Chicks

As an impressionable, young girl I watched reruns of THAT GIRL and dreamed of having my own apartment in the big city.  I assumed after a few years of a fabulous, single life in Manhattan I'd  move to the suburbs with my strapping husband and raise a family.  Little attention was given to what type of career I'd have, but coming of age in the 70s and 80s substantially impacted my dreams and altered my realty.  New  York Times columnist Gail Collins recounts the astonishing revolution in women's lives in her book WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGED, THE AMAZING JOURNEY OF AMERICAN WOMEN FROM 1960 TO PRESENT.  A comprehensive mix of personal accounts and research, Collins' book is a page turner.  It reinforced my gratitude for the women who came before me, who questioned why there weren't female lawyers, doctors or politicians, who didn't want to have to get their husbands permission to apply for a credit card, who wanted equal pay and to live in a world where there weren't male only executive flights between major US cities and slender women in short skirts lighting the passengers' cigars.  I owe my uncharted path to them.  I'm proud to be a product of their activism and even when I struggle to find role models for my unconventional life I know I wouldn't change a thing.