Saw "On the Basis of Sex" today and I was crying like a baby at

[sinkingfeeling]

the end. This is the story of my lifetime. When women were told who they could be and what they could do.

I was laughed at by the AF ROTC for wanting to join; told I'd be taking a man's place in vet school; worked in a place without a women's restroom; attended a conference where I was one of two women and 300 men; had to have my father co-sign for my first mortgage; and had to change my credit cards to my student husband's name.

And we fought back. I joined NOW, marched and protested, fought for abortion rights, equal pay, and the ERA.

I was so moved by the argument made by Ruth Ginsburg in the movie, I started to cry. And I kept crying as RBG made her cameo appearance.
I wish every college aged person were made to watch this movie. So many don't even believe the conditions women were in less than 50 years ago.

[shenmue]

1. They need to be taught about it in history class

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Those of us of a certain age experienced many incidents like that -

When I was about to graduate from college I went to one of my professors for some future employment advice and he told me not to worry about it because I would just get married anyhow. Later I was told I couldn't have a certain job because I might have to lift 20-lb. boxes. Employment ads in the newspapers were separated by gender, and the women's jobs limited to secretary, bookkeeper, teacher (but not a professor), or nurse (but not a doctor). Sexual harassment was just part of your working life and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it. I guess I'll have to see that movie, and I'll probably cry, too.

[SharonAnn]

3. And my story is almost exactly the same as yours.

Plus, though I was in the computer field, I was still paid less than men.

I sat down with a former boss after I retired and we figured I'd been paid a total of $500,000 to $1 million less over the course of my career. Lower wages, lower job category for the work of a higher one, delayed promotions, etc.

It added up. Oh well, I got paid better than most "girls", and fought hard for our rights. It shouldn't have been so hard, though.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. I was too. I worked 30 years for IBM. And they started married men

in exactly the same job with a salary 15% higher than single women. I remember asking my field manager why when I was a single mother and a home owner. I told him my expenses might be higher than those of men with wives who took care of their kids.

[CousinIT]

5. Today's women take their human rights for granted - at their own peril

The Republican Party would like nothing better than to slam progress for women in the US into fast reverse - starting with denial of self-determination over their own bodies - back to sexual & reproductive slavery. Women to them are just male service units and breeding apparatus, NOT human.

Women - young or old - can not and should not relax when we have those knuckle-draggers in our political realm. They’re putting their lives in danger if they do - and their sisters, daughters, friends lives too.

[blm]

6. ((sinking feeling))

Stay strong, sister.

[rogerashton]

7. Saw it today.

(I was not the only guy there -- not quite!) Took my Darlin' Companion in a bit of a last-minute thing. There was a party of young women there, well, Tweens, I think, but nevertheless. As they left the adult leader was saying "When you get to law school... " I had to suggest that there might be an astrophysicist in the party.

[murielm99]

8. I tell my kids about the things

I went through. I tell my son especially.

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. Thank you for sharing...

[elleng]

10. Hope to see it soon, depending on weather here in DC.

When I do I expect tears of thanks for my Dad, who strongly encouraged me to study law, which I finally did, making the decision after my first job after college as a 'legal secretary,' for which I had NO experience!

THANKS, Dad

[ancianita]

11. I wept with grief, relief and pride. If she hadn't lived when she did, done what she did,

I don't even want to imagine where the country would be today. Probably some version of The Handmaids's Tale.

[Mr.Bill]

12. And a good portion of the people

in this country are trying their best to take us back to those days.

[colorado_ufo]

13. Amen.

When we first moved to Denver from the South, 49 years ago, we had no snow tires. I was employed, but my husband was not yet employed since we had just moved there. I applied for credit at Montgomery Ward's to get snow tires, but they refused to give it to me since my husband was unemployed. They would not give me credit in my own name. It was a wake-up call. Half a century later, the incident still chafes.

[3catwoman3]

14. My sons, who are 28 and 26, are incredulous that there were no...

...sports in high school for girls I finished high school in 1969, and there was nothing except water ballet.

The lifting the 20 pound box, or wearing a heavy tool belt, was such a load of hooey. No one ever told a 5 foot 100 pound woman that she couldn't go into nursing because she might have to log-roll a 300 pound paralyzed stroke patient by herself in order to do skin care on the patient's back.

