What was your first "feminist moment"?

[yardwork]

14. A couple of early memories stand out from school, and one more recent revelation.

At my elementary school in the mid-1960s girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school. We had to wear skirts or dresses. Skirts were short then, too. It made it difficult to play outside. We wore tights under our skirts, but if we fell down on the blacktop that covered the entire playground we got skinned knees and ruined tights. On really snowy days we were allowed to wear pants to school under our skirts and take them off when we were in the classroom. The boys could wear anything they wanted. It made me mad.

In middle school girls took Home Economics and boys took Shop. I wanted to take Shop. I was interested in carpentry and I wanted to learn how to use all those nifty power tools and machines. I asked the principal if I could take Shop instead but he said no, it was only for boys. I saw the boys take home the spice racks they had made for their moms. Some of them were really badly made. I knew that I could have made a much better spice rack. I did appreciate learning to sew and cook in Home Ec. Everybody should learn all those skills.

A more recent memory. I served on the board of a not-for-profit organization when I was in my early 40s. I noticed that when I made suggestions or comments I was often ignored by the male members of the board, but when a man said the exact same thing minutes later - without acknowledging that I had just said the same thing - everybody would nod and talk about what a good idea it was. Even many of the other women followed this pattern of respecting the men and ignoring the women. I've learned that this is a very common problem.