Throughout modern history women who ventured out into public have run the risk of having to hold it in, either because there were no facilities or not enough facilities for women, creating endless lines. Some years ago at my company's annual employee bash, I was waiting with my colleagues and other guests in a very, very long line to … Continue reading The Line to the Women’s Room – From Then To Now
"When you've worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back." ~ Michelle Obama "It's not what you know, it's who you know," so goes the old adage that might well have originated with the "good old boys club" that grew out … Continue reading Where Is the Good Old Gals Club?
"I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women." ~ Susan B. Anthony, ca 1868 We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an … Continue reading Women’s History Month – The Long, Long Road to Equal Pay – in 2152
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." Attributed to Gloria Steinem In 1972, when I was a twenty-something single woman working in the book publishing industry, I became a charter subscriber to Ms., the groundbreaking magazine founded by Gloria Steinem and Letty Cottin Pogrebin. Not being a well-to-do suburban … Continue reading Women’s History Month – Gloria Steinem – Trailblazer Extraordinaire
"The time has passed when a woman should be placed in a position and kept there only while someone else is being groomed for the job." ~ Hattie Wyatt Caraway, the first woman elected (in a landslide) on November 8, 1932 to serve a full term as a United States Senator (Note: This year's National … Continue reading Women’s History Month – Trailblazer Hattie Caraway
“Women who accuse men, particularly powerful men, of harassment
are often confronted with the reality of the men’s sense
that they are more important than women, as a group.”
― Anita Hill, Speaking Truth to Power
Twenty-five years ago, Anita Hill, a distinguished Yale Law School graduate and Washington D.C. attorney, accused a powerful man, Judge Clarence Thomas, who had just been nominated by President George H.W. Bush to the Supreme Court of the United States, of sexual harassment when she reported to him a decade earlier at both the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The accusation reportedly was made privately and dismissed; but a leak to the media prompted Ms. Hill to be called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing.
Jeanne Nelson 