How proud we are of the United States women’s soccer team, their extraordinary performance and their esprit de corps. Think of what they went through to get to this outstanding victory. Generations of young girl athletes rejoice in their talent and triumph.
The media recalled the team’s victory in 1999 and the famous shot of the team’s Brandi Chastain taking her shirt off after scoring the winning penalty kick and exposing her black Nike bra that became “The Bra Heard ‘Round the World”.
Do today’s young women realize that we burned our bras in 1968? Do they understand what we went through to get them where they are today? How can these young women appreciate what it was like then?
We are the best generation. No question about it. We are the women who came of age in the 60s and 70’s. In 1968, the “American Mother of the Year” was a woman with 18 children, 80 grandchildren and 9 grand grandchildren. Can you believe it?
We are the women who collectively shouted out that we would not go quietly into the night, that we would no longer be treated as second class citizens, that we had the right to be doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs. The Equal Rights Amendment. originally proposed in 1923, was finally made into law in 1972 through the dedicated efforts of our generation.
We came of age in a world of protests against the war in Vietnam, and demonstrations for Civil Rights; we witnessed the deaths of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the same year, and the turbulent election of Richard Nixon. Pope Paul VI told us not to use Birth Control pills which were developed and marketed in 1968. “Our Bodies Our Selves” was published and forever changed our perspective on gender and sexuality. We learned that it was okay to talk about breasts and female anatomy.
In 1969, I interviewed to be a stockbroker at a large brokerage firm based in New York. Halfway through the meeting the head of the firm said with a slight sneer “And how, dearie, will you get new accounts?” Dearie, he actually used that word and the message was clear. I sank into the chair and blushed and meekly answered something like “just like anybody else” but I probably should have said “like any other person here”. I can still feel the humiliation I felt to have thought about breaking into this men’s club.
It is interesting to note that when I asked my granddaughter about women, education and careers and what she felt were the constraints, if any, to becoming whatever she wanted, she felt that there were no limits for young girls today. However, she did confide that she and her friends feel that men still run the big businesses and that men are still the power brokers. That I found very interesting because she is correct. Let’s hope that we can see that change as we work to level the playing field.
Lucy and I started blogging two years ago because we realized that no one was paying attention to us. Do not think for a minute that our demographic doesn’t matter. We have skills and life experiences and we bring an established expertise in making change happen. We are engaged in the world and we encourage our sisters to share their expertise and work experiences with the next generation. Let’s continue to support and empower the next generation of women.
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