Women's History Month: The Evolution of Women's Rights in the USA Over the Past Century

Leanna Laskey McGrath  0:08  

Welcome to the executive coach for moms podcast where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home. I'm your host Leanna Laskey McGrath, former tech exec turned full time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic, and certified executive coach.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  0:29  

Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Thanks so much for joining me today. And Happy Women's History Month. March has always been one of my favorite months because it is my birth month. And then at some point in my lifetime, it was deemed Women's History Month. And so here I am with one of my favorite women in the world. My sister Laura Laskey. Welcome back, Laura. 

Laura Laskey  0:58  

Aw, thank you. Happy to be here. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  1:01  

Laura joined me for the episode about Barbie back in August whenever we went and saw the movie, and then we had so many thoughts. And then we wanted to share them on the podcast, and then again in December to talk about the holidays, and holiday mom stress. So here we are today to kick off Women's History Month. And when I was in school, one of my least favorite subjects. Actually last week I talked about the English was one of my last least favorite subjects. But my other one was history. Because I just didn't really see the point in memorizing stuff, I think because I was just like, so driven to just get all A's like I always just wanted to know, what do I need to do here to get the good grade. And for history, it was like not doing anything, just memorizing stuff that already happened. And that was so boring to me. So, but now, I actually I think it's kind of very interesting to look back on history. So I told Laura, I want to kind of do like a history project and look back on women's rights in the United States specifically. And kind of like when did we get different rights? What does that history look like? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  2:19  

Because I remember last year around this time, I saw a lot of like little reels and videos saying things like women didn't get the right to vote until this year. And then women didn't get this right until this other year. And I thought it was so mind blowing. And interesting that we, though we had the right to vote in 1920, which was only 100 years ago, there were a lot of other things that we didn't have equal rights to that came along the way between then and now. And so I want to just kind of talk about some of them, because I think it's very interesting to see when they came about. And then also what Laura and I are going to talk about is kind of the impact that that has on our society, how we think about ourselves as women, how the world views us, and our country views us as women and men view us just kind of like what's ingrained in our culture. So I'm gonna do like a little history lesson here. I did all this research. I didn't know a lot of this before, but it was really fun. And Laura said, What do I need to do to prepare? And I said nothing. I want you to like react to this information. And if anything is surprising to you, I'm sure that means it's surprising to other people. So then we'll talk about it. And also, if you want to throw anything in that I missed, I am I feel like I need to add some kind of disclaimer that I am not a historian, but I did find all of my information from history.com. So I feel like they're an authority. And so, but if anyone notices anything wrong about my history, let me know. All right, before I jump in anything you want to say, Laura, or any thoughts you're having right now.

Laura Laskey  4:06  

No, just to reconfirm that I did not prepare.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  4:13  

Laura did her homework, which was nothing. Wonderful; which is to show up today. Okay, so first, when I was researching, I'm going to start with 1920 but before I do that, I want to go back to 1776. 1776 of course whenever the USA was like official if Facebook was a thing, it would become Facebook official. And I didn't realize this but in a letter to her husband, founding father, John Adams, future First Lady Abigail Adams, actually, like wrote him a letter and made a plea to him and the Continental Congress. Here is a quote from the the letter. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  4:58  

"Remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could, if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

Leanna Laskey McGrath  5:23  

And I was like, hell yeah, Abigail Adams. Right. So that was almost 250 years ago. And it's kind of like where - not where our history starts, of course  - but where the US starts where the Constitution was written to grant men, all the unalienable rights. So lots happened in between then, and 1920. And not to undermine it or say it's not important. But I just want to talk more about like what has happened in the generations that we might know. So like, in our grandmother's generation, in 1920, was when the US allowed women to vote for the first time. So before that, it was obviously men making all the decisions. And women don't have a say in anything. Something I found very interesting was that it wasn't until 1984 that the state of Mississippi ratified the 19th amendment. So women in Mississippi actually couldn't vote until 1984. 

Laura Laskey  6:33  

WHAT?

Leanna Laskey McGrath  6:33  

Yeah. 

