Letter: We won’t go back
Somehow, I missed seeing the movie about Ruth Bader Ginsberg when it first came out and just now watched “On the Basis of Sex” for the first time. The movie brought back so many memories of what life was like for women in the 1960s and 1970s.
During that time, I attended the University of Houston from 1968 through 1972 amid the Vietnam protests and the beginnings of the women’s rights movement. But what struck home to me about the movie were my memories of not being able to get a credit card, loan, or bank account and constantly being told that I could use my English degree to be a teacher, nurse, or secretary. Basically, my choices were limited by what society and the law said was the “natural” order of things. It was not until several years after college that I was able to get my first credit card thanks to the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act in 1974. I still remember how proud and free I felt to make my own financial decisions and choices.
After college, I went to work in banking as a loan processor and several years later went back to college to get my master’s and teach at an inner-city school not because everyone said that’s what I should do, but because I truly fell in love with teaching. Again, my choice. I would later go on to receive a doctorate in educational leadership, write a dissertation on women’s leadership theory, become a college professor, and run for elected office.
The point of all these memories brought about by the movie is that there is now a candidate for vice president of the United States whose public statements tell women that the only important thing they can do in life is have babies and that is their highest calling. J. D. Vance’s now infamous “childless cat ladies” comment was like going back in time 50 years when women’s choices about children, career, and marriage were so limited. Not only is it an absurd statement, it doesn’t have any grounding in reality.
Women today have excelled in every possible career field and raised families at the same time. The movie put into perspective my struggles to be an independent woman but also the very real threat to women today of having their rights, their careers, their self-esteem, and their futures set back 50 years. I would highly recommend watching or rewatching “On the Basis of Sex” to see just how far women have come and just how much there is to lose in this upcoming election.
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Dr. Diane Trautman
Edwards
