[speaker001:] women yeah the changing roles of women how roles changed and what do you see coming in the future
[speaker002:] oh okay that's not a broad enough topic
[speaker001:] okay yeah sounds good
[speaker002:] I'm ready when you are
[speaker001:] okay hold on
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] are you there oh my goodness I can't believe I did that okay hold on
[speaker002:] yep I'm here uh that's okay
[speaker001:] okay um
[speaker002:] okay um I don't know are you in your thirties or do you
[speaker001:] no I I'm twenty three
[speaker002:] oh okay well then I can tell you that roles have changed I'm thirty eight and they've changed quite a bit um
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] I this was my twentieth high school reunion in Chicago and basically um
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] the choices I mean you know you probably heard that in the fifties women liked to stay home and all that that's kind of um the opposite of what it was in the sixties and early seventies it was sort of just to um go protest and uh
[speaker001:] right uh-huh right
[speaker002:] just everybody be damned and live with someone and you know social social morals were a little bit lacking
[speaker001:] oh I know that uh um-hum I know that uh in in the early seventies uh I think women were the first people to to make a move as far as individuals
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um uh before that a lot of people that wanted to protest were large groups like uh Black people or you know just large large groups of people but but the
[speaker002:] right it was more it was more civil rights oriented or race oriented rather than gender based yeah
[speaker001:] right and I think I think the women's movement kind of brought in individual lives where you had women's movements and you had gay movements and just the smaller groups of people and I think since then is is when a lot of the women's roles were started to change
[speaker002:] um-hum it did it did and some of the other stuff that um I think that changed it you uh when I first got out of college fifteen years ago they were always saying well if you if you were assertive you were a libber or you were aggressive not assertive and independent and
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] in terms of the corporate community I've seen a big change in terms of men finally being quote unquote used to women who are in uh controlling positions as higher you know corporate in the corporate hierarchy so I think that's good
[speaker001:] um-hum exactly um-hum I think that uh you know you can just look at home life and see I've been talking a lot of people about education and things and and what what what affects the school system and I think that a big thing that affects it is that the mother is not home anymore
[speaker002:] um-hum right
[speaker001:] um like she used to be she used to be kind of kind of a a rock you know in the house yeah and uh since since everyone
[speaker002:] the mainstay yeah
[speaker001:] going out and working now whether it be because of finances or just the economy uh the mother's not there anymore and the children are I think I think a lot of society is suffering not to say that women shouldn't
[speaker002:] and restructuring stuff families yeah
[speaker001:] you know go out and do what they want to do but I think that um society's going to really have to get used to it and they're not quite used to it yet and that's I
[speaker002:] right the schools or the moms the schools or the parents yeah
[speaker001:] yes uh-huh
[speaker002:] um I'm trying to think of what else I have a lot of opinions on this except all of a sudden I went blank a lot of the things um the demographics too I mean there's more I don't have the numbers in my head right now but a lot of the things that brought feminism I mean there are just more women in in in the demographics just generally in the United States in terms of being
[speaker001:] um-hum right um-hum
[speaker002:] I mean I'm the typical baby boomer I hate that term but in terms of women women going out I mean twenty three I remember that
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] what's it like to be twenty three as a woman today I mean when I was twenty three the issues were either go to graduate school or get married um those were the general issues
[speaker001:] speaking of getting married I was talking to someone yesterday on this on the project and uh uh we were talking about child care and he asked me if I had any kids he was about forty or fifty years old and I said no I'm just twenty and I said no I'm just twenty three
[speaker002:] uh-huh he was ancient yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know because I don't think of myself as needing to have children but the the first thing he says is well don't you miss that part of your life and I just I my my mind just went I went what you know because it didn't it really didn't doesn't even occur to me right now to have children because
[speaker002:] you didn't know what was there to be missing  I don't have any either and I've been a married for eleven years so huh
[speaker001:] yeah and it it just you know I think that I'll probably have children when I'm about thirty thirty five something like just because I'm not sure if it's just if it's just me or or women in general that are twenty three right now because um
[speaker002:] yeah when it's time um-hum
[speaker001:] I'm really into my career I'm trying to go somewhere
[speaker002:] yeah you want to establish
[speaker001:] and and get there quick and then worry about you know because right now in my career I'm I'm really starting out and it's going to take me a while to move up and I don't need anything kind of holding me back um
[speaker002:] um-hum right and and you'll find that that's the other big thing that has changed in terms of um women don't feel like they need to get married anymore I was twenty seven when I got married and I just at the time um my husband actually even jokes about it
[speaker001:] um-hum right uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] he was twenty three when we met and I was at a point where it was like I didn't date I mean I just I went out to have a good time but I didn't have to have male companionship um and a lot of the um
[speaker001:] right right right
[speaker002:] friends that I had in school at that point who had gone back and gone to law school or MBA programs um which I also had done had just you know they were very sad but then by the time I got married um it seemed like they were on their second or third around the marriage track
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum yeah yeah
[speaker002:] so I guess that's a big change in terms of just um the attachments that women feel like they need to have the dependency their self-identity is stronger yeah
[speaker001:] yeah yeah it's it's just really not there anymore and that that has to do with you know the women getting out and other women seeing women seeing other women you know out in the corporate world that's like oh I can do that you know maybe I don't need to get married
