“Girlhood…is the intellectual phase of a woman’s life, that time when, unencumbered by societal expectations or hormonal rages, one may pursue any curiosity from the mysteries of a yo-yo to the meaning of infinity. These two particular pursuits were where I left off in the fifth grade when I discovered a hair growing in the wrong place and all hell broke lose.” — Alice Kahn
About ten years ago when most people were just becoming aware of the wonder that is the Internet, I wrote a book on encouraging girls to use the Internet to get involved in math and science. It was never published since the potential publisher went under, but it is on the net to this day and still linked to as a resource from many math and science programs for girls.
I was lucky to grow up in the 70s when girls were truly encouraged to do whatever they wanted, including pursue careers in technical fields. I would like to say that support is stronger today, but I really don’t see it in our society. If anything, the discouragement of technical careers now seems to extend to everyone, with religious leaders seeming to feel it is their duty to dumb down American science classes. I don’t fully understand why we seem to have changed so much as a nation — from pursuing space programs and huge technical advances in my youth to developing cuter cell phone ring tones and obsessing over celebrity deaths and misfortunes now. But I miss those glory days when we all could feel we were doing something spectacular.
I read a lot of science blogs, so I know many people out there are still doing spectacular things. I hope still to see a renaissance era in this country when we can recover for everyone that wonderful feeling of progress, that we are going places and doing great things. I was very inspired by Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth, in its hopeful tone in spite of possible impending ecological disasters. I read books like Storm Cunningham’s “The Restoration Economy” and Bruce Babbitt’s “Cities in the Wilderness“, and see the potential for a new type of America, one that isn’t dependent on foreign oil and once again invests in itself. I read green blogs like Treehugger and World Changing to see how the green economy is growing, and what new things I might be able to do to green my own life. I have a blog that I update all too infrequently these days on growing native plants, which are more suited to their natural area and require less water and fertilization than imported, potentially invasive plants.
I guess what I keep looking for is the America of my girlhood, when we got the first oil shock and everyone started to focus on ecology, conservation, and natural products. I felt we lost so much in the 80s, when everyone turned to making more money and buying bigger houses and fancier cars. I remember reading the quote that stopped me in my tracks on that path and turned things around for me: “In a hundred years, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, or how much money I had in the bank… But one hundred years from now the world may be a better place, because I was important in the life of a child.
When I was a girl, our family took a lot of camping trips and spent a lot of time in the outdoors, enjoying the spectacular scenery of our national parks. I really enjoyed those trips. My mom seemed to enjoy them until the one where we all got mumps and all our stuff was full of red dust from monument valley and the truck broke down, and funny we didn’t camp much after that. Well, I don’t think all those happened on the same trip, but maybe it felt like that to her. I had a few great trips with my dad after that – hiking the grand canyon with my dad and brother while mom and my sister stayed at the lodge, and going cross-country skiing with my dad.
I guess what I’ve taken from my experiences is a great appreciation of nature and our duty to take care of it. I don’t see most people around me having a lot of awareness of that. I also appreciate technology and scientific advances. For me, those things don’t conflict, and I see them as necessary pieces of America’s future. What I want for my kids, for their kids, is the America I dreamed of in my girlhood – one full of natural, beautiful places with unspoiled scenery – where you can still access the Internet from anywhere. OK, the Internet didn’t exist in my girlhood – but that’s a part of what I’m proud to have done my small part in creating. And I’m even more proud of raising two bright boys who hopefully will help move us in the right direction – assuming they ever stop playing role-playing games and get serious about their lives.
But then again, maybe it would be better if we all got to stay and play in those exciting mysteries of our childhood.
7 Responses
Hello – I’m so sorry for your loss.
I am supposed to swap with you for the Create a Connection.
Send me an email with your address if you can.
Hope your days get easier.
delightful to read and stir up my own memories. our daughterinlaw developed a program to get junior high girls into technology when they lived in new orleans 3 years ago. it was called “you go, girl” or something like that.
the 1970s…more hopeful with making bread, growing sprouts in jars, thinking feminism would change everyone’s lives for the better. have to keep on thinking change is possible. thanks, donna.
My own children were born in the 1960s and what you described as your own girlhood was a lot like we raised our kids. I just love hearing about what it was like in people live’s growing up. I work at a private K-12 school and I will say that the education is absolutely top drawer–so many of our women go on into the sciences and professions. And ironically, even though most of the students parents are privileged enough to be able to afford this kind of education, few of them seem to be as driven by consumerism as I see in my own grandkids who have lived with me through high school. By the way, at 69, I have an awful math block–and that comes from growing up years when we were taught to get married, have kids, and be a teacher, nurse or secretary.
You were so ahead of your time. And we really celebrate girlhood at our house, too.:-)
what a wonderfully bright photo – thanks for sharing it and your journey with us.
It was the red dust that really did it for mom. My mumps came at a Y-Guide camp and you and Beth both got mumps on a family trip a little later, is how I recall it. I think I gave up camping after moving into the Goodnight house, which was really kind of like living in a year-round camping lodge after a while. The photo reminds me of how ornery you were.
Heh. It’s ok, I had kids “just like me!” ;^)