Laura Laskey  6:34  

So that was what, like 30, no, 40 years ago.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  6:37  

Yeah, I was alive at that time. So then, in 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage without regard to sex. And then in 1945, 79 years ago, was the first time in the United States that an equal rights law was signed into place. And that was in Alaska. And it was in an effort to end discrimination against Alaska Natives and other non white residents. So it said, "this is this act is the first state or territorial anti discrimination law enacted in the United States in the 20th century." So I thought that was kind of cool Alaska, leading the way there. And then 1947, is when the Supreme Court said that women could serve on juries, that's the first time that women could be jurors was in 1947. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  7:36  

So then we get into, like our parents generation. In 1963. And notice, we're fast forwarding a bit, there was nothing really major that happened, apparently, according to history.com. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed by Congress, promising equitable wages for the same work regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. So it wasn't until 1963 that it was illegal to discriminate against women in the workplace. That was 61 years ago. And then in 1964, Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act was passed. And that meant that workplaces in terms of like their hiring practice, and employee practices could not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex. So in 1963, it was equal pay, and then in 1964, it was saying no discrimination. So 1964 was 60 years ago, 

Laura Laskey  8:42  

And that was the, I mean that was the Civil Rights Movement. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  8:45  

That's right. 

Laura Laskey  8:45  

That was that era. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  8:46  

Yeah. And the Civil Rights Act was signed into law.

Laura Laskey  8:49  

Right. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  8:50  

In 1965, the Supreme Court allowed contraceptives to be accessed by married couples. Prior to that contraceptives, like access to contraceptives was based on state and not everybody could access them. Now, still, in 1965, you had to be married in order to access contraception. And the 1968 was affirmative action plans for hiring women and prohibiting sex discrimination by government contractors. So I guess in 1964, it didn't take for didn't apply to government contractors. And then 1969 there was a law put into place saying that women meeting the physical requirements can work in many jobs that had been for men only. In 1971, the US Supreme Court outlawed the practice of private employers refusing to hire women with preschool aged children. So only since 1971 have women with preschool aged children been afforded the same rights as everybody else. That was 53 years ago. 

Laura Laskey  10:05  

What I continue to hear here is, well back in what was it 1963 or 65? There was supposed to be no discrimination. But then they had to keep making more laws. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  10:18  

Yeah. 

Laura Laskey  10:18  

About not discriminating. Because apparently that initial non discrimination law did not actually work. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  10:26  

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think what happens is like, I mean, once you put something in the law, so like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, didn't just like end racism didn't end sexism didn't end discrimination, because a law doesn't necessarily change everyone's minds about how like the way that the world should be. So it seems like companies, employers were trying to find loopholes, ways to continue discriminatory practices. Yeah, and in 1972, 52 years ago, the Supreme Court actually ruled that the right to privacy encompasses an unmarried person's right to use contraceptives. So it wasn't until 1972 that an unmarried woman could use birth control could access birth control. And then in 1972, was Title IX. So that's saying that "no person in the US shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." And it's interesting at universities, there's always like a Title IX coordinator to ensure that this is being upheld, and that women are granted the same access as men to athletics and other benefits of the university.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  12:03  

In 1973, of course, was Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling, protecting person's right to terminate an early pregnancy, which, as we know, was overturned in 2022. So, but we're gonna focus on progress here. And so, in 1973, also, the US Supreme Court banned sex segregated Help Wanted advertising as a violation of Title Seven of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So nine years later, still, companies were doing Help Wanted advertising, segregated by sex, like we want to hire men for this role, or women for this role. And then in 1974 50 years ago, this year, is whenever women were actually allowed to get a mortgage. So housing discrimination on the basis of sex and credit, discrimination against women are outlawed by Congress. So prior to that, women had to be married in order to get a mortgage, like to get a housing loan, there was nothing protecting them. I mean, certainly a lender could choose to lend to a woman or you know, have a mortgage for a woman, but that was totally up to them. That was totally out of the hands of the woman applying, no matter what her credit was.

