I wasn’t sure I would see this in my lifetime.
As a child in the 1970s, living in a part of New Jersey that somehow remained untouched by women’s lib, I couldn’t even imagine a woman becoming a nominee for president. Sure, one could TRY, but there was no way it was really going to happen. The best illustration of the belief system of the time is this “riddle,” that I’ve written about before:
“A father and his son were in a car accident. The father died. The son was taken to the hospital. The doctor came in and said: I can’t do surgery on him, because he’s my son. Who was the doctor?“
Now, of course, it’s obvious that the doctor is the boy’s mother. This could only a brain teaser for people who don’t think of women as being doctors.
When you can’t even envision a female doctor, you certainly don’t dream of a woman president. But young girls today will know they can grow up to be president. As Meryl Streep said at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia just now, Hillary Clinton will be the first woman president “… but she won’t be the last.”
That’s right. Dream big, girls!