I have always appreciated (and admired) Anna Quindlen's writing. She spoke in Westport years ago and one of my friends was lucky to be able to go. She reported back to me on how "normal" Anna Quindlen was; that she is just living her life like the rest of us, but with the gift of perspective and an ability to comment on that life.
If you asked people of my generation to name the one thing that had most changed their life, I imagine most people would respond "technology". This book reminded me of what I forget so often: how much the women's movement affected each and every one of us. Whether you are a daughter, a son, a husband, father, wife, or mother, your daily expectations are different from what they would have been absent the women's movement. Without email, we would still have mail. Without the very laptop I am typing on we would still have paper and pen. But without the women's movement, the world would be a very different place. When my children were little, their doctor was a woman, their dentist was a woman, their teachers were women -- I used to wonder if they knew men could do those things as well. So I understood when Maria asked her mother if men were allowed to be Secretary of State. I owe a debt to all the women who came before me. Perhaps the greatest indication of this is that my daughter does not even know that she does too.
