ABSTRACT
My development as a feminist began within my family. Born in 1927, I grew up at a time when gender restrictions were very powerful but there were some equally powerful influences stemming from members of my own family. It was my good fortune to have many women on both sides of my family who did not fall into traditional family roles. For example, several of my aunts chose not to have children. Their reasons may have been religious, age-related or personal but at least I observed that they had a choice. From everything that I observed in the family legends, I was preceded by some very strong women. Not least among them, whatever her other characteristics, was my mother. She was orphaned at an early age, along with a younger sister and brother, and was in the care of a very strong grandmother. My mother had an 8th grade education and began working some time in her teens. I have heard that she was a personable young woman who was outgoing, fun-loving, and devoted to hard work. When I was a child she often told me with pride that she had worked up to the level of factory forelady who actually supervised men—this in the second decade of this century! She definitely taught me, by example, that women could and did enjoy having careers. She also gave me the impression that she was sorry to give it up at age 36, when she married and started a family.
