Our own her-stories are interesting and important.
(oh, Alex Wagner just said the House has passed the VAWA, i don't know what version it was, have to look for that.)
My parents were from farm families and we lived on a farm until i was two. My oldest sistr and her husband were farmers. I think in farm families, because everybody's bodies and brains are needed as part of the economic unit, that they tend to be more sexual egalitarian, if they are smart. Even though my Mother's family were farmers, her oldest sister, Mabel - for whom i was named, altho i was never called Mabel - and my Mother, who was born in 1898- who was the youngest - both went to Teacher's College. So i had a tradition of women working outside the household in the early 20th century. Also, my Father always said "You don't need to get married." Now, all three of us were able to go to college because it was in our town. None of us could have afforded to go if we had had to live on campus.
My husband says i was always a feminist, we met in college in 1962. My maternal family have been strong Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, including the four brothers who came to the colonies in the mid 1700s. Two of them started Presbyterian churches. Even though i went to church every week of my growing up life, it never really took for me, i guess i got my Dad's genes in that area.
But i was in my teens while the Civil Rts activities were going on in the 50s and the ministers we had were very strong in their support. I got a strong lesson in equality from the church and i got to be a leader in many activities in the church, so i owe a lot of my confidence in speaking up to my experience in the church.
As an adult i was an exec director at the county YWCA, a very feminist organization, in the late 70s. We turned it into a "women's center." In the 80s i went to work in th Equal Opprtunity Office for Dept of Army, probably the only office i could have worked in in Dept of Army.
I was the Federal Women's Program Manager, meaning i educated women and supervisors that women could work in non-tradtional jobs, and trained military and civilians about sexual harrassment, and facilitated the solving of problems for civilian women in her workplace.
Also during the 80s, i was co-chair of the Alice Paul NOW chapter and was on the founding Board if the Alice Paul Institute.
So, as you can see, my DH is right, i have always been a feminist, actually, i've always been a humanist. Equality for Everbody!
