martha stewart ain't got nothin' on me

Today I heard a school secretary say to a little girl, "Now, you're not going to get suspended anymore, are you?" As I passed by the conversation I wanted to say, "No, you're wrong. This little GIRL wouldn't do something to get suspended. I mean look at her, she's cute, well-dressed, calm, and polite." And then metacognition set in and I realized that I had just committed a mental act of sexism.

Our mothers might not understand why this scene might make us step back and take note of our place on the "balance of the sexes." My mother didn't even begin college until I, her third child, was in elementary school. And she is the only one of her sisters to have a college degree. A few years ago, she got her Masters in Administration (approximately 1 year before I go my Masters), hoping to become a school principal. It seems that her age has hindered those hopes, sexism replaced by ageism. (My mom is older than my friends' parents. She has a 39 year-old son after all.) I'm not sure if this is really true, but she continued teaching and thanks to Bush's unfunded No Child Left Behind, she has, in fact, been left behind. It now appears that she must have in hand a different type of Masters to do the same job she's been doing for 3 years. But, I'm sure that 40 years ago she never would have thought she'd be worrying about what type of Masters Degree she had.

Former generations of women only hoped that women would have as many choices and possibilities that we do now, but with the entire world laid out before us, what do we really have but more questions? What if we just want to be married and have children? And that's it. What if we want it that simple? Is it sacrilege to not take advantage of the choices, or is that the whole point anyway? I personally would feel no shame in dropping the 50,000 dollars and 20 plus years spent on my education to be a happy homemaker. But, alas, baby making and the perfect spinach quiche are not the path I stumbled onto, nor will it be anytime in the near future. After all, I have a research project due for my "might turn into a PhD" class.