I'm out of town on vacation, and haven't been online in a few days b/c I was at a conference. If, like me, you've been out of the loop, here's what you need to know (besides the fact that you can get alcohol in Florida before noon!)
First, I've been talking about gender roles for a while now, and I ran into a young woman at that conference, and we talked about all kinds of things, including the fact that women our age may be the first generation of women for whom all options seemed possible. We both laughed at the fact that, as children, we thought about being President; our mothers would never have done that, and our grandmothers remember when women couldn't vote. We discussed domestic violence law, and it's basis in property law - at the time the laws were originally developed, a woman was a man's property. The exceptions to crimes like murder were written by men - exceptions included killing a man you find in bed with your wife, and killing someone in a bar fight.
In a similar vein, Lisa and I were talking about a woman changing her last name when she marries. While I'm sure it's rooted in concepts of women being men's property, the custom has taken on some sort of traditional status in American culture. This, however, is declining in popularity. Only about 80% of women with college degrees took their husbands' names in 2000;
And speaking of women President's, Our Bodies Our Blog has interviewed Hilary Rodham Clinton.
There's actually a whole bunch of news, but I'm on vacation, and I think I see my friend's plane.
