63 years later

I am looking at the cover of Maclean's Magazine of a woman shaving.  I had to laugh uproariously.  When I was about three, I used to get up with my father and shave with him.  I used a spoon and soap, but he never discouraged me. He did not discourage me from being...anyone.  I was not a "girl".   Then we went down and had shredded wheat and banana for breakfast before he went off to work.  My mother remained in bed.  I completely identified with my father.

So, here we are, 63 years later and women are just waking up to the fact that they need to be more like, well, men.  "Man up!  Stop blaming the glass ceiling,  Or the kids.  High-powered female execs now say women should be more like men if they want to get ahead," says the article.  You've bloody got it.

Women have historically been penalized for having the obligation of bearing children.  I know all about it.  When I was pregnant with my first child, I won a competition for a job at CMHC.  When they found out I was pregnant, they cancelled the competition.  A few weeks later they appointed the guy who came second.  When I was pregnant with my second child, I walked around the office in bulky clothes, holding files in my front.  I was again up for a promotion, but had they known I was pregnant, I would not have been successful.  Again, I won the competition.  I revealed I was pregnant and took six month's leave.  Did I get my new job back?  No.  I got "a job" back, not mine.  That's how it was.

"Fifty years after Betty Friedan exposed the plight of houswives in The Feminist Mystique, women are still too focused on being the ultimate wives and mothers, only to end up sacrificing their careers  on the altar of work-life balance.  That is why so few women are making it to the top of the corporate ladder, the article says.

Sadly, nothing has changed.