra burners of the early years. Yes, there were some of us who burned the bras, but it was a symbolic act. Many more of us were working to make this world more equitable for both our children and ourselves. I remember in the 1960’s that my mother was working in the office of a large, international corporation. She had the title “bookkeeper.” The person next to her was doing exactly the same job, but he had a title different and was making almost twice the money my mother was making. In fact, it was my mother who had to train him and to whom he had to refer when he didn’t know what to do. They had similar educational backgrounds; they had identical duties; and there was only one difference: she was female and he was male. And when it came time to downsize, who got laid off? Yes, it was my mother. Even though she was hired first, she was let go with the explanation, “After all, he has a family to support.” And she didn’t? Yes, it is true this kind of blatant discrimination is now illegal. And young women have so many more options than when my mother entered the work force. There are more women attending law school than men; this is a major shift. There are more women going to medical school. But more subtle forms of discrimination still exist. The aggressive male in the business world is a role model. If a woman achieved the success of a Donald Trump, she would be considered a “bitch.” If she had made the same accusations Trump has made in the last couple of weeks, she would be “catty” at the least and comments like “she needs someone to take her out behind the barn and fuck her until her eyes cross” would be made. I have heard exactly that phrase used in relation to an aggressive female executive. I shudder to think what a female Hugh Heffner would have been called. I doubt very seriously a major portion of her family would have ostracized Joanna Angel if she were male. We have heard a lot about the “glass ceiling.” Women have achieved middle management positions, but there are very few where a woman is the CEO. There are women in our Congress, but Nancy Peolsi is truly the first to break through the “marble ceiling” of the “good ole boys club.” But so many of our young women are “playing it safe” and think the war for equality has been won. It is far from over. I am dismayed to see so many of the advances we achieved in the 80’s and 90’s taken for granted. Our daughters need to understand that they cannot rest and the advances we have achieved in our lives will always be theirs without vigilance. I salute Nancy Pelosi and call our daughters and granddaughters to a vision of true equality of the sexes. The job begun by the early feminists is not over and if you take what was achieved and do nothing to protect it, you just may lose it. by Birgit Connor
Birgit Connor sometimes lends her voice to Sex-Kitten.net and has a regular column at Backwash where she deals with the lighter side of adult play.
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