Let me start off by saying that I had a very happy childhood and for  all intents and purposes I never really wanted for anything.

However given our discussion of Slaughter’s piece today I feel it necessary to bring up that my mother is a politician. In addition to a Politician she is an engineer.  for some background information my mother graduated from Lafayette in 1981,  as one of the first female metallurgical engineers, she worked after college at Alcoa in upstate new york overseeing aluminum recycling. For a time she made more money than my Father when that changed she stopped working at Alcoa. Fast forward a few years and some of my first memories are of my mother working as a realtor.

Once again fast forward a few years and my Mother became involved in politics first on the Bernards township environmental commission, then on the planning board, the Township committee and finally she was appointed Mayor in 2013.  Given the discussion today of Women, particularly in the political sector giving up either their families or their jobs I feel this anecdote is particularly relevant. I have never once heard my mother complain about how she was treated in any of her jobs simply because she was a women, she did mention of course that she was always in a minority but she never once expressed that she felt in any way oppressed or disadvantaged because of her gender or her choice to have a family.

http://www.bernards.org/township_committee/tc_gaziano.aspx