Curry Café: Women’s History Month – Struggles, Challenges, and Achievements

In this episode of Curry Café, hosted by Ray Gary and Rick McNamer, panelists Shirley Hyatt and Billie Hopkins Furuichi engage in a thought-provoking discussion centered on Women’s History Month and the broader historical and societal struggles for gender equality. The conversation explores topics such as the historical context of women’s rights, pay disparities, affirmative […]

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Well, hello again, KCIW
listeners. Welcome to Curry Cafe.
I'm Rick McNamer, producer and volunteer.
And every Sunday,
your host of Curry Cafe, Ray Gary, puts
together a panel of guests to discuss topics
of interest in our community.
You listeners can also participate via our text
line at (541)

(00:25):
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
Now here's Ray to tell us about today's
show.
Well, as Rick said, I I I no.
I guess he didn't say. But, anyway, I
do search the community every week to find
the very best
people I can to talk about the subject

(00:46):
we have. And today, I
have,
gathered up two rather outspoken
women. Woman? Women
who are going to talk about Women's History
Month. And they're gonna explain to me why
women's history is any different than anybody else's
history.
Oh. Yes. So go around the room here
and,
identify yourself

(01:08):
and plug any books you have on Amazon
or anything like that.
Well, this is Shirley Hyatt, and I think
this is a wonderful topic that shouldn't just
be limited to once a year.
Moving on.
And my name is Billie Hopkins Faruichi,
and
I still have a podcast

(01:28):
on KCIW.
I don't have a regular show anymore, but
my podcast is,
is quite a fantastical
story that has
some interesting women in it, as a matter
of fact.
Yes. Women are strong. Women are strong. And
I think we should do this show more
than once a year about women, don't you?
Yeah. Well Why not? You can propose it.

(01:51):
You know? Yeah. We can.
Who do we propose it to?
Our Britney.
Right. I don't know. Right. Yeah.
Well, if you and Shirley are here every
week, we could do it every week.
Yeah. But we don't want to deprive other
voicemails from being on the air. Most of
them are not very good, so you might
as well.
Oh, that's not true. There are many good

(02:13):
voices
on this radio station.
Yeah. I, can remember when I was a
kid learning that there was such a thing
as women's history. I don't know how old
I was when my mother told me that
women didn't have the right to vote until
the nineteen twenties.
And this was in the nineteen
fifties, I say.
Thirty years? And and then to to

(02:35):
to learn that women couldn't own property and
that they were, in fact, property and just
all the crazy things.
How do we keep so stupid?
Yeah. Well Was this a worldwide thing, by
the way?
Worldwide that women couldn't
vote? Was it like that in England and
Spain? And Oh, yeah. It was. I think

(02:56):
it's been that way since.
But did America lead the way in opening
up the vote to the women, or did
that start in England? It did start out
someplace else. I think it did start in
England.
I think maybe,
Rick, didn't you have a,
story about a woman in England who Oh,
well, yeah. And doing the vast research that,

(03:17):
we always do, I was amazed at how
many you know, went back, how many women
I have never heard of, and maybe a
lot of us are in the same boat,
but one in particular would, was let me
think. Look here.
Mary
Wollstonecraft,
born 1759,
died in 1890

(03:38):
I'm sorry.
1797.
But anyway,
she published a book called The Vindication
of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792,
and an English writer who championed education and
liberation for women. So that's a ways back,
and it's sometimes it's kind of funny and
weird that we still are

(04:00):
fighting that at times in today's world.
Well, I think one of the reasons that
we have so much trouble is that people
perceive that
women want to be equal with men in
every way, and that's just ridiculous because
we are two separate sexes. I mean, let's
not go down that road too far, but
you know what I mean. Sure. It's like
we have our own man. Qualities. You don't

(04:22):
know what I mean? I know what you
mean. Let's not go down that. Yeah. We
aren't equal.
Of course not. Yeah. I'm sure by now
we've we've got people,
interested in in in contacting us at So
send us a text at (541)
661-4098.
are standing by.

(04:42):
The operator has a text. Wow. Alright.
I hope you guys discuss reparations
for women.
Oh.
Oh. Now that's not something that I have
any knowledge of. Are there women out there
needing fighting for this cause? I wonder. This
Curry Cafe listener thinks that's a good idea.

