THOUGHTS ON MY LAST YEAR OF 50 SOMETHING:

So, on my Facebook page today I was notified that it is my friend's birthday.  Well, I did already know this, but it reminded me.  Her post to her Facebook page comments "The beginning of the last year of 50 something".  Wow.  Now, I began my last year of 50 something back in April, but somehow having it put that way brings it all home.  I do not know how I got here!  How any of us got here. My generation’s motto was “Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30”.  I guess I have been untrustworthy for quite some time now!

Back in the day, we all wanted to change the world.  You know, I think that happened! Many of us individually would say that our dream had died, that we got busy with family and careers and “just life” and never made a difference.  I disagree.  I think that we baby boomers have changed the world.  Mostly for the better, sometimes not.  I think the way we changed things was to just not accept the status quo, we insisted on better. Right now, I will focus on the changes for women and girls.

From the preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

In my opinion, in large part because of Title IX,  girls today have a whole host of sports and educational opportunities they can  choose to participate in at school and college.  Most of these opportunities were not readily available when I graduated high school in 1970. 

The career expectation for girls was that they would be secretaries, teachers, nurses or housewives. NOT principals, doctors or executives.  And if you did have a career, you were expected to give it up when you had children.  You didn’t hear of girls aspiring to be doctors, lawyers, or politicians.  Today’s girls would be appalled if they were told  to limit their career aspirations. They have been raised to believe they can pursue any goal or career path that their talents and interests can take them. Did you know that Luci Baines Johnson, the daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, was refused readmission to Georgetown University's school of nursing after her marriage: in 1966, the school did not permit married women to be students. ( I read this Here )  Amazing, huh?

It would not have even occurred to me to run for any political office.  According to my Google search there were 11 women in Congress in 1970.  Today’s Congress has 91 women.  Still not great when you consider how many seats there are.  But, certainly progress.  We have had a woman serve as Speaker of the House, our current Secretary of State is a woman, In the last presidential election a  woman was the Republican nominee for Vice President, and currently a woman is one of the leading candidates for the Republican nomination to run for President.  NONE of that would have even been a possibility in 1970. 
And what about women in sports!  According to the National Federation of High School Associations, in 1971-72, the first year of the NFHS survey and the first year of Title IX, 294,015 girls participated in high school sports nation-wide, just 7 percent of the total. By 2003-04, girls' participation was up to 2,865,299, or 41.5 percent of the total.  And I don’t even want to get into what the sports that were offered to us were like!  Look up the rules for girls basketball in 1970, you will be amazed (for example, you could only dribble 3 times) Before Title IX, there were few, if any college athletic scholarships for girls. Today athletic scholarships for women are readily available; we have professional women’s sports teams (How much did we all enjoy the Women’s World Cup Games this year!) 

What makes me a little bit sad is that the young girls today have no idea how much things have changed.  I try to tell them, show them pictures of the “sports teams” when I was in high school, but their eyes kind of glaze over.  I tell them of the educational opportunities they have that we didn’t have, or that they take for granted that we had to fight for.  My daughters and granddaughters have all played soccer as they grew up, they have had multiple sports playing opportunities in high school, my youngest daughter received an athletic scholarship that helped pay for college. That sure wouldn’t have happened in 1970!  But, then again, I guess that insisting that things would be equal and easier for our children and grandchildren was what it was all about.  The fact that they take the equality (well, we’re getting there anyhow) for granted might be a good thing.  To them, that is just the way it is!

So,  I guess maybe we did change the world!