[speaker001:] okay can you uh give me your thoughts on what women's roles are or how they've changed
[speaker002:] well um I'm in my I I I've seen the changes I think in my generation most of all because I'm a early baby boomer and uh I was brought up uh to sort of get married and raise children and uh be very domestic and uh when I went to college or went to high school I did very well I was urged to become a secretary or a teacher because those are typical roles and uh things have changed and I I've ventured off in all sorts of areas and so have most of the other women in my generation and we're all in business or the professions and uh and uh heavens we're we're uh astronauts and things like that who know who would wouldn't have been imagined in nineteen sixty eight or something how about you
[speaker001:] yeah well I was kind of same thing it's you know I was I was brought up in a small town and and women tended to just get married and take care of the house um but as as times changed um the price of things I guess started rising and it took more than one income
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] so more um more and more of young women were staying in school they were getting a better education and they were going out into the work force
[speaker002:] yes another thing that happened that I found is that you know when I got married I didn't know anybody who had ever been divorced or or when I was younger I didn't know anybody who had ever been divorced
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] in this day and age people are as likely to get divorced as to stay married and very often the woman has to be able to earn a decent living and uh so there's an additional reason for her to be capable of holding down a good job
[speaker001:] yeah I think perhaps uh um years ago it was a stigma on a family to have a divorce in it
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] and whether it was warranted or not people just stayed together because of what the family thought uh people little bit smarter today than that they uh uh yes there's a family unit and it's and it's very difficult if there uh are children especially young children but in a lot of cases it's probably it would probably more difficult if they stayed together but uh I think women are taking a uh a more active role in politics I I think that uh within the next ten or fifteen years you'll probably see a woman vice president or a woman president and you'll also see a lot more uh congressmen and senators uh women
[speaker002:] I I agree with that and I also think that they're taking a lead in in the arts and in business too and uh as as the years go by they run surveys to see how many women are CEOs or on the boards of major companies and the number is creeping up very slowly but it's definitely increasing so that probably ten years from now
[speaker001:] is that right you think they you think that's the case
[speaker002:] yes it is I mean ten fifteen ten fifteen years ago there were no women on the boards or or or CEO's of major corporations unless they inherited the firm from their father you know that sort of thing
[speaker001:] oh yeah if it was if it was a family owned business you mean
[speaker002:] but right if it was a family owned business but now they're they're in the board room and they're trying to get ahead and make it in the business world of course to some extent the laws are helping them but uh uh you know there's no no no holding back their ambition on the other hand what it does to the fabric of society and the family remains to be seen
[speaker001:] yeah I still I still think it's it's uh it's a two tiered system I uh I know of of uh women engineers and and uh supervisors that are uh they have to work twice as hard it seems like to achieve the same levels that a male does uh I don't know if that's just my imagination or not but it seems to be that's uh the ones that are up there seem to have a little bit more intelligence than their counterparts
[speaker002:] I I I
[speaker001:] if there was if it was up to me I think I would have uh more females because it seems like they try harder
[speaker002:] well I think that in a way they're they're being tested right now we're going through a testing period where capability is is everything and if they succeed then the the the generation of girls that are growing up now will have it much easier because there will be a precedent they'll have had role models whereas you know the generation that grew up in the sixties and seventies
[speaker001:] right they'll have role models they'll have protectors
[speaker002:] sorry
[speaker001:] they'll have protectors
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] uh there'll be more and more women that are up higher and higher
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] um and also they say that the bulk of the wealth is controlled by women now uh just through I guess uh uh the men dying off and just leaving their uh fortunes to women so that's going to have a big impact uh if you've got money and brains you can you can wield a lot of power
[speaker002:] um I guess just by virtue of living longer in a way you're right because they do it does does come to them but they've got to be young enough to enjoy it I mean if they're just old ladies sitting around waiting for the end to come it doesn't do them much good
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] it must be the culture's different uh down there than up here also um they're kind of uh the old Yankees
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] you know it it takes uh uh it takes a stick of dynamite to get them moving off center in a lot of cases where uh the Midwest I think is a little bit more aggressive because they're closer to the west coast where they're uh highly aggressive you know uh ideas and or it seems like new ideas start out there and then kind of work their way east I don't know if you've found that to be true
[speaker002:] well I'm in the middle of the country and and it seems to me they could they start their from start from both coasts and work their ways inward uh one of the one of the things that that I'm finding is that I've lived in Texas I've lived in New York and uh I have I've done a lot of visiting out in California and I know that we're lagging behind here and yet I really do see uh women's roles have increased and they're gaining new respect in fact I believe that the mayor of the top five major Texas cities are all women
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] and that goes back to your original point about politics
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so uh uh you know it's going to get to a point I some men are going to wonder if they're falling behind
[speaker001:] uh-huh  the uh I think the only problem there is the men that themselves that feel threatened by by a woman
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] uh by her intelligence probably uh those are the ones that you're going to have problems with I think uh a lot of the at least my kids they seem to have a a more open mind today than uh like when I was growing up
[speaker002:] I think the young people today do have an open mind it's just not as much uh typecasting by sex by gender uh you know uh a little girl can say I want to be an astronaut or I want to be a fireman or a policeman or
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] or a Rhodes scholar which was impossible when I was going to college uh Rhodes