RIP Gerry Ferraro - You Helped Make Me a Feminist

Read this and then come back.  I had to marinate a bit on why Gerry Ferraro resonated with me.  She was the first woman, named to a national ticket in 1984.  I was 1 year out of college and making my way in the business world.  I hadn't made any choices, yet, (except maybe 1 - but that needs to stay under wraps for another decade or so) that might label me a feminist.

It hasn't been until about the last 15 years or so that I've been comfortable with that label.  And, especially when I read another woman that I really like, Gloria Steinem, talk about feminism and what the definition really is, I think - of course I'm a feminist.

To effect change, somebody has to be the first.  I was the first girl to play golf on my high school boy's golf team (thank you, Title IX) because we didn't have a girl's team.  A number of girls followed in my foot steps, although the school was/is so small, that they never had enough girls to field a separate team - but any girl that wanted to play golf could.  (And it was my dad who suggested I ask if I could play on the boy's team - he also wanted me to take auto shop instead of cooking/sewing in jr. high when we went up to the high school for those classes so I would know my way around the insides of a car!)

Hillary could have been the first - but instead Barack is.

I'm probably the first working mom from the suburbs that has ever said that she has more in common with what the Log Cabin Republicans stand for than any other political party.

The NYTimes article at the opening of my post says, "Ms. Ferraro could effectively charm powerful men, but she did not back down on substance."  I was once talking to my dad and felt very strongly about whatever it was we were talking about and he said, "Tocqueville, don't be so strident."  And, of course, with about 30% of his vocabulary, I needed to look up the word.  And then I understand that I wasn't being effective in making my point.

So I hope that I instill in my children how to effect change and, in the case of my daughter, that she's not afraid to embrace her feminism.