[ancianita]

15. The most interesting thing to me was her coping with the varied styles of resistance she

got from the men:

-- the unquestioning upholders of the status quo, her former Harvard professors and junior bulldog, whom she ended up "schooling," based on their very own teaching about how precedents can be overturned by the times;

-- the ACLU dude's priorities;

-- the District Court judges...

and the support she inspired from her clever daughter.

[mglamb]

16. When I was a teen,

my mother wanted to get a loan from a bank but she had to have my father's permission, i.e., he had to sign the application. For whatever reasons she had, she didn't want him to know about wanting a loan so she had me practice my father's signature over and over and over until I got it down pat. Then, I signed his name to the loan document so she could get her loan. I have never forgotten me standing at a window with a piece of paper over his signature so I could trace it until I got it right. It's an indelible memory.

[llmart]

17. I always made it a point to tell both my son and my daughter of what it was like.

I didn't care if they rolled their eyes (they didn't) or didn't want to hear it one more time. I still tell them stories even though they are both middle aged now. They are both good feminists. When my son was in college he was a reporter for their newspaper. He called me one day just to tell me that he was going to be the only guy who asked to interview Gloria Steinem when she came to do a talk at the college. He said, "I just had to call you to tell you this."

I think many of us if not most of us women of a certain age could tell stories about how few rights we had as recently as the '70's. I supported my husband while he was going to college yet I couldn't get a credit card. In 1975 I had to have my husband's signature on a medical form agreeing to allowing me to have a tubal ligation. I worked as a secretary in all male departments and endured sexual harassment on a daily basis.

The stories are endless.

[love_katz]

18. Kick for visibility.

I remember these times and circumstances all too well.

[Honeycombe8]

19. I haven't seen it yet. I agree that every young person should watch this.

And programs like it. Some young people seem not to be aware of how things were for women not long ago.

I was born in the 50s in the segregated deep south. I also saw a lot going on with women in the country, of all races. I went to school during a time when there were no sports programs for girls (that would take funding away from boy sports), we had to wear dresses to school, were directed to take Home Ec while the boys were steered toward shop. Women were paid far less than men, and it was matter of factly stated so openly. It was agreed that that was a perfectly normal thing to do, since they weren't men. If they insist on working. Working women were seen as taking jobs away from men, unless it was in a female dominated field. There was no day care. Working mothers had a very hard time.

Some young women have no idea. I get a little irritated when I see young women squandering all the opportunities they have now. (Of course, I had it better than my grandmothers, and I squandered opportunities.)

Knowledge is power.

[Miigwech]

20. Can't wait to see this movie

[Delmette2.0]

21. I took my sister to the movie this afternoon!

We were both in tears at the end. I want to see it again. I want a DVD to show other women when it movie isn't in theaters.

In 1990 is moved to my current hometown. I think I bought the last good house for $40,000. On our way to the mortgage loan officer the real estate agent asked me twice if I didn't have any debts. Then he did it again in front of the loan officer! I turned to him and said that I had just told him twice in the last half hour "No, why don't you believe me?" The loan officer was a woman. I didn't want that to be my first and only impression with her so I went back in the next day. I apologized for my outburst. She said it wasn't a problem, that I had a consistent work history and everything would be ok. It goes to show that women can stand up against even the slightest insult and win the day.

[BigmanPigman]

22. I just watched RBG on CNN (again)

and reading your post remanded me of my mom who is 84 and was a working mom, the only one in my group of friends while growing up.

Whenever I tell her how disappointed I am that women are treated like second class citizens STILL, she reminds me about how bad it was for her. Only one generation can make a difference thanks to smart, strong fighters like Ruth.

[Chalco]

23. Me, too!

Saw the movie two days ago. I started crying mid-way through and didn't stop.

I was born in the late 40's and was somewhat unaware of the degree of legal discrimination women went through. I
was certainly aware of discrimination and sexual harassment.

I wanted to go to college. My father said, "No man will ever have you if you go to college." I went anyway. He refused
to pay. I worked and paid for myself. When I got my Ph.D. no family member came to my graduation. We all went to
my brother's when he got his M.D.

I believed that it was important for me as a woman to be able to support myself financially if I ever got married so I
could leave if I ever wanted to. I didn't want to be dependent on a man.

It was hard to find a man because of the Ph.D. Men wanted to marry beneath them. I eventually married a man who
liked that I was smart. He wasn't intimidated by it.

My favorite song of all time is the current release by Brynn Elliott called Might Not Like Me

Whenever we have friends over we play that song and dance. Check it out!