I had the honor of being a featured member on Fabulously 40 & Beyond. (Admittedly, I'm on the "beyond" side of things.) It was a unique interview; not the same old, same old. Here's a bite for you...
1. How did you start your career? Did you attend college immediately following high school? If so, did your parents expect you to go to college or did you attend on your own?Much to my mother’s disappointment, I did not want to go to college because I hated high school. (She graduated from Syracuse University in the 1940s, a time when most women were not encouraged to get a college education.) But when my best friend was packing to leave for an out-of-state school, I decided to go, more because I did not want to be left behind. My mother was thrilled and my father agreed to pay for it, under the condition that I studied and got good grades.
I went for a last minute interview at Cazenovia College (then a 2-year program only). I joke that they accepted me more because I walked in with a blank check to pay full tuition, and not because of my grades, which were horrid.
At Cazenovia I met and studied under Dr. Dolly Weiss…she changed my life. Despite my mother’s remarkable strength and independence, she thought the women’s movement of the 1960s-early 1970s was just plain wrong. Little did my mother know, she herself was quite the feminist in how she lived her life. (Note: I define feminist here as a women living her life outside the defined cultural/traditional role of the times.)
Dr. Weiss helped me discover my intellectual capabilities and to see a woman’s place in the world was limitlessness. I stayed at Cazenovia only one year, then transferred to a 4-year program at Wells College, and continued on to graduate school.
Read the whole interview at
Fabulously 40.
