March is Women's History Month

This month is Women's History Month. As a woman and a mother of two girls, I'd like to say thank-you to all those who came before me and made the world a better place for me. These women fought laws and practices that made it difficult for women. Laws that wouldn't let women own land, vote, or even go to school. These women were considered radical; they were ridiculed and ostracized for wanting something different, for wanting more. Like all crusaders, they went against the grain. People didn't like them, felt they were unnatural. But today, they would have been like so many of the rest of us enjoying life.

I feel some people of my generation forget the sacrifices of those who went before us, both men and women. I was embarrassed once when in college a girl in my Political Science class didn't know when women had gained the right to vote. In that same conversation a black person didn't know that the 15th amendment, giving black men the right to vote, was passed in 1869. I found it very sad. So, I want to say, I remember. I am thankful. I am thankful I own property; I can and do vote; that I was able to go to college and get a job that I was able to move up in; and all the other things I and others take for granted. And I will raise my girls to be thankful for the same.