I didn't know what feminism was for a long time. All I knew was that in 1970 my mom cut off her blond beehive and dyed her hair back to its natural brown color. I just came home from school and it was that way, and after that day, I never again saw my mother in a dress or heels again. She wore comfortable clothes and shoes.
What Five Things can I thank feminism for?
- Choices. I tend to like wearing girly things, although I will admit I'm partial to the more sensible shoes, and I chose a traditional woman's career while my kids were young, although I didn't have to. I'm thankful for the range of possibilities that have always lain before me.
- Comfort. When I'm doing my LSR or a triathlon, I'm thankful that I don't live in a country where I would be stoned to death for flimsy wearing shorts and crop tops, or for removing the latter and stripping down to the jogging bra.
- "Title IX" At work nearly every day adolescent girls will tell me, with breathless excitement, about the game they played the day before, the race they ran, or the opponent they wrestled. I've taught a female football player. Nobody can tell them ever again that girls can't play sports, or that they're unfeminine.
- Salary. I'm thankful that it's illegal for the school district where I work to pay male teachers more because they're heads of their households.
- Medicine. I'm thankful for the advances in women's health care. It used to be that drugs and procedures were only tested on men.
