You've come a long way baby!

I remember that phrase from even early childhood, in commercials, on signs, and all over tv back in those days. Usually, it had a woman smoking a cigarette on the ad or commercial, with the song. It is amazing to me that in our American culture, not limited to any region, even back in my childhood one of the most daring and independent things that women did was to smoke cigarettes. Before my time, and earlier into my great grandmother's time, wives and women were more often seen and not heard. The further we go back in history, women were nothing more than possessions, and had "no say" in any matter before they married or after. They were considered keepers of the home and child bearers basically, and nothing more in our culture and others. Women truly have come a long, long way in gender equality from every kind of venue that you can think of present day. It is very interesting to note though, that in many other cultures, presently, women are still very oppressed, abused, and thought of in the same mindset of earlier days. Examples would be the horrific practice of female circumcision which still goes on in parts of Africa. Many young girls are literally held down by their mothers and grandmothers so that the mutilation of their genitals can be performed, sometimes resulting in the girls bleeding to death. Another example is in the culture of India where millions of baby girls are killed in abortions and infanticide through sex selection of parents each year. Women's lives are literally at stake when they marry if their parents don't have enough dowry to pay to the future in laws and husband, and when the husband dies, if the widow has no one else to care for her or other means of support, she is expected to lay down on top of her husband's grave or coffin and be burned, or cremated with him. It is beyond belief to me that these practices still go on in our modern day world, but many times, each day in other countries and cultures, they still are. We are most fortunate to be Americans ladies, free, proud, and brave with opportunities and equalities afforded to us that many women still aren't privy to in other walks of life.