Laura Laskey  13:32  

I can't imagine going to the bank. What have you like, we're looking for a house and you found the house of your dreams? And you didn't have any plans to marry anytime soon? And you go to the bank, and they're just like, Nah, you don't have a penis.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  13:49  

Yeah.

Laura Laskey  13:50  

Like, what? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  13:52  

Yeah, I think the only way would be like, If a man would cosign, like, if you weren't married, I think some lenders might maybe like allow your father or brother or someone to cosign. But an unmarried single woman who just wanted to have her own home, was not permitted to do that. There was no protection for her to be able to do that. That was just 50 years ago. And then, also in 1974, there was a law that determined that it was illegal to force pregnant women to take maternity leave on the assumption they are incapable of working in their physical condition. So apparently, before 1974 if you were pregnant, your company could just be like, Ah, you're on leave now. And of course, I mean, we still don't have paid leave. So 

Laura Laskey  14:42  

Wow. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  14:43  

Naturally, that would be unpaid. And that was before FMLA. So the woman was not guaranteed to have her job when she got back or the same job. And it wasn't actually until 1978, that the Pregnancy Discrimination Act banned employment discrimination against pregnant women. 

Laura Laskey  15:06  

Wow. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  15:06  

So until 1978, a woman could get fired for being pregnant. She could be not hired because she was pregnant. So we did not have those protections until 45 years ago. Also, to back up a little bit in 1975, there was a law put in place that denies states the right to exclude women from juries. So even though back in 1947, the Supreme Court said that women could serve on juries. It wasn't until 1975, that states could not deny women from juries. So when we think about, you know, like, if there's a woman on trial, or really anyone on trial, like we just we can't have a woman making decisions about that person's fate. It's only men who can do that. 

Laura Laskey  15:59  

That's wild. What is that like, 30 years, it took 30 years almost to go from you can do this to you can't keep someone from doing this. That's crazy.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  16:13  

Yeah, yeah. And then. So in our Barbie recap, I remember we talked about patriarchy a lot. And we talked about like the definition of patriarchy is whenever we see men, holding the majority of leadership positions, in governments and organizations. And so obviously, up until this point, that had been the case, it was not until 1981, that Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in, as the first woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. So all of these laws that were being put into place, a lot of these were Supreme Court decisions, US Supreme Court decisions, it did not have a female voice until 1981. And even still, even since then, we've only had I think, six female justices.

Laura Laskey  17:05  

Thank goodness for the men who bought for women, before women were allowed to fight for themselves, because, wow. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  17:13  

Well, I mean, I think that goes along with the whole notion that when we have privilege, it's our duty to fight for those who do not, right, those who have less privilege than us, because yeah, I mean, certainly women pushed hard for these things. And there were lots of feminists organizing and marching and, you know, all kinds of things happening, but at the end of the day, yeah, it was men who ultimately made those decisions. So Ronald Reagan, the first president who was ever like, Yeah, I think we'll have a female serve on the Supreme Court. That had not happened before. So yeah, like no matter how much we fight for it, at the end of the day, a man had to make that decision. 

Laura Laskey  18:01  

Right. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  18:03  

In 1984, the US Supreme Court ruled that law firms were not allowed to discriminate on the basis of sex and promoting lawyers to partner partnership positions. So again, we had equal rights and equal pay for 20 years, but still, law firms were discriminating on who was going to be partner. So yes, a woman could work at a law firm. But that doesn't mean that she had any rights to promotion, or getting to that higher level. In 1986, the US Supreme Court held that a hostile or abusive work environment can prove discrimination based on sex. And then it wasn't until 1993, that the Supreme Court ruled that the victim did not need to show that she suffered physical or serious psychological injury as a result of sexual harassment. 

Laura Laskey  18:57  

Oh my god. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  18:58  

So also, the Civil Rights Act and other laws allowed women to work and then reduced discrimination or outlawed discrimination, even though I'm sure it still happened in different ways. Obviously, because we had to keep making laws about it against it for all, you know, everyone finding loopholes about it. But it wasn't until 30 years ago, that we kind of as a nation recognized, like, hey, sexual harassment is happening, and that's not okay. Because prior to that, it does show like The victim had to prove that there was serious physical or psychological injury. But as we all know, sexual harassment doesn't have to go to that extreme to be very damaging to a woman at work and make her feel unsafe in her work environment. 

