"My mother was born before women had the right to vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for president! That's America!"
-Senator Hillary Rodham-Clinton

Happy Women's Equality Day!

I've been waiting all day to write this post, hoping to think of something witty to say. But it's been a loooong day. A long day that began when the alarm clock dragged me out of bed in the townhouse where I pay my half of the rent from a paycheck that I earn. A townhouse that I share with another woman, an MIT graduate who is about to begin a PhD program in neuroscience. My long day continued as I drove to school/work in the car that I own, in my own name. At work I ran some computer simulations for my dissertation research in a biostatistics program where women are actually in the majority. I discussed politics with my colleagues. Later I reminisced about learning to read before starting kindergarten and always knowing I could do math, even when I got a 'C' on my report card. In the afternoon I did some statistical consulting, for which I will also earn a paycheck. Nearing the end of my long day I met some friends for dinner - men and women, married and unmarried, living together and single. During dinner I told a story about my aunt, an out lesbian raising an adopted son, her deceased partner's grandson. When the check arrived I payed my portion, and no one raised an eyebrow. On my way home I stopped by school again to check on my program and then squeezed in some quick grocery shopping; both stops well after dark, and unescorted. I finally ended my long day driving home, cheering and clapping to Senator Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention. I owe every piece of my long day to feminists and feminism. From the women (and men) whose names we'll never know who bravely worked so that the women whose names we do know (Julia Ward Howard, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul) could further women's suffrage to the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls to the 19th amendment and to my mother, who marched in the March for Women's Lives four years ago. Happy Women's Equality Day! Be joyful and celebrate!