(05:04):
They certainly have been put down and and,
you know, held back for a long time.
Pay still doesn't their pay still isn't truly
equal. The pay is very much,
lower than the men's pay,
the average salary of women. Yeah. Now the
job that I had was a union job.
And even if it wasn't the particular job,
I was a I was a state trooper

(05:25):
in Alaska, and women troopers got paid the
same as men troopers. Okay. Is that exactly
the same, you know, certain raises at certain
times and that's a but I realized there
are jobs,
I don't know, computer programs, things like that
or Teachers.
Teachers. Oh, really? Teachers. Yeah. Are men teachers
paid more than what? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, that

(05:45):
started way back when the man was the
so called breadwinner. And when women got into
the workforce, they said, well, you're not the
one bringing home the salary for the family.
So you don't get paid as much because
the man deserves more because he's the breadwinner.
It's gonna make the payment. The logic behind
that. And it's very difficult to

(06:07):
to say to somebody, no. You're in the
same job as the man held, but you're
not gonna get paid as much because you're
not the primary breadwinner.
That's not based on anything besides
what what would you call it?
Well, sexism. Yeah. Misogynistic
approach
to to all life. My sister was married
to

(06:27):
a guy in Georgia. They got married in
'63,
I think.
And,
and it was the
the decorum,
the norm in Georgia that the women
don't have their names on the checkbook.
She did not have her own checkbook
until
way
past the time that they moved into California.

(06:49):
So reparations, it would be very interesting to
see. But that meant he had to learn
how to balance the checkbook and pay the
bills. No. I think she did all that.
Oh, she did all She did all that.
But Probably wasn't responsible
for
for investments or anything like that too. She
could have been because she wasn't on the
checkbook. Yeah.
You know, that argument though that you were

(07:10):
saying, Shirley, pretty specious because I think there
were a lot of, well, I'm sure we
all agree it was a specious argument,
but,
they would say the same thing to a
woman whose husband had left her and she's
doing the running her family on her own,
they were gonna use that to say, oh,
well, your husband is the breadwinner.
And you don't have a husband? Well, we're

(07:30):
still not gonna pay you the same amount.
Mhmm. I think that happened a lot. Do
you think that still be happening. I was
just gonna say, do we know that that
is still
the norm, or is it a rarity in
this day and age?
It's I don't know. Yeah. That they're not
paid the same? Mhmm. You think that's still
going on? Oh, absolutely. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah.
I I'm I'm sure it is. Yeah. It's

(07:51):
probably better, I'm guessing,
but, it's still not equal. That's the Is
that what the caller had in mind? It's
what I'm worried. Reparations. Hold on. Well, if
if we were to give rep Who's gonna
pay the reparations? If we were to give
reparations to women, we'd have to go back
until the very beginning of when they started
earning money and calculate how much

(08:11):
each generation and each family should be paid
back for the oh my gosh. Who's gonna
We'd wipe out the government.
Well, we'll just have Elon Musk. We'll put
him right on that and Yeah. Figure out
where the money's gonna the Musk grab. This
is what we can do with all that
money we're saving by firing 8,000 people from
the VA. Give it all back to the
women.

(08:32):
Alright. I'll vote for that. You know, just
to to turn the conversation a little bit,
I went through and looked up some women
that I've really, I've never even heard of
them. So what do I know?
But, for example, women who are
who have left a mark on on society
in some way, shape, or form. And
in that, I learned that, Bessie Coleman, for

(08:55):
example, was an African American woman,
the first one to earn a pilot's license,
and that was back in 1927.
Wow. And, I also learned that a 63
year old Annie Edison Taylor
went over the Niagara Falls in a barrel
and survived.
So that is her claim to fame. So
But not not not not very,

(09:18):
I wouldn't want that as my claim to
fame. Yeah. But these these
are women myself in the head and survived.
Yeah. Whose names became
part of the fabric of society somehow for
for various reasons, and that one was she
survived going over. But, you know, I thought
that was kind of fun. Just a fun
little fact.
But, you know, a lot of the people

(09:38):
that we recognize, like,
Marie Curie,
you know, who did something profound that Mhmm.
That really
shook the rafters of the whole world, not
just one little part of society. Or Louisa
May, Alcott.
Yeah. People who really
Clara Barton, you know, Red Cross,
etcetera, etcetera. Cleopatra,

(09:59):
not to be left out, last pharaoh of
Egypt.
Mhmm.
But Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I wanted to bring
up because she was such a strong advocate
for women's rights and gender equality.
And we don't have a woman like that
on the court now. I mean, we do
have one gal that that whose name escapes
me right now, but she
she is

