When I was one month old, in December 1971, Ms. Magazine debuted, and Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, and others founded The National Women’s Political Caucus the same year.
In 1971, Dolly Parton was on the cusp of her own debut. With the release of her first solo #1 country single, Joshua, and after following up with Coat of Many Colors, she was on her way to becoming the Dolly we’d all know and love.
In the first decade of my life, things were looking up for American women. We had Title IX (1972); Roe v Wade (1973); the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which permitted women to have a checking account or credit card on their own (1974); and at the dawn of a new decade in 1980, Dolly appeared in the movie 9-to-5 as Doralee, a secretary who worked with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. These three feminist icons literally took over a business and demonstrated that women could, and should, run all the things.
I saw this film when I was far too young to understand many of the adult themes (it was the time of inappropriate movie viewing for many of my peers), but what I took away was that women should be in charge. Throughout my life, this deeply held foundation of my consciousness has been met with its share of evidence to the contrary.
As a girl, I was told not to be “so aggressive,” while the same behavior in boys was called leadership. I once lost a job opportunity to a man because “he had a family.” Years later, when I bought my first home as a single woman, I had to sign a form declaring myself a “Spinster.” And later still, I was laid off while a male colleague was retained because he had a wife to support.
Photo Credit The Common Good
Photo Credit John Peel Wiki