History of Feminism

I had one experience that was very surprising for those days. I spent my last two years of secondary school at a private Catholic high school in a small city (a BIG step up from my previous rural experience) and the only "counseling" we got was in the form of a civil servant from the state employment service who would come in and administer a series of aptitude tests to the seniors and then provide us with a brief counseling session afterwards to discuss the results. Of course, students today receive - or are supposed to - such guidance long before being seniors.

Most of my friends had their sessions before mine and had reported that they were counseled in the usual fashion: telephone operator, stenographer, secretary, teacher, nurse, etc. At my session, the first question the interviewer - who was male - asked was "Why do you hate math?" I was taken aback and mumbled something about its being the discipline that I felt least comfortable with and he said, "I don't know why you should feel that. You did very well on anything related to math and you had the highest score in analytical reasoning in the class." We were 250 in all and the school was co-ed.

He was not talking about advanced math, e.g., calculus, trig or physics, but merely the basics, especially the written math questions. He then continued by saying that I should really consider being a lawyer - which was absolutely the furthest thing from my mind! In fact, I was so conditioned to fulfilling "customary expectations of my abilities" that I was not even flattered to be singled out in such a way. I didn't appreciate being "different."

That man, whose name I never remembered, was a hero in a way he will never know. Even though I didn't appreciate his advice at the time, after a very long and winding road over many years, I ultimately did become a lawyer.

Those of my classmates from that high school who followed the more customary paths invariably excelled at them and many went on for further studies. Some actually and eventually became successful businesswoman as well, who created and ran their own businesses. We were for the most part taught not to believe in ourselves. Thankfully, many of us learned to.

I am so thankful that young women are encouraged to be who they want to be today. I hope that many of Bernie's women millennials will ultimately realize just how much has been accomplished by people like Hillary and other women so that they simply can take such a thing for granted.