(10:20):
speaking up. And when the rest of them
are not
about what's going on politically right now, which
a lot of it has to do with
trying to put women back in
the box and put them in the attic
again, you know, where they won't make any
noise. Yeah. The Supreme Court and Amy Coney
Barrett is in the just doing
a reverse, I think. She's on the opposite

(10:40):
side of those. The woman? Listen to? Yeah.
There's another woman. Oh, there's yeah. Oh, yeah.
There are I think I've always my brain
stopped.
Brown Jackson? Yes. Yes. Brown Jackson. She's the
one that has is the the more liberal
And there's another one too.
So do my arm. There you go. Yeah.
Yeah. One Meyer. They're both the more liberal

(11:01):
ones on on When when she was being
confirmed, I thought it was interesting. One of
the people asked her,
if she
if she knew where she was last Christmas.
I don't know I don't understand the reason
for that. Maybe he was just trying to
point out that she was Jewish like he
didn't know that already. Oh. And she came
back, but she says, well, I don't specifically

(11:21):
remember, but like most Jewish people, I was
probably in a Chinese restaurant.
There you go. Was that Elena Kagan?
Elena Kagan. Elena Kagan. Kagan. Wait. Elena Kagan.
So do my art, wasn't it? No. No.
I think Elena Kagan is the
Yeah. Was that the that's a great answer.
And that's perfect. Yeah. That's absolutely perfect. Comeback.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I Oh, I saw a a

(11:43):
a a we were talking earlier about,
I've Got News for You. Mhmm. Yeah. And
and they had this particular night, they had
a a black there's two teams, and each
one had a black person on it. It's
not always like that, but it did it.
And they were talking about
whether or not somebody was Jewish or whether

(12:04):
or not it was important. And this one
woman says, well, I don't know. I just
don't see Jewish.
Yeah. Well, that's like I don't see color
or I don't see yeah. I thought that
was a very clever remark. Evidently, I was
the only one that got it. I'm on
the phone here.
But I guess if you wanna go back
in history, there have always been
somebody

(12:24):
waving a flag
against somebody else. You know? We seem to
be set up
to try to find an adversary
situation. Somehow, we can keep fighting something. We
can't we can't seem to want to come
to peace about anything, really. You know? Just
keep the embers going and
Well, that's kind of a good thing. And
to some ex extent, if you're on the

(12:46):
the side that that's causing or the recipient
of the change, it's good. Right now, for
most of us, it ain't so good, but
that could change.
It's interesting that the that remark about us
always having to be in some sort of
a conflict or or a battle
to
it may be something that's deep in our

(13:06):
social psyche. I'm not sure.
But one of the things one of the
the reasons that this book attracted my attention
when I went to the library to find
out about
some women in history,
this book
is
based on history
from Give the diary. It's called Liar,
Tempress,

(13:26):
Soldier, and Spy. Four women in the Civil
War who changed,
the war's direction.
Each one of these women,
some were on the South,
in the side of the Confederates, others were
on the side of the union.
And,
they
they were
they were so

(13:47):
dyed in the wool about and so rabid
about their own convictions
that they made they made they became spies.
They became,
lovers
of
the men, the soldiers, one on the other
side, one on this side, one on that
side. And then they would they developed
ciphers

(14:08):
to get letters
from one
one soldier to another soldier and got soldiers
out of jail. And one woman had,
had a secret room in her mansion. She
lived she was a very wealthy woman in
Virginia.
And she had a a secret room, and
she had her slave girl no. Not a

(14:29):
slave girl. I'm sorry. Her her
maid
her maid
was,
placed as a spy
in the home
of, Jefferson Davies, who was the president of
the of the Confederate soldiers.
And,
she went to the wife of of, Jefferson

(14:49):
Davies, and she said she said, now I
have this this little girl who will clean
for you because I know you're pregnant and
you need some help. And, well, this little
girl isn't too smart and she's not too
swift, but she does clean very well. And
I would like to lend her to you
so she can help clean your house. Well,
this
this,
this little black girl was actually she had

(15:11):
a
she had a photographic memory,
so she would go up to the president
Davies' office and clean it up and look
at all the papers and memorize absolutely
everything that was on his desk.
And then she had one of these memories
where you she could recall every single conversation
that went on. So she took all of

(15:32):
this information back
to,
to her,
the the lady that was
her boss, so to speak,
Elizabeth,
I can't remember her last name. I'll have
to find it. Anyway, the name the name
of this book, if you wanna go to
the library, is awesome, and it's all true.
Liar, temptress, soldier, and spy.

