The Feminist Movement of the late 1960's and the 1970's, the so-called "second wave," grew out of the Black Civil Rights Movement and the anti-War Movement.

Younger women, who have grown up knowing only the relative freedom women have today, sometimes have some difficulty grasping what all the "feminist" fuss was about. Rather than cite a litany of statistics, let me tell a story of Career Day in high school. My best girlfriend and I thought about being lawyers. During Career Day, representatives of various fields spoke for a half hour to small groups of students. We would rotate and then hear (and ask questions) in another field of study. As I recall we heard about six different fields in the half day session. She and I wondered about the law and becoming lawyers and we found a room where there were about twenty boys and the lawyer who would speak about law. There were no other females in the room, save for us.

The lawyer was interesting, but then he made the point that women did not belong in law, except as divorce lawyers - just maybe. We were mortified.

Later we learned we had gone to the wrong session; that there was a woman lawyer who spoke to the few women who wanted to be in law and - you guessed it - she spoke about divorce law and child custody cases.

Today it would be unthinkable to separate the women from the men or to give such negative advice. True, law is a tough row to hoe for many women, but the very idea! That he would speak contemptuously.

At the Big State University of 35,000 students, which is/was ranked in the top ten science/engineering schools in the United States, there was only one other woman in the honors physics lab section and when it came time to choose partners, we chose each other. The following term, she was gone - pushed out. She was bright and we had top marks and outscored the men, but she could not take the constant negativity and disrespect. Happily, more women survive today, thanks to those of us who were among the pioneers.

We helped each other. And, of course, we noticed that the men helped each other. We were frozen out. That is why when President Summers of Harvard foolishly wonders about women not making it in science, what he expresses is the "why don't they eat cake" argument. True, girls are encouraged to take science, but those of us who are in tenure track positions are still cutting edge and still blazing the trail - there is still a long way to go.

My point is not that I had it tough or that today's women have it easy. The point is that a perception of women has begun to change. As I wrote elsewhere, a woman on the Supreme Court, or Secretary of State was unheard of.

I attended a women's alum-student dinner at a prestigious ivy league graduate school. All the young women were so prim and poised and lovely. In the 1970's we were all "hippies." Yet, they were astonished that there were women in the class - about 17-percent - today it's about 50/50 - and I was surprised how mystical they thought it was. But more amazing was how they had really not pushed the envelope. They were bright and charming like - all politics aside - out of a Condee Rice mold, while we were more like Hilary Clinton and Sandra Day O'Connor have proven to be. For better or worse, we had more "edge" and probably still do.

In some ways things have changed markedly for the better, and in other ways reactionary forces are still at work. Act one is over. We're in act two. Act three is yet to come.

We will be the authors of that destiny.

I hope we are equal to the task ahead.