I’m soon to be 75 years old and I believed them when they said that I couldn’t ever be the head of a corporation.

I believed them when they said I would get everything I wanted by laying on my back.

I believed them when they told me to stand by my man no matter what kind of crap he was standing in.

I believed them when they said that behind every successful man was a good woman—so long as that good woman stood far enough behind him to not block the spotlight.

I believed them when they asked, “What would you do with a degree in physics?”

I believed them when they told me it was my fault, when they told me I should be ashamed, and when they told me I wasn’t smart enough.

I believed them when they told me I would get further with my body than with my mind.

I believed them when they said I would be happiest when I was barefoot and pregnant or, that they would be happiest if I met them at the front door in a negligee with a martini in my hand.

I believed them when they said he didn’t need my signature to get a second mortgage on our house or to buy that car we couldn’t afford or to invest that money in some gold mine in Africa.

I believed them when they said all I needed was “someone to watch over me,” or that I was a “little lamb who was lost in the woods,” or that I loved him best when he treated me the worst.

I now know, however, for sure, without a doubt, and with no question at all—never mind all those women CEOs, all those women Supreme Court Judges, all those women governors and senators, and doctors, and pilots and all those women in every other job, role, and uniform you can think of who went before.

And never mind whether she wins or not, whether she has made mistakes or not, whether she is President of the most powerful country in the world or not, whether she beats him or not.

Never mind anything.

She has come far enough, fought hard enough, done enough, endured enough, proved enough that, even though I believed the lies for most of the 75 years of my life, even though we all did…

Nobody can believe any of them anymore.

~

 

Author: Carmelene Siani

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Editor: Catherine Monkman