Laura Laskey  19:51  

Also, how do you prove psychological damage in a time when like, clearly sexual harassment was okay? So you would have to find, I mean, right, typically, if you're proving psychological damage, you're probably involving a professional in mental health at a time, when it was clear that people probably didn't take women as seriously or didn't, you know, care about their welfare as much. And so it's just crazy. It's hard when you really see like, the prejudice and the discrimination. Because when you really think about, like, How can a person an individual in that societal structure, like, do anything about it? Or have any control over what happens to them when someone of the opposite sex is making all the decisions? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  20:57  

Yeah. I think what you're highlighting is this very interesting thing that we have going in the United States where, because we're such an individualistic society, the onus always seems to fall on the individual. And so 

Laura Laskey  21:12  

Yes. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  21:12  

When we're feeling like we're overwhelmed, for example, or we're feeling like, how am I going to do all of this without paid parental leave? How am I going to take care of my children? How am I going to take care of my children without childcare support, etc? It's we have this belief that it's up to the individual to figure that out on their own, when the reality is that these are societal issues, and it's near impossible for an individual to make any kind of real, meaningful change. 

Laura Laskey  21:51  

Yes. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  21:52  

And I think in your example, about how would you prove serious psychological injury? Yeah, you'd have to go to like a male mental health professional, and hope that he believes you. Because you know, that he doesn't just think, Oh, another crazy woman coming in and thinking that she has the right to work whenever, really, it should be men working? Yeah, absolutely. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  22:16  

In 1993, so we're talking, we're in the 90s now, which to me is like 10 years ago, but really, it really is like, 30. 

Laura Laskey  22:24  

Okay, so I was alive then.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  22:28  

Really, like 30 years ago, in 1993, we had the first female attorney general, in 1993, we also had the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act goes into effect. So that's FMLA. So only 30 years ago, did we have that. So that's the thing where you could take a 90 day leave, if your company meets the requirements and has to be more than 50 employees, etc. So before that, if you went out on maternity leave, you were not guaranteed your job back, or a job back, even FMLA doesn't guarantee your job, you know, you could come back and find yourself demoted. But it does guarantee you a job at that company. And it is obviously unpaid, but does allow for you to take that time to deliver a baby or to take care of a sick relative or to take care of yourself if you're sick. So that was only 30 years ago that our society was like, Yeah, we should probably have something to protect people when they have family things come up during their career.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  23:40  

In 1994, was the Violence Against Women Act, and the gender equity and Education Act. And that was to train teachers in gender equity, promote math and science learning by girls, counsel pregnant teens, prevent sexual harassment. So the reason why I think those are important is because they're like laws that actually consider women in more than just like, Hey, we should have some basic human rights like we should be able to get a mortgage and get a job and vote. It was like, yeah, actually, we should also be safe, and also learn about gender equity in our education. In '97, we had the first female Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. And then in 1998, the US Supreme Court ruled that employers are liable for sexual harassment even in instances when a supervisors threats are not carried out. But the employer can defend itself by showing that it took steps to prevent or promptly correct any sexual harassing behavior. And the employee did not take advantage of available opportunity to stop the behavior or complaint of the behavior. So back in 93, that that we made a law about that the victim no longer needed to show physical or serious psychological injury as a result of sexual harassment. Now, we have to take it a step further because of whatever loopholes, companies are trying to find. Maybe just don't sexually harass women in the workplace. 

