We've Come a Long Way
The world's 100 most powerful women.
When I was in my teens the only careers I thought we could choose from were teaching, nursing, office secretary, and for the religiously inclined, nunnery. It actually never occurred to me that other careers might be contemplated. There were women in business then, but they remained unmarried, for the most part. There were only a very small handful of women in federal politics and I don't remember any in provincial politics at that time. The only leaders of countries who achieved that status through democratic elections that I can recall were Golda Meir of Israel and Indira Gandhi of India.
That all began to change in the late 60s and early 70s. My sister applied for entry into the Renewable Resources Technology program at Kelsey Institute in Saskatoon in the mid 70s and the head of the program told her it wasn't suitable for women. She raised a stink and they let her and a whole bunch of other women in.
It was during my youth that divorce laws were changed to allow women 50% of the property acquired during a marriage upon dissolution of the marriage. Battered women were told to go back to their husbands and treat them better and that changed shortly afterward.
It's good to look back once in a while and recognize that good things do happen as long as we work toward them and remain patient and undeterred. If you take a stroll through the list of 100 most powerful women, you'll see so many of them are CEOs of big corporations. Some of them are downright beautiful, too.
Yes, baby, we have come a long, long way.
When I was in my teens the only careers I thought we could choose from were teaching, nursing, office secretary, and for the religiously inclined, nunnery. It actually never occurred to me that other careers might be contemplated. There were women in business then, but they remained unmarried, for the most part. There were only a very small handful of women in federal politics and I don't remember any in provincial politics at that time. The only leaders of countries who achieved that status through democratic elections that I can recall were Golda Meir of Israel and Indira Gandhi of India.
That all began to change in the late 60s and early 70s. My sister applied for entry into the Renewable Resources Technology program at Kelsey Institute in Saskatoon in the mid 70s and the head of the program told her it wasn't suitable for women. She raised a stink and they let her and a whole bunch of other women in.
It was during my youth that divorce laws were changed to allow women 50% of the property acquired during a marriage upon dissolution of the marriage. Battered women were told to go back to their husbands and treat them better and that changed shortly afterward.
It's good to look back once in a while and recognize that good things do happen as long as we work toward them and remain patient and undeterred. If you take a stroll through the list of 100 most powerful women, you'll see so many of them are CEOs of big corporations. Some of them are downright beautiful, too.
Yes, baby, we have come a long, long way.
posted by Louise at 7:15 am
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