Hillz: Letter To My Millennial Daughters On The Occasion Of The Morning After
I know you liked Bernie. I know you like Hillary, too, and that you'll happily vote for her in November. And I know you understand, at an intellectual level, the historical significance of the events of last night. But I am quite sure you did not experience, as you watched her accept the nomination for President of the United States, the same primal, emotional explosion that your mother did. As I and my box of tissues sat on the couch, watching that stage, seeing her in that spotlight at the center of those thousands of cheering people - including men, powerful men - all of whom want her to be their leader, to be the President, my heart burst.
And I'm not alone. It's the culmination of a slow burn that has simmered for decades in women now in their fifties and beyond, women from the first generation to have the opportunity to join the man's world, and who had to work so very hard to succeed in it. We had no workplace accommodations for having children, we were penalized for the demands of pregnancy, for the need to take maternity leave, for the unpredictability of sick children. We hid breast pumps in briefcases and pumped in toilet stalls. We saw man after man roar up through the ranks and get promoted ahead of the women who had trained them, women whose voices were too high or smiles too frequent to be seen as having leadership qualities. We saw women passed over, again and again.
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And I'm not alone. It's the culmination of a slow burn that has simmered for decades in women now in their fifties and beyond, women from the first generation to have the opportunity to join the man's world, and who had to work so very hard to succeed in it. We had no workplace accommodations for having children, we were penalized for the demands of pregnancy, for the need to take maternity leave, for the unpredictability of sick children. We hid breast pumps in briefcases and pumped in toilet stalls. We saw man after man roar up through the ranks and get promoted ahead of the women who had trained them, women whose voices were too high or smiles too frequent to be seen as having leadership qualities. We saw women passed over, again and again.
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