Laura Laskey  25:14  

How about that. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  25:15  

And then it wasn't until 2007 that we had the first female Speaker of the House, we still haven't had a majority leader of the Senate, or a minority leader, who was female. In 2009 was Lilly Ledbetter, the Fair Pay Restoration Act. So it allowed victims, usually women, of pay discrimination to file a complaint with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck. And then we haven't even talked about we've been talking specifically about women. But of course, women of color are facing even more discrimination, of course, because there's the the sexism and the racism coupled. So 2009 Sonia Sotomayor was the first Hispanic American nominated as a Supreme Court justice, and she was the third woman to serve. So that was 2009. And then, in 2013, 10, 11 years ago, the ban against women in military combat positions was removed, which were overturned in a 1994 Pentagon decision restricting women from combat roles. I actually read a lot more about this, because I just read this book called The Women by Kristin Hannah, it was so good, I highly recommend it to everyone It is historical fiction about the Vietnam War, and the main character was a nurse in the Vietnam War. And she did two tours over there and shared her experience. And then when she came back, a lot of the book was about kind of her reentry to the United States and how she was denied any kind of support, that anytime she went to the VA for support, she was told there were no women in Vietnam. And basically, it was kind of like you need to forget about that experience and move on, which I think was told to many Vietnam veterans, not just women.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  27:18  

But it was really interesting whenever I was looking back at women serving in the military, so there were women called to duty in World War One and World War Two, they took on more of like the clerical and back end roles so that more men could go into combat. But in World War Two, some women did go into combat. And then and moving on, basically, our policy in the United States was that women could only serve in combat roles during wars, whenever they were like, absolutely, essentially needed. But then once the conflict was over, once the war was over, then they had to, they they basically like, couldn't be there anymore. They were usually then unemployed, there was like no protection for them. And women who wanted to serve in combat positions outside of war times, were denied until 2013. So it's been 11 years now that women if they want to go and serve, they actually can. 

Laura Laskey  28:22  

Wow. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  28:22  

Did you realize it was so recent? 

Laura Laskey  28:24  

No. I mean, that's like after I was out of high school. So like that was like, like, had I decided to join the military when I graduated -

Leanna Laskey McGrath  28:38  

Nope

Laura Laskey  28:38  

- I would not have been able to have a combat position if I had chosen.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  28:45  

Not unless we were at war. And then 

Laura Laskey  28:47  

That's crazy. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  28:48  

You would just be unemployed. In 2016, the survivals Bill of Rights Act amended the Federal Criminal Code to establish statutory rights for sexual assault survivors, including the right to not be prevented from receiving a forensic medical examination, and to not be charged for an examination. Also to have a sexual assault evidence collection kit preserved and not destroyed. Be notified prior to the destruction of a rape kit and to be informed of these rights and policies. 

Laura Laskey  29:23  

What?

Leanna Laskey McGrath  29:24  

Yeah, before I had a daughter, I watched Law and Order SVU all the time. I can't watch it anymore. 

Laura Laskey  29:31  

No. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  29:32  

But part of the goal of that show is like just to also kind of raise awareness for that they would like do kind of awareness campaigns at the end of some of them and just talk about how many rape kits are just sitting on shelves for decades or destroyed, you know, and they're not actually processed properly or tested. But yeah, it seems unreal to me that it wasn't until eight years ago that a woman could just be prevented from receiving a rape kit after a sexual assault. 

Laura Laskey  30:11  

That's crazy. Especially because, you know, I think a lot of assumptions are made about sexual assault about it like not actually having happened or not being like someone else's fault, sadly. So you would think that they would want to collect evidence as proof against this crazy woman claiming, you know, like, 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  30:37  

Mm.

Laura Laskey  30:37  

But even then, they didn't, and it almost kind of makes you think maybe people knew what they were doing and knew that accusing women of being crazy was a way to avoid prosecution of men. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  30:54  

Yeah. 

Laura Laskey  30:55  

And I don't know what what the stats are on evidence for any other case. I know, there's a lot of controversy with the way things are handled for some cases, but 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  31:05  

Yeah

Laura Laskey  31:05  

To think that, it's like evidence could just be destroyed, and that there was nothing protecting that. It's crazy. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  31:13  

So 2016 was the first time a woman received a presidential nomination from a major political party. That, of course, was Hillary Clinton 2016, only eight years ago. And then, of course, 2021 is the first time that a woman was sworn in as Vice President of the United States and a woman of color. Still, of course, we have not seen a female president at this point. We did not have a Latina Senator until 2017. And that was Catherine Cortez Masto. In 2018 The First Step Act became law, requiring the Federal Bureau of Prisons to make feminine hygiene products available to prisoners for free. Until then, I don't know. 

