A friend and I were talking Wednesday about the 1970s and how women faced so much discrimination in financial matters and health care.
We both remembered not being able to get a credit card in our names.
I recalled being told I wasn’t going to get a part-time job teaching consumer education at a local community college because the other applicant, a man, had a family to support. I was more qualified with a background in consumer economics and teaching. I was stunned and saddened.
As a correspondent for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., I applied for a reporter’s position twice. At the end of one of the interviews, the managing editor told me the “woman’s slot” was filled.
My friend had problems getting adequate care for reproductive health.
I read today with appreciation Gloria Steinem’s obituary.
Due to the Women’s Movement, including Steinem’s work, I was able to get a job in the 1980s after my divorce, and then, in the 1990s, I was able to buy a home. It’s made a huge difference in my life.
So, thank you, Gloria Steinem, for your decades of devotion to the cause of women’s equality. It improves women’s lives significantly to be able to support themselves financially.
These gains make it doubly disappointing that the Trump administration is undermining women’s economic freedom and security, strictly enforcing old gender roles, gutting reproductive freedom and women’s health, and pushing women back into the home.
Photo: Gage Skidmore
