This Mother’s Day, I’m not thinking so much about me, as about what life will look like when PunditGirl becomes a mother. I know she’s only in second grade, but given the political landscapes today (those with a small ‘p’ and a capital ‘P’), I wonder if things will be different.
As a geeky high school senior, I attended a mock political convention at the local college. I was already into following politics — my social studies project that year was keeping a notebook full of Mo Udall newspaper clips! — but participating in the mock convention, and knowing that I would vote in my first Presidential election that fall, sealed the deal.
I dreamed about what the world would look like in the decades after that — fantasizing about women in elective office, women running law firms, women truly taking half the world.
As I stare into the face of the next half-century, I have to wonder how far we’ve really come. I’m glad I have lived to see a woman be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, but women in positions of power are still low — less than 20% of the House of Representatives, less than 20% of partners in law firms — I thought we’d be further than this.
So my Mother’s Day dream is that the numbers will be a lot bigger when my daughter is a grown woman and decides whether she wants to enter the world of motherhood. I am sad that unless they change the Constitution, she can’t have the dream that so many children have of one day growing up to be President of the United States, because she wasn’t born on U.S. soil. So I’m hoping that other dreams she has can be fulfilled.
But in a world where so many pundits have mocked Hillary Clinton, I worry. In a country where critics skewer Katie Couric as a nightly news anchor, I shudder. In businesses where women leaders are shunned, I’m afraid.
In 20 years, I want the world to look like what I thought and hoped it would look like when I was a young girl — full of truly equal opportunities for whatever PunditGirl wants to do and where women are truly respected for what they are capable of doing.
I know she’ll be great, if she’s just given the chance.
Lots of mothers are talking about their Mother’s Day dreams today — stop by MOMocrats, and follow the links!
May 11th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I too hope that by the time our girls are grown there will be a greater quantity of women in power positions.
Happy Mother’s Day to you!
May 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
We haven’t reached that level yet, unfortunately. The world is better for my daughter than it was for me — maybe it will be better yet when yours grows up.
May 11th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Happy Mother’s Day!
I so hope that when our kids are grown the world *will* look more like we thought it would by now.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Hear, hear.