(15:53):
You know, today, she would just have to
get sucked into the YouTube or the
the chat. Yeah. Yeah. Somehow we're on the
The chatroom. We don't know how, but We
have different way of communicating now, don't we?
Yeah. Well I think I think, well, we
were talking before the show too. We all
kinda look back in history, and then it
was amazing the people that the ladies, the
women that we didn't know about. Mhmm. Well

(16:15):
or
the things that's decided. Remember how you looked
at the one ads and there was women's
jobs and men's jobs?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. Jobs for
women, jobs for men. To be like that.
It's a blood burning. And I can remember
the first time I saw a woman
driving a big truck or a bulldozer or
something like that. Neither of those things require
any
great strength, so there's no reason they couldn't

(16:37):
Technical skill. Yep. Yep.
Well, and working for the railroad, and I
started in, what, 1979,
and
track maintenance mostly, you know, if you've seen
people out there on the railroad with
hammers and,
picks and shovels, well, we
we started hiring ladies,

(16:57):
women, if you will, back in, I wanna
say, the mid eighties. You're talking about in
an office situation? No. No. No. I'm talking
about out there on the railroad tracks digging
in a railroad track. Oh, really? Doing the
manual
So called manual labor. Yeah. But a lot
of that stuff was done with machinery,
but there was still some physical labor.

(17:17):
And, yeah, they started to
filter in, if you will, and
some had a hard time, but some got
right through it. And it's pretty
pretty common now out there in that field.
Well, I was in a job where I
was kind of in the very early stages
of hiring women,
for equal jobs as men. I was a

(17:38):
I was a state trooper,
and I think when in my academy,
there was two women, and I think they
were like number three and number four.
Unfortunately,
it was a big push on affirmative action
in those days, and then we did hire
women and minorities
who were patently not qualified at all.

(18:00):
But the ones that were qualified and made
it were
did an excellent job, it was always the
always the kind of, well, they can't fight
with a you know,
in my career, I was in two fights,
and
I stupidly caused both of them. I didn't
you know, I should have used my words,
so to speak.
And

(18:20):
I had a a partner for for a
long time who
was just unbelievable at calming things down.
She's just she was
a pretty woman, kinda tall, very soft spoken,
and
people kinda like, Whatsername did with,
with
Jason, the the the the the rapper that

(18:43):
was
arrested for having all these women
Oh my goodness. All of them, I don't
know. Sorry. It's not in not in my
purview. Well, she's the woman on the morning
news, and she's interviewing this guy, and he's
getting mad and stomping around and acting like
he's gonna beat her up. And she's sitting
there very calmly. Now
now, John, you need to sit down and

(19:04):
call. She's famous for that that one interview.
Oh, wow. Missed that one. Sorry. But women
were
they were just like everybody else. They either
worked or they didn't work. Unfortunately,
like I said, affirmative action, we
we just hired a lot. Not a lot
because it was it wasn't a big department,
but we hired people who were just
very good. But the point you're making to

(19:26):
me, Ray, is that
somehow laws have to be enacted.
Things have to happen in a legal way
before people have the common sense to see
how stupid it is to deny people
with creative
abilities and talents
because of their sex. You know? I mean,
it's it's it's silly, but it has
come down to

(19:47):
everything having to to be legal somehow.
It's only legal. And as as you pointed
out, Billy, it's it's evidently still going on
that women
are under the thumb of of their husband.
And the more the government
people in government press for more of a
Christian
outlook on how things should be run, the

(20:07):
more they promote the idea
that the man is the leader and the
woman is subservient.
And not only and not only that. The
the the very idea
that
people have have a concept that affirmative action
hires
people who are not qualified,
it really gets under my craw because that

(20:29):
is not necessarily
true. Not necessarily. Hires. Not necessarily. I mean,
this is what what Trump is doing now
with his deal. That's basically affirmative action that
he he wants to do with. And that
We did
there there were not a lot of women
who wanted to be cops, and the Alaska
state troopers had a very different thing because

(20:49):
we would we had the thing one riot,
one trooper,
and we would sometimes fly out to a
village a hundred miles from anything and and
quell something. And women
didn't necessarily wanna do that job.
And but there's a stereotype that comes along
with that mentality
that that women might not be qualified, but,

(21:10):
oh, they're just so well. They're so good
at at,
calming men down. It's like, that's another stereotype
that I I really take offense to. But
it's not it's not necessarily true. Women don't
always calm people down. No. Because at the
at the same time, there was a there
was I don't. There was a a woman

