Progress, past and pending for women

Lori Sturdevant wrote a very interesting column in Sunday’s Star Tribune,  Progress, past and pending for women,  about the discussion of the Women’s Economic Security Act on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives.  She  concentrated on the response of Representative Shannon Savick to a question posed by Representative Sondra Erickson.  Representative Erickson was trying to make an argument that achievements in the work force were made strictly by the courage and efforts of women alone, that government had nothing to do with their success and expected Representative Savick to agree.  Representative Savick replied that government had a lot to do with her success, because legislation made it illegal to specify certain jobs were for men and other jobs for women.  There was a time when women could not apply for certain jobs and when girls were not allowed to take certain classes in school.  For some reason, Representative Erickson and others chose to forget that little detail, among others. A lot of progress has been made, but we are not there yet.