Creating Hope One Girl at a Time
When she walked into the room, my first thought was, ‘How can all that fierce determination fit inside such a tiny young woman?’ She began to speak—slowly, deliberately, with patience,…
We Will Not Go Back
I often wonder how different my life would have been if the Equal Rights Amendment had been ratified instead of falling three states short in 1982. I bet I wouldn’t…
100 Years Later: How Will We Honor the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote?
On election night 2016, despite the tiny hint of doubt gnawing away at my confident façade, I grabbed a bottle of Prosecco and headed over to my friend Nancy’s to…
Questioning the Divine Order
Did you know that women couldn't vote in Switzerland until 1971? And even then, not all women were included. It wasn’t until 1990 that the conservative region of Appenzell Innerrhoden…
Denial
The biggest predictor of change is misery. The biggest reason people will change is because they are suffering to a degree that they can’t continue to live the same way.…
Take Your Feet Off Our Necks
I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks. ~ RBG What surprised me most about…
Wangari Maathai
The ‘little, little grassroots people’ can change this world
“You raise your consciousness to a level where you feel that you must do the right thing, because it is the only right thing to do.” ~ Wangari Maathai…
We All Have Our Own Pacific To Cross
My daughter is home from college for winter break, and the other night we sat down to watch Losing Sight of Shore, a documentary that followed a team of…
The Center Will Not Hold
Over the years, as a teacher of women writers, and as a woman writer myself, I have taught and written about countless women, their lives, and their works. I don’t…
Z is for Zitkala Sa
Each week for 26 weeks, I am publishing a post about women who are not widely known but should be—women who can inspire us, teach us, and encourage us to…