[speaker002:] right um-hum right and I I I mean I don't know how how old your mom is she's probably let's see my mother's in her early sixties so
[speaker001:] she's about forty um-hum
[speaker002:] okay I'm thirty eight your mother's forty I just turned thirty eight um yes I'm laughing oh my God it does start to creep up no um but it's okay don't ever let age I mean I don't think
[speaker001:] um-hum okay
[speaker002:] nobody talks about it for women except other women and other men
[speaker001:] I I just turned twenty three uh April twentieth and I'm still going you know oh my God I'm getting so old I just because me myself I just like to move really really quickly
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah and
[speaker001:] I like to anything I do I got out of school quick I'm you know I'm working quick I want to move up quick I want to make money quick I want to retire quick and so anything
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah
[speaker001:] when when the age creeps up where I'm twenty three and twenty four I'm thinking my time is running out you know but I'm actually very very young
[speaker002:] yeah you are because what I was going to say is what you'll find is my background is in journalism and corporate communications and what you'll find is I mean I'm just now
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] finally to a point where I mean I don't know why I didn't didn't do it sooner but this is probably typical of the women's movement too the idea that you're going to be forty tomorrow anyway if you want to go back to school I'm seriously considering going back to school for law
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] um which is a complete I wouldn't say career change it's it's a but it's still is a different application and I mean if you think about it
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you know I can I still can have another career I mean I've worked for over fifteen years in what I've done and I mean so when you're saying quick um I think that's probably one thing that your generation coming up after mine is thinking that um
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] they have to do everything you know sort of I call kind of I call it a chewing syndrome they have to eat real fast they have they have to rapidity of speech they have to just go through everything
[speaker001:] right uh-huh exactly exactly
[speaker002:] and you'll find that probably by the time you're twenty eight thirty if you haven't slowed down something will slow you down do you know what I'm saying um because it's just you find out that you're really not um smelling the roses and I know that sounds trite and all that
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah yeah yeah I think I think a lot of uh people probably feeling that way I know I'm probably feeling that way because it's everything's geared towards young
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know and whether I want to realize it or not everything on television is young young young young you can't be a model after thirty you can't do this after twenty you know and every everybody that's in the music business is starting out at fifteen
[speaker002:] oh it is that's right um-hum
[speaker001:] you know and so I feel like I'm old it's like I sing I sing and I would really love to become
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh a professional singer but I think I'm too old now and I'm twenty three because everyone I've seen coming up they're fifteen
[speaker002:] oh you're not no no it's true I mean it's it's
[speaker001:] you know and so I'm going I'm so old and I'm I I really have to always tell myself no you're not you're very young and you know so it's
[speaker002:] no you're extremely yeah it's it's just well it's like us we're getting ready to do if possible for an adoption and I have friends that say well why would you do that if you know you haven't been able to children which we do know why would you do that now at this part point and um
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] it's just individual choices I stopped comparing myself a long time ago to somebody who had um in my family my brother's children I mean he just turned forty his children will be out of high school before he's forty five um
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum wow
[speaker002:] um I mean that's like your mother look how young she is compared to where you are out of school and everything it's just it but what you find is you don't compare the woman because you just get into trouble it's all independent and choices
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah right um-hum yeah very true
[speaker002:] um but what I was going to say about mothers is uh your mother probably just won't say it but I mean my mother and her sisters are always saying uh to my cousins and I my female cousins you girls are so lucky because quote unquote you have all these choices you know you went to school you can do this you can do that we couldn't do that then and my cousins and I go well why couldn't you and they
[speaker001:] right um-hum yeah that's that's why I say I feel I feel really lucky right now because because I'm not married and because I don't have children I'm out of school I'm twenty three I can do anything I want to do anything and so I mean even some days I'm looking for another job now but and I get so depressed because not because I can't find a job but because I can't figure out what I want to do
[speaker002:] um-hum  and that's normal I mean I think that's the world today
[speaker001:] and yeah and I feel and I'm lucky though because not a lot of people can sit there and go gee I don't know what to do I have so much you know not a lot of people but it's depressing too what do you what do you do that you're uh-huh
[speaker002:] right that's exactly yeah that's how I mean what I'm right now I'm I'm a freelance writer right now and then um what I'm doing is
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] working at um a electronics an electronics company for their company newspaper right now on the side and then I'm also actually I'm excited tomorrow I have a um
[speaker001:] hum oh
[speaker002:] luncheon appointment with a prospective client to do um marketing communications for them
[speaker001:] hum hum okay I'm a I'm a news reporter now and what I'm looking for is something in I really don't want to stay in news but I would like to stay in journalism and I've been looking for something exactly like that just um-hum
[speaker002:] so we oh you are what here's what you should do this is off the topic and these people probably won't did you go to Baylor by any chance
[speaker001:] okay  no I don't I went to UT at Austin and I I just happen to work at a Waco station because you know
[speaker002:] oh okay that's even better I went to are you in radio or television or news
[speaker001:] broadcast broadcast news uh-huh TV
[speaker002:] uh my journalism degree is in