Actually I feel it has been there for awhile. In a few short weeks I will be retired…… I think working forty years in Nursing is long enough.
Actually, when I graduated from High School not many woman went to school…I suppose most of them had the idea of marrying and raising a family. Those were the years when all a woman could aspire to be was teacher, nurse, secretary or hair dresser. Today we still see a lot of woman who get divorced and have no way to support themselves and I wonder “Girl, what were you thinking, did you think it would last forever?”
I know today that is unbelievable to the younger women, it was unbelievable to me too. I suppose I could have had aspirations to be a physician but at that time if there was a medical school with 100 slots women would be allotted two. I remember an anesthesiologist told me when she went for her interview for med school the man doing the interview he would only take two. She said “If you take me you only have to worry about one.” Pretty good answer too, guess he considered it to be good too because she got accepted.
My father had insisted that his three daughters go to school and have “something to fall back on.” His father had died when he was about three and his mother had to struggle to raise him and his brother.
But he and I did not agree on one thing. He thought that men should be paid more than women. Why, I asked while getting angry inside. “Because they have a family to support.” said my father. “What if the husband dies and the woman has to support the family, is it fair then?” asked Claudia. I never did get an answer to that question of mine. Another thing I have never seen any woman get a discount at the grocery store because she made less…
I am glad times have changed because now over half the slots in Medical School go to women. I think times have changed for the best in advanced education. We see woman working in many fields that would have been closed to them thirty five years ago.
We were all going to be Mom's, why would we need more that high school??? I got married very young and although I did go to a JC, it was not about a job, I wanted to learn how to make my home beautiful. So I went to school of design and thought that was wonderful. It is easy to think that a Man will take care of all your needs, to bad it hasn't been true for along time. Here's to education and good pay for everyone...now days we are all getting paid less.
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