I wasn’t always vocal about women’s rights but in my heart I knew that women all too often were being subjugated to menial roles that left them under the thumb of the males around them. My own mother happily enjoyed her role as a homemaker while my father went to work and was the official breadwinner. All of that came to an abrupt halt when my dad died leaving my thirty year old mother with a family to raise without an income earning job of her own. Her journey as a single parent would be difficult mostly because she had been unprepared for balancing her role as both parent and breadwinner. 

Both of my grandmothers were illiterate so when they worked outside of the house their jobs were low on the economic totem pole. They served as janitors and cooks when they had to work but eventually settled into the life of housewives. While they were happy in those roles just as my mother had been, one of them once confessed to me that she wished that she had become better educated and able to do professional work. She felt a bit sad that it was not to be.

My mother eventually earned a college degree and taught school for a time until her mental health made that kind of work unrealistic. She spent her last years working on a long term study of blood pressure at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center. She never came close to the kind of salaries that my father had earned. Like many single women of her era she constantly struggled to pay for the most rudimentary things. 

I had higher ambitions when I started college but rather than chasing money I was able to fulfill my dreams of being a teacher mostly because my husband had a higher paying profession in banking. Even with a masters degree and a position as a school administrator I never caught up to him but I did not feel any anger because I had accepted that teaching was not going to make me wealthy in the state of Texas.

When I graduated from high school Texas A&M University was only beginning to transition from being an all male school. I had female friends at the University of Houston who were daring to major in traditionally male occupations like Engineering or Architecture. Theirs was not an easy route. In fact they sometimes encountered resistance from the male students and even the professors. Women still had a long way to go. 

Around the time that Gloria Steinem came on the scene I was not as rebellious as I am now. While I cheered the women’s movement I was reluctant to get too involved. A good friend was not so inclined. She was an Irish Chicago born liberal Democrat and she schooled me in what women were attempting to achieve. She spoke of Gloria Steinem with the same kind of reverence that I had for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

I hung on to every word that my friend relayed to me and became more and more dedicated to the cause as she challenged my fears of becoming too involved. Eventually she tried to encourage me to attend a nationwide meeting of the stars of the women’s movement that was going to take place in Houston, Texas. Sadly because I was low on funds at that juncture in my life I was unable to go. Instead I lived vicariously in the shadow of the enthusiasm of my friend. In a sense she introduced me to Gloria Steinem,  

Gloria became like a big sister for me, a courageous woman who showed me that I did not have to just accept the way things were. She actively worked for women’s rights in the workplaces at a time when people like me were being scrutinized in interviews based solely on appearance. I vividly remember one interviewer commenting that he liked my clothing choice and the perfume that I wore. Gloria would work with other women to make certain that females would not be subjected to such judgements in the future. 

Eventually she help to found Ms. Magazine and became famous for her quotes emphasizing the equality of men and women. With her example I learned to be proud of my intellect rather than trying to hide it lest males see me as a trouble maker. I began to voice my own beliefs more and more often and compete with males at work for different assignments. I taught my own daughters to be bold and to stand up for their convictions. Happily not only have they done that but they raised both males and females to understand that nothing about women is inferior and that roles in life should never be defined by sex. 

As of today I have a courageous granddaughter working at a prestigious law firm with all of the confidence she needs to be successful. My grandsons appreciate that women can be fair and worthy competitors and that they must be allowed to follow whatever dreams come to mind. 

As I hear of the death of Gloria Steinem I grieve the loss of a great and forward thinking woman. I know that without people like her neither I nor my children and grandchildren would be where we are today. She was a pioneer who pushed on the glass ceiling that kept women down and poked a great big hole in it. She will be missed but always remembered.