I have never seen women so angry.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. We thought we were getting done with this shit.

Since the '60s there have been many improvements for women in respect of legal rights and opportunities. When I was growing up the job ads in the newspapers were segregated by sex - if you were a woman you could apply for a job as a secretary, an elementary school teacher, a nurse, a bookkeeper, or a cleaning lady and not much else. When I graduated from college my adviser told me not to worry about a career because I would just get married anyhow. You couldn't get a bank loan or a credit card without your husband co-signing for you. You couldn't walk past a construction area without a bunch of guys hooting and yelling obscenities at you. Not wanting children or keeping your own name at marriage were heresies because normal women were subservient baby machines.

Things got better. We could get decent jobs even though we still got paid less than men. We could get loans without Daddy or Hubby cosigning. There were new laws against sexual harassment, even though it never went away. But progress is slow; I get that.

This week, though, I looked at those shriveled, fossilized old men - the same ones that disrespected Anita Hill, the same ones that voted against every law that ever helped women move toward equality - and I saw that they were still in power and still were going to do everything they could do to keep their boots on our necks, and their hands over our mouths no matter how loudly we tried to scream.

I'm too old for this shit. I didn't want to be still protesting the patriarchy as a retiree - but here I am, and here we are. Angry? Oh, hell, yes.