Response to "A Day Without Feminism"

Everyone knows some history about women, but when I read “A Day Without Feminism” by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, I would be lying if I said it didn’t shock me a little. It’s strange to think how much has changed since the 70’s. I can’t even imagine growing up when many of our parents did, when men basically weren’t allowed to watch after kids. I don’t know if it would be harder to be an adult or a child in those days. Teenagers and adult women had to deal with crappy birth control and unaffordable or no child care. Men were not trusted to be with kids and therefore were not allowed to teach classes below the sixth grade. This also meant they couldn’t spend as much time with their own children. If you were a kid back then, there were books that were socially accepted or not depending on your sex. At school or in their free time girls weren’t allowed to play baseball or take high math classes. Instead, women were put in charge of planning, decorating and cheering on the boy’s sports teams. Even now there are no women football teams or wrestling teams. Though many girls would still turn these down just by their own choice, these aren’t even an option through childhood let alone when you reach high school. I feel like a lot of people take what we have now for granted. Reading this article really allowed me to see how thankful I really should be that I can read the books I choose and go to school, not to meet a husband, but for a career to build my own family off of.