What was your first "feminist moment"?

[kdmorris]

21. When I was 9, I think, we when I really started

thinking about how unequal it all was. I wanted to be an astronaut and fly to Mars (loved the Martian Chronicles). Everyone acted like that was the craziest thing ever. My father and mother were partially supportive - but I think they didn't want me to get my hopes up because this was 1978 and girls just were not astronauts. So they knew it would be a tough row to hoe. They never said no, just told me it would be virtually impossible as I would have to be a AF pilot and girls were not allowed to be AF pilots.

That really upset me though. My brother said he wanted to be an artist and everyone freaked out because boys aren't artists. I said I wanted to be an astronaut and everyone freaked out because girls aren't astronauts.

And that seemed truly, horribly unfair to me that we couldn't just be whatever the hell we wanted to be. He eventually became a Surveyor and I became a Technical Analyst. I started my career as a Software Developer, where, of the 179 people in IT, there were about 20 women.