Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Crazy Ideas

I'm old enough to remember when there would have been a lot of eye rolling and scorn directed at a woman who ran for president. Whoa there, little lady, getting a bit too big for your britches?? And then when there would have been a little less eye rolling and scorn. And now there isn't really any. Sure it probably took a unique woman in a somewhat unique position in life to actually make it happen (to get this far, at least), and I'm not denying the reality of still-existing misogyny, but it's no longer a crazy idea. Still crazy to some, sure, just not generally. The barriers and difficulties of achieving that level of success are still there for women, but it's not longer fantastical. It's a thing that can happen, if still much less likely for women.

Back in 1984 or so, a woman running for president and achieving some success in the attempt would probably have inspired every mainstream news magazine to run some version of a "Can A Woman Be President?" cover. Just asking, of course. The answer in the articles probably would have been "yes," but just by asking in such a fashion the point would have been made that, no, a woman can't. Or shouldn't, anyway.

Always two steps forward and 1.99 steps backwards on this stuff, but we do move forward...