“You’ve come a long way, baby!” was a cigarette ad that peppered magazines some time ago. Born in 1965, I witnessed some awesome, dumfounding, and necessary social changes that occurred over the years. As a child, I saw on our black and white TV bra burning protests featured on the news.
I saw women fight for their equal rights. “Equal pay for equal work,” ERA, the single mother, the working woman, sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, birth control, abortion, and so on, these issues are just as important today as they have ever been. As a result, I was raised in both the “old” and the “new” schools.
The old school is something like this: The man is the bread winner, supports his family and is king of the castle. The woman stays home and tends to the kids, the kitchen, and especially the man. Today it is called Traditional Roles. I had a stay-at-home mom until about 1972. At the point she started her career, both of my parents worked. That was the new school.
The new school, as best as I can tell, is something like this: Work is shared, marriage is a partnership, and the entire family contributes to the needs of the family. Did I get that right, or has it changed since? New school or not, while working, my mother STILL took care of the kids and the kitchen, and tended to dad. Well, we have come a long way, but we still have a ways to go.
In 2004, my fifteen–year-old son invited three very pretty young ladies to lunch. I veered the conversation toward career and education. They were all in high school, and would be graduating sooner than they thought, so the conversation seemed relevant.
