Guys, today I'm going to write about why the women's rights movement means so much to us. I've thought about this in various ways over the years, but never organized my thoughts until now after watching remembrances of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She died this month at age 87. I normally don't post long pieces in this blog, figuring that you would have little interest, but this time is different. The CBS Sunday Morning video below captures her life, including incredible contributions that have changed our country. The book "Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg" was written about 5 years ago. It inspired a documentary, meme's, t-shirts, etc., which she herself embraced. Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg became a pop icon - it is fantastic that she was recognized for her tremendous accomplishments during her lifetime.
First of all, the women's suffrage movement of the 1800's and early 1900's culminated in passage of a constitutional amendment extending voting rights to women. That was in 1919, only a hundred years ago. Rob, we learned about some of this history and local leadership at the Rochester Museum this summer.
To connect this topic to our family, Grandnana Phyllis McCausland graduated from Radcliffe College (sister school to Harvard University). She worked in New York City, I believe assisting at a law office, while Great Grandad Burke Rivers went to divinity school there. When he graduated, they got married and moved to New Haven, CT to his first parish. It was then the early 1930's. She told me that married women were not expected to work at all, since this was seen as taking a job away from a man. Grammie worked as a teacher while Grandad went to divinity school in Cambridge, MA in the early 1960's after they married. After kids came along, she worked periodically as a teacher in private schools. In her generation, thanks to leaders such as RBG, women began to break through the "glass ceiling" in professions that were historically dominated by men. Luckily for us, the Rivers, McCausland, Zeller and Rowe families valued education (all 4 of my grandparents graduated from college) and set expectations early on that we kids would go to college.
In the 1970's in particular, women fought for opportunities in various professions and began to rise in the management ranks. Our former pastor Laura Lewis was one of the pioneers in financial services in Northeast PA. She joined First Eastern Bank as a management trainee (which I did as well, about 10 years later); she and a colleague became the first women promoted to Vice President at the Bank. As you know, she is intelligent, articulate and hard working - and I believe became a VP about age 30, quite a feat. This took place under the watch of Bank President Tom Kylie (hopefully his name is spelled right), who later got to know me during a college internship at the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce. His interest in me paved the way for me to join First Eastern Bank right after graduating from King's College in 1986.
Since pay has not kept pace with the cost of living, in my lifetime it has become increasingly difficult for families to get by with only one working parent. I expect you assume that you and your future spouse/partner will both work full time, for the most part (this is not easy with young kids, but you will figure that out). It doesn't hurt to remember that opportunities for women in your generation are built on a legal and societal foundation that is quite recent. If I had not been able to establish a career for myself and had the means to be independent, it would have been much more difficult for me to separate, get divorced and continue to provide for you. And as a bonus, help you both get college educations. I feel incredibly fortunate that we live in this time and I'm grateful to the many women who worked long and hard fighting for gender equity. You should be too.
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