(21:31):
that I work with. Actually, the three of
us several of us were friends, but this
one woman,
had to show how tough she was. And
she very often caused problems, starts screaming and
cursing at people
just to show just to show she was
as tough as anybody. You can say that
of men too.
A lot of men. I'm not I'm not
putting it on the whole group. I'm saying

(21:52):
there were people like that, and and we
had men wash out as well as women
who washed out. Of course. People feeling that
they have to prove themselves all the time.
I mean, that's Gee, I know quite a
few,
politicians who have that proclivity.
And is it? It's too bad to me
or to all of us, the the affirmative
action, the DEI,

(22:14):
those came about because of necessary
prejudices
and,
where you go back to stereotypes, but and
now they've turned them into
bad words. I can't pejoratives, if you will.
Pejoratives. But but
but they were necessary to and I think
they're still necessary because of just what we're
talking about. The pay's still not a %

(22:35):
equal in a lot of lot of places.
And before I forget, if this conversation is
stimulating you to text in, we have a
number. You have a text? Yep. Oh oh
oh my gosh. We're behind on text. From
our text. Let's We are behind on text.
Okay. Here we go. Linda
called, texted to say I have to disagree
with one of your statements. I heard one

(22:56):
of you say that women have been paid
less than men even as teachers. I was
a teacher in California in the nineteen seventies,
and all the teachers in our district were
on the same pay scale whether a man
or a woman.
We had Well, that's good to know. Yeah.
As some states are different. The men weren't
allowed different.
Texters,

(23:17):
says women weren't allowed to apply for credit
cards or loans Yeah. In their own name
until Right. 1974.
Mhmm. Mhmm.
Mhmm.
I think each state
pays their teachers differently too. I was in
Colorado,
not California,
so,
it's hard to say. Now here, I also

(23:38):
taught here.
My pay was based on experience
and degrees and not
not
whether I was a woman or a man.
So that changes too. Do we? Yeah.
Mhmm. Well, I I wanna go someplace that
maybe other people don't wanna go so you
can tell me not to talk about this
if you want to.
But

(23:59):
but I I think that that women, to
some degree, have shot themselves in the foot
by demanding to be part of the workforce
in that in that.
Now we have a problem with and it
shouldn't be a problem, but it is a
problem with women having to have somebody else
care for their children while they're at work.

(24:21):
Well, now we could go back and say,
well, daddy always went to work and mommy
stayed home with the kids. Well, it worked
out well.
Mommy can still go to work, but if
she's gonna have children, should she be the
caretaker? Should the parents be the caretakers of
their children
to a large degree? And my answer is
yes while they're small.
I think

(24:42):
a lot of the problems and people might
not like what I have to say.
A lot of the problems are because we
don't have solid family
situations, and that is kind of a Republican
talking point. And I'm not a Republican. Mhmm.
But the idea of why do we raise
children in the first place? You know? Why
do we bring them into the world and
then say, well, I'll go to work

(25:03):
after a month and let somebody else take
care of my children because I really need
the money. And now
one of our largest problems evidently is that
there aren't people that that are willing to
do childcare, and they want a lot of
money to do it. And so people have
to work harder to find somebody else to
take. I mean, it seems like it's a

(25:23):
circle that shouldn't be I'd like to see
that broken. I would like to see women
say, you know what?
I I'm I'm going to have my my
children with me, and I can go out
and have a part time job until they're
old enough. I understand. But, you know, it's
it's like the a month after they're born
and they go back to work and somebody
else I don't I just don't understand. A

(25:44):
professional person,
you're a doctor or a lawyer or or
somebody who's put a great deal of effort
into,
becoming what they are, but they also wanna
have children.
So if if you're a a doctor, say,
in private practice, you you have your own
practice,
and you wanna have children,

(26:05):
And what are you you're gonna close your
practice for a year? Or Well, if you
can afford childcare and by the way, childcare,
you can't just leave your children with,
some lady down the street like you used
to be able to. You have to have
degrees. You have to have training. You have
to have licenses. You have to pay a
lot of money to be And now it's

(26:25):
a profession. It's a profession to be a
child care provider,
and it costs a lot of money.
So if you've got money and you would
like to keep your doctorate,
and and and your professional position,
go ahead and put them in childcare if
you can afford it. I have a friend
who is,

(26:46):
in the camp
of of being with her child
and being the teacher of her child for
all the way through high school, and she
is absolutely dead dead set on that path.
And I'm sure she's going to do a
fine job because she's an educated woman, and
she can do it. But she won't be
able to have children come into her home
to take care of unless she pays big

