We celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage each year on August 26th at our house. From the time my girls were little and I used the movie Mary Poppins to explain women's suffrage, we have made note of the progress of women. Or lack of progress ...

Thanks to Ellen Goodman's op-ed piece in the Boston Globe today, we had fresh suffrage fodder for dinner tonight. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080821/news_lz1e21goodman.html
My favorite example offered up in a couple of Goodman's recent posts is the apparent closing of the math gap between men and women. Since we have a teenager who reads math books for fun, the validity of the gap was never on our radar. But we do like seeing the acknowledgement that math is an equal opportunity skill set.

I only wish that there were more happy examples of the advancement of women. Every month, I turn to the back of Ms. magazine to get a fill of outrage at the atrocities of advertising, law and economics that women must face around the world. Elizabeth Edwards and Silda Spitzer come to mind for their silence. Phyllis Schafley for her outspokenness against women's rights. It is one thing to note the inequality of women as dished out by men. Quite another thing to see intelligent women doing to us all.

Thanks to Goodman for shining a light on those who have done their best this year to set back the cause of women.