It's Official...

I'm a feminist. I've always had feminist tendencies and supported causes promoting gender equality, but I've shied away from calling myself a feminist because the word is loaded with so many negative connotations. But I now embrace the label. Why? What pushed me over the edge? A seemingly innocuous comment set me off: I was at a lunch today and met a very nice older gentleman and his niece who works in his office. He told me that he niece was a recent college graduate and was at the top of her class. Likewise, his two daughters were excelling in school. One was also at the top of her class and received a full scholarship for her medical degree. The other was a pianist and doing well in her music composition classes. After bragging about both, he concluded that the younger daughter and her pursuit of music was the best career for a woman BECAUSE SHE COULD STAY HOME AND WORK! The contradiction between his pride in his daughters' accomplishments and his belief that they needed to be home cooking, cleaning, and making babies stunned me. That was it. I decided I needed to be more active in advancing the fact that women have made and will continue to make contributions to society and can do so outside of the house.