THEN—and NOW

Dear Readers,

I want to share with you an article by my dear friend, Judy Lear.

Judy is a Minnesota-based advocate for women’s rights. She has spent many years working for women’s equality and empowerment, including an important role in the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. She represented the International Council of Jewish Women as Status of Women Chair at the NGO Forum in Huairou, China, and was also a delegate to the main conference.

Judy, like me, has spent much of her life asking a very simple question:

How can we make the world a better and more equal place for women?

Her story made me think about how much has changed—and how much still needs to change.

So, let us look at THEN—and NOW.

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THEN

It was 1966, and it was a very big year for me!

I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Education. And on that very same day, after the graduation ceremony, I married my husband, who had just finished Law School.

He received his first job as a lawyer.

His salary?

Twice mine.

I was a teacher.

That was the way things were.

The women’s movement was beginning to grow, and politics was filled with important discussions about the Equal Rights Amendment, reproductive rights, and the violence that women experienced in their homes and communities.

There were also international efforts to address women’s equality. Between 1975 and 1995, the United Nations held a series of important conferences focused on women.

But these conversations did not yet reach enough women.

And in the business world, the picture was even clearer.

Fortune 500 companies had very few women in leadership positions. In fact, women held only about 0.4% of corporate leadership positions during this period.

By 1995, that number had risen to 9.6%.

Progress!

But there was—and still is—a long way to go.

I did not have my own credit card.

I did not have my own financial account.

Even the car was not in my name. My husband had to sign with me.

Can you imagine?

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NOW

So, where are we today?

Well, I can have my own credit card.

I can have my own bank account.

I can make financial decisions for myself.

I can speak and read from the pulpit of my synagogue.

And women have entered professions and positions of leadership that would have been almost unimaginable when I graduated from college in 1966.

We have come a long way!

But then I look around—and I know we are not finished.

There are still enormous gaps in economic opportunity, health, political leadership, and representation.

Even today, in 2026, women remain dramatically underrepresented in some of the most powerful positions in the world.

And there are voices suggesting that perhaps a woman’s place should once again be limited to:

Marriage.
Children.
No career.

I don’t believe that is the future we should want.

Women should be able to choose marriage.

Women should be able to choose children.

Women should be able to choose a career.

And women should be able to choose all three, if that is what they want!

The important word is CHOICE.

No one should be telling a woman that her dreams are too big, her ambitions are inappropriate, or her talents should be put aside simply because she is a woman.

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WE HAVE COME A LONG WAY.

But let us not confuse progress with completion.

The work continues.

We must continue to encourage girls to dream.

We must continue to educate women.

We must continue to open doors—and, when necessary, build new ones.

And we must remember that equality is not something we achieve once and then put on a shelf.

It is something we must protect, nurture, and pass on to the next generation.

So, to women of every age, I say:

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.

YOU ARE WOMEN.

YOU ARE TALENTED.

YOU ARE VALUABLE.

AND YOUR VOICE MATTERS.

We have come a very long way since 1966.

Now let us make sure the women who come after us can say:

“Look how far we went!”