Laura Laskey  32:03  

They had to pay for them, I guess.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  32:05  

They had to use commissary. Yeah, I mean, origins, the new Black is a woman's memoir. So it's like a real life story. But then, of course, the they made it into a show. And some of that was real. And so it was fiction, but I remember them, like always being out of tampons. It was like a thing. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  32:23  

In 2018 also, the Women on Boards, SB 826, was signed making California the first state in America to require women to be included on companies' boards of directors, which is crazy, because when you look at the research, it clearly shows that when women are in positions of leadership and in advisory roles, that those companies perform better in all the metrics across the board, revenue, profitability, employee retention, customer retention, and yet, we have to make it a law to like make the companies better. Why wouldn't every company want to go out and find women

Laura Laskey  33:07  

Right 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  33:07  

To be on their boards, knowing that it would make their companies better? 

Laura Laskey  33:11  

It defies logic.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  33:14  

It does to us. But I think that's because of how we view women as equal and capable. But that's not how women were always viewed and still, plenty of people don't view women that way. 

Laura Laskey  33:31  

Well, it's hard for me because I don't tend to think of women as equal and capable and men as equal and capable. I just tend to think of people as people, regardless of sex, or race or whatever. It's hard for me to grasp how persistent these beliefs are about general populations and like portions of our population. It does it defies logic to exclude a sex from your company, when research says that, including that sex in your company will better your company. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  34:16  

Well, I agree.

Laura Laskey  34:17  

Regardless of your beliefs of women like that defies logic. That doesn't make sense. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  34:23  

Well, I think we see many places where it defies logic, when we look at the research and statistics. 

Laura Laskey  34:30  

Yeah.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  34:31  

But yeah, so we've made progress, obviously, right. Like there's when we look at 1776, when Abigail Adams wrote that letter to her husband, 250 years ago, women were in a different point in society than we are now. And also, it's like, in some ways, we've made so much progress and in some ways, we haven't. And so because I think what happens is like we talked about just the laws don't magically eliminate racism, sexism, discrimination, they still exist. And because they don't just like change people's minds.

Laura Laskey  35:13  

Right.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  35:13  

Right, they don't, the mindsets are still there. And so it's so ingrained in our culture and in our society. And so when I think about like, I remember talking to someone of an older generation, about women's rights. And he was like, Don't you feel like women are equal by now? Like, what, like, Isn't it enough? And I was like, you know, definitely not obviously. But actually what that history for me does, in a way is that like, helps me to better understand older generations, because it's like, okay, well, if you saw that women could have been fired for being pregnant, or that women couldn't even vote if you lived in Mississippi, or that women couldn't even get a mortgage unless they were married or birth control. If that was part of history, and then you saw that change, then yeah, like you watch that evolution. So I guess I could see where maybe it's like, oh, what more do you want? Haven't you gotten everything?

Leanna Laskey McGrath  36:21  

I think it also, it makes me think of grandma. And just like, the focus on looking good. Being lady like, and finding a man, it helps me to understand why that was such a focus for previous generations. Because it's like your livelihood, right, because we weren't inherently granted the right to work, the right to own a home or property. And so without without being married, it was like, survival. In order to get anywhere in society, you kind of had to get married. 

Laura Laskey  37:06  

Yes. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  37:06  

And so I guess it helps me to, I don't know, empathize, or have compassion for those previous generations of women who are like, you know, maybe telling us to focus on things that aren't as important to us now. And like, making sure that we are presentable and pleasing to a man.

Laura Laskey  37:28  

Well, I know, you know, Bridgerton is not exactly a historical reference. But I feel like a lot of TV shows and things that are coming out that focus on women in history, a big part of it is that women needed to get married, in order to do anything in society. Like as a single woman, you had nothing. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  37:57  

Yeah. 

