Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Clinton presided over the unveiling of a bronze bust in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall this morning. Sojourner Truth was a a female slave, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. It is on her shoulders, and those of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gloria Steinham, and others that women of all colors stand today. Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Pelosi, and Mrs. Clinton are activist women, equals to their husbands, and capable of "man's" work. They are the culmination of a centuries-long equal rights movement.
I think women in my generation are the first to have grown up in a world that did not consistently limit their options. My mother was given two choices: become a nurse, or become a teacher. (She did both). I was given an open door to choose a college that would allow me to study whatever I chose. Now I attend a graduate school that has more female students than male. The first woman (besides my mother) that I remember admiring and thinking of as someone I might one day wish to emulate was Madeline Albright. In October when she visited the LBJ school, she spoke about being a woman in a field of men, but how she often was able to surprise men of other countries (and her own) with her capabilities. My hope for myself and my female colleagues is that in the future it will no longer be a surprise when we are capable. It will be expected.
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