WOMEN MARCH EVER ONWARD FOR EQUALITY

In 1950, Harvard Law School admitted women for the first time. A paltry admittance it was at that: six women joining over 500 men. Many other graduate schools made gradual and modest openings to women in the years after World War II. It was the beginning of equal opportunity for women and the recognition of women as full participants in all facets of human endeavor in America.

The universal presumption had been that married women would be homemakers and that single women with college and university degrees would confine themselves to such disciplines as education, nursing, library service, design, literature and the arts. With some noteworthy exceptions, the professions of law, medicine, business, and science were male preserves. The exigencies of World War II especially in blue collar work showed that women could effectively do previously all-male tasks and that they had the right to be accepted in the workplace in accordance with their comparable skills.

The struggle for women's equality did not begin with a sudden revolution in the immediate post war period. For the most part, social conditions reverted to the status quo ante. But the seed of change had been planted and a process of societal cultivation began that continues to this day.

Women in military combat. Upward mobility in American armed forces depends on proximity to the front-line. The further back women are shunted, the less equal they are in terms of leadership and advancement. What activities require such degrees of physical strength that it could be fairly said that only men can fully perform them? What living conditions in forward positions might call for a separation of the sexes? The military still struggles to resolve these questions.

Hilary Clinton as First Lady. Hilary Clinton had a distinguished professional and public service career in her own right. At the same time, she has been Bill Clinton's closest advisor.

Somehow the fact that Mrs. Clinton will continue to counsel her husband troubles some people. The role of First Lady has never been confined to running the White House kitchen. Abigail Adams was a trusted aide to her husband Dolly Madison likewise was to hers. Edith Wilson served, at times, as de facto president during her husband's prolonged illness. Eleanor Roosevelt was a prominent public figure in her own right and of her own mind. Rosalyn Carter, Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush all played significant roles in advising their spouses.

For Mrs. Clinton to be a significant advisor to her husband is to track with history, not violate it.

Women in the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches. With great anguish, both churches have been debating the role of women. Both churches affirm the equality of men and women on earth and in the eyes of God. Both churches denounce sexism as a "moral and social evil." Both churches condemn violence directed at women and discrimination in the work place.

The Anglicans have found that to be consistent with those precepts, women should be eligible to serve as clergy and in every other facet of church ritual. The Roman Catholic Bishops, after nine years of study, find that the precepts necessary to achieve equality in the lay world are inconsistent with church dogma. The Catholic Church awaits a future Pope John XXIV as it struggles to define its relationship to a changing world moving into the 21st century.