Laura Laskey  37:58  

Whereas once you were married, then you had some more freedom to move about in society and do some things that you couldn't have done otherwise. In Little Women, that's a big topic. And it's interesting, just thinking like, was it that men wanted to stay in power? Or was it that men wanted to make sure that women didn't take over and didn't need them anymore? 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  38:20  

Yeah.

Laura Laskey  38:22  

So much drove women need to be married? And so like, Was it planned that way, you know, to make sure that women, like needed to be with men, because technically, like, you know, we could have just been left to our own devices, arguably, where we could do things just not at a leadership level, but like, we just couldn't do anything without a man for a long time. So it's just really interesting. I wonder, you know, what the, what the goals were, and what the beliefs were at that time. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  39:02  

Yeah. And when I, when I think about kind of like, looking forward, I really hope that we see paid parental leave in our lifetimes. In the United States, we are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have guaranteed paid parental leave. I would love to see more support for working women. 

Laura Laskey  39:26  

Definitely. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  39:27  

Some kind of childcare and kind of not, not having childcare costs continue to skyrocket where it is unaffordable for women to even work, or for both partners to even work, which generally defaults to the woman not working. Not always, but often. And I would love to see a woman be President. Still, in 248 years of our nation's history have not seen a woman as president.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  40:02  

Honestly, I look at the world as it exists today. And I think about, you know, all the wars that are happening, and the general person is just like, What the hell is going on? Like, why does our world look like this? And sometimes I think, Hmm, well, who's running it? Not women. What if we were? What might look different? 

Laura Laskey  40:29  

And that's not to say that we absolutely would do better, but at least, you know, we could try something different with the way the world keeps going. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  40:37  

Yeah, I think we can do better.

Laura Laskey  40:42  

Well, I think we could. Just saying at least we should try it. Right. Whether or not it's an absolute, it'd be hard to do worse. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  40:52  

Exactly. It doesn't seem like that high of a bar to do a little bit better. 

Laura Laskey  40:57  

Yeah. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  40:58  

Yeah. But I think about like, what if women had been in power all these years? Like, would we have all these wars? Would we have everyone needing to like conquer, you know, another nation? Or would we be a little bit more like, let's just like, live and let live? I don't know. Maybe that's idealistic of me to think that all women hold that belief. I know, that's not true. But maybe in the way we approach things in our like, more collaborative and open communication type of tendencies, which are not universal, of course, but just more women are prone to looking for solutions together before like dropping a bomb, I think. And so I just wonder, like, Could we have found more solutions to work together as a more cohesive world, than what's happened so far? And like what's happening in the world today? Maybe? 

Laura Laskey  41:56  

Yes. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  41:57  

Maybe not. But regardless, I want to see more women in power. It'd be a great experiment. I mean, like you said, the It can't get much worse. So.

Laura Laskey  42:07  

Well, maybe I shouldn't say that. Because looking back on history, clearly, I'm wrong. But...

Leanna Laskey McGrath  42:15  

Yeah, yes. So that was a look back on our history. I definitely like 12 year old Leanna did not think it was important to know about but 40 year Leanna believes it's important to know, our history. And just to see, you know, realize that so much of this is very recent history. It's all happened in the last 100 years. And so the fact that discrimination still exists, the fact that mindsets about women being inferior still exist, I think are not shocking given that they haven't cycled out of our culture, yet, we still have people living, who actively fought against some of these measures that are in place now. 

Leanna Laskey McGrath  43:06  

So I hope everyone has a wonderful Women's History Month, I think it's a really great time to look back and reflect and also look at where we are now. And look forward to what we envision our world to be for women, and for everybody. So thank you all so much for tuning in. Laura, thank you so much for joining me and for doing your homework of not doing homework. So that you could authentically react. And we will see everybody next week. Have a great week everyone.

Leanna Laskey McGrath  43:44  

Thanks so much for tuning in to the executive coach for moms podcast. Please like subscribe or follow the show so you'll be notified when the next episode is available. I hope you'll join me again next time. Take care.