It wasn’t until I was a senior at Iola High School that girls’ sports were introduced.
That was in 1973-74.
Up until then, girls played a supportive role for the boys’ teams as cheerleaders or members of the pep squad or band.
While that culture didn’t necessarily hold us girls back, I sense that today’s young women have a greater sense of empowerment due, in part, to a climate that encourages them to test their limits no matter the venue — academics or sports.
My role models as a youth were mostly women.
With “Leave it to Beaver” still a popular TV sitcom, I was enthralled, but intimidated, with trailblazers Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, and Joan Baez who encouraged women to become more politically involved, protest the war and stand up to sexism.
I also was in awe of my piano teacher Marlene Lenski, who was as passionate about social justice as she was music and continually challenged us girls to make something of ourselves.
Even so, I also was made aware that the peacekeepers of the home and workplace fell to women, more than men, and it felt impossible to reconcile the two.
For the past 30 years Hillary Clinton, 68, has battled similar struggles but on a much bigger scale and stage, in her roles as first lady of Arkansas, 1983-1992, first lady of the United States, 1993-2001, U.S. Senator from New York, 2001-09, U.S. Secretary of State, 2009-13, and for the last two years in her campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
We women, especially, of her generation, have watched in awe as she has broken through countless “glass ceilings.”
And in the process she’s been cut by many of the falling shards.
I remember all too well the televised hearings before Congress in 1993 when as first lady she defended her ideas to overhaul the health-care system. Pejoratively called “Hillarycare,” her ideas were never given serious consideration. The fact that she had studied the issue for years meant little to the male-dominated Congress and they made no bones that in their view her role as first lady was ceremonial, where, unfortunately, it remains largely today.
One of Hillary’s strengths is that she is as strong in defeat as success.
Instead of giving up, she worked behind the scenes with senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts to get eventual passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. Today, CHIP is still the No. 1 program for low-income families to secure food and health care for their children.
Hillary also showed immense graciousness in her concession speech to Barack Obama when he secured the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Once the front-runner, Hillary was overshadowed by the rising star.
