Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Heroine's of Our Day

“One of the things that I think characterizes my generation — that characterizes me, anyway, and others of my generation — is that I’ve always been surprised by how my life turned out,” Dr. Faust said in an interview Sunday at Loeb House just after the university announced that she would become its 28th president, effective July 1. “I’ve always done more than I ever thought I would. Becoming a professor — I never would have imagined that. Writing books — I never would have imagined that. Getting a Ph.D. — I’m not sure I would even have imagined that. I’ve lived my life a step at a time. Things sort of happened.”


Drew Gilpin Faust was just appointed Harvard president, the first woman president. Being raised by a feminist and along with my interest in gender studies I understood early about our androcentric society (though I must mention the recent shift in education).
After Lawrence Summer's comments it would seem to me that Harvard may be playing a catch up game, but that is my skepticism setting in and I would like to think this new role model has earned the job on merit alone.
I always imagined myself a career woman, having children late in life after I have a well established career and maybe having a husband - maybe not. Life didn't go that way, but now I'm seeing the possibilities in my life as a single woman. Though I may not necessarily agree with the politics of some of these women (Oh yeah, they're human too) such as Drew Gilpin Faust, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Madeline Albright, and Sandra Day O'Connor they are great examples of the result of the equal rights movements.
These publicly successful women are an inspiration to me and probably many other women. As a single woman I feel empowered to know how much things have changed for my sex. There is still improvement to be made, but the "first's" keep coming locally and globally (Nancy Pelosi, Michelle Bachelet).
It is amazing to me that now women are actually in the majority of college populations and yet there is still a glass ceiling, but improvement is being made and I can see my children living in a world with many female leaders.
Women and minorities must be represented in our government. If we will truly have a representative republic then shouldn't there be more women and minorities in congress? I'm not asking for affirmative action in congress ... I'm asking for people to be more accepting of candidates that aren't white and male.
Fight the man ... Support our Women.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget to mention Condi. Not only was she the first female secretary of state, BUT she is also African-American.

agl said...

I agree laura ... it is just my disdain for her politics oftentimes blinds me from her existence. However, that is not what the post is about, so thank you for mentioning her.