AUTHENTIC WOMEN
By Dick Gregg
The Women's Rights Movement arrived when I was political. Election Judge - Senatorial District Chairman, Delegation chair for 10 consecutive state political conventions and two national conventions. I was male, white and young and saw myself as authentic, privileged and entitled. I wasn't, but I thought I was. But there was no movement for me and my kind, so I was watching through the glass (window and ceiling). It was an exciting time for anyone who cared about ideas and for women who dared to taste the freedom that was there for the taking. Slightly envious of these nimble border crossers, I knew I had to move over and share what had been a comfy masculine inner sanctum.
The neocons of today fervently fulminate about affirmative action, and there was some of that, but I had a daughter. I remember the counterpoint feeling, at my crossroads, of hope for her to be whatever she wanted to be. She now has a BA, a law degree, a Masters in tax law, full CPA regalia, and a proud family. My mother graduated from Rice Institute and had dared to say to a family tree full of stern lawyer and doctor masculine owls (and their dutiful mates) that she wanted to go to law school. Like a serious BORAT, one grumpy old lawyer uncle said that "a woman's place is in the home," so she blinked, lost her edge and went to a "finishing school" - a glorified home economics trap where young girls learned to take the bit and, of course, cook and paint and hold their tongues. She knew the difference. She understood the consequences of her blink of the eyes - me for one, so it was not all bad.
She raised her three sons to be mindful of people who stand at a crossroads somewhere between predestination and free will. Phases and stages: she cheerfully made a happy life for all of us and, for herself, she found expression and escape in family, in words and in flower arranging, ceramics and watercolors. Several of her watercolors adorn the halls at Nassau Bay City Hall.
Predestined, but still thinking I had free will, I hired a very wise female (one of the taller older girls) who had raised her daughters and then returned to law school late in life. In 1979, she was like Toyota coming to America. Women who wanted power had to acclimate to a world that men instinctively knew and understood. Many other women and a large percentage of men were not particularly supportive of women who chose to strut, hide and seek with the men down the corridors of power. There was a rippling of reaction in my male world of the then local lawyers. Some other lawyers who shall remain unnamed referred to her as a "she lawyer."
Some asked if she was my secretary when she entered a courtroom. She was a Phi Beta Kappa and an honors graduate of law school, and it was my honor to be a part of her career. She definitely knew what Columbus felt in a brand new world. She began to grow and to inspire. She was a no-nonsense proponent of women's rights and raised the consciousness of the world around her (mine included). A specially and generously funded professorship in Women's Studies and scholarship is named in her memory at UH Clear Lake - the Marilyn Mieszkuc Memorial Professorship in Women's Studies. She came a long way, and I am proud to have known her, to have cared for her, and to have helped her on her quest before she died.
I was raised by an authentic woman, raised one authentic woman, like to think I influenced some others, practiced law with an authentic woman, and I am married to an authentic woman. They make things happen. They make life very interesting. If I had a hat, I'd take it off to that determined pride of lionesses, none of whom give a whit about the volume or ferocity of the male's roar.