(27:08):
money to have the licenses.
But I I guess I think that it's
selfish to say I can't give I can't
give full time
or maybe a half time, whatever Mhmm.
For just a few years. For just a
handful of years, you can still have your
your
creative life. You can still have your work

(27:29):
life. Yeah. But but I think a lot
of the social problems,
and I sound like my mother saying these
things, but,
but I think that we are abandoning
our children to
the nourishment
of understanding who they are in a family
situation.
Not everyone. But I think socially that is

(27:50):
Mhmm. We've shot ourselves in the foot. Maybe
society will gradually change to the fact to
that being the norm and being accepted and
and actually work. Now, I don't know much
about kibbutzes, but isn't that a thing where,
like the children belong to the kibbutz and
and all the the
the

(28:11):
In Israel? You know, the village to raise
a family kind of thing. In Israel. Yeah.
I think that's the whole point. You know,
we're
breaking away a little bit from the history
month. Yes. But that's okay because the subject
is This is history. This is this is,
the women's movement. But before yeah. But before
I go on too far, I wanna get
that text number out again. (541)

(28:32):
661-4098.
And I believe we're behind on text, so,
mister Mike. We are a little bit behind.
The the person who wrote in, I hope
you discuss reparations for women,
followed up shortly after that with it's from
The UK
Oxfam Dot Com.
This, but the economic injustice

(28:53):
is not just racial. It is deeply gendered.
For women and girls, the impact of colonial
history is compounded by intersecting forms of discrimination.
Every reparations initiative
must incorporate
a gendered analysis
acknowledging
that colonial and economic
exploitation

(29:14):
has had distinct and lasting effects on women.
This includes recognizing the
historical oppression of women
and addressing the,
persistent inequities they face now.
Reparations
should provide targeted resources
to narrow the gender wealth gap.
That means investments in women's education,

(29:37):
health care, land rights,
and economic empowerment.
On a previous show, I sent a comment
that was questioned, so I sent a follow-up
text which was ignored.
Please don't ignore my second text today
show
that in,
internationally,
the issue is being addressed in creative ways.

(30:00):
You don't wanna frustrate your listeners.
Signed,
nasty woman. Oh my goodness. I love nasty
woman. I love nasty woman. Nasty woman.
Nasty woman. I wanna know where the money
comes from.
That's
nasty. And what administrative
other than money. I don't I don't know
what that would be. Well well, what that

(30:21):
nasty woman is pointing out, though, is very
the point is very well taken.
But you need to have a governmental
structure that's
intact
to be able to put forth all of
those programs.
And I'm hoping we will still have
that here. I just wanna say something quick
before it goes away. I'm sorry that you

(30:42):
sent a text that was ignored.
It it was was unintentional that it was
ignored?
Yeah. And there are times when the texts
get lost,
if we go on Yeah. They go into
these chats talking about Well, I wanna bombing
Slightly. Slightly amend what I've been saying, but
but I do think that it comes down

(31:02):
to choice. It really does come down to
choice to say, a woman has as many
choices available to her as she chooses
to
explore
as a man does. Because we don't say
to a man, you can't do this and
you can't do that.
But we do say it to women. You
can't do this and you can't do that.
So women are always fighting for more

(31:22):
ability to do certain things. And
if if we were really truly equal, there
would not be those fights going on to
demand that we have equality in every way.
Equality is not the same as equity.
Wait. People women can have equality, but absolutely
not equity. What if they don't have the

(31:43):
means
to be able to
you're saying that that they can do whatever
they want. They can they should be able
to do whatever as far as they can
want to get in society. What if they
don't have the means to be able to
do that? That's they're they're totally it's totally
inequitable.
Well, so you're saying a man has certain

(32:04):
means that she doesn't have? What what's the
difference? Well, certain men don't have any means
either. I mean, there's a whole
of income disparity
in the country.
There's you can't possibly expect someone who is
in the
on the bottom tier and receiving
food stamps and on a HUD voucher

(32:25):
to be able to do what they wanna
do in this life. It's No. Not if
not if your whole existence is
putting food on the table. Mhmm. We had
a child tax credit
that
literally decreased children's poverty in this nation by
a ridiculous amount Yeah. And it was for
a couple of years, and now we've gone

(32:46):
away from it. To it. Yeah. Exactly.
So every time we find a solution that
works, we just We cut it out of
the system. Yeah. Well, is this an appropriate
time for me to say that there are
certain people that say that's a mommy state,
and now we've got a daddy state?
So now we've got strong man at the
helm instead of weak mommy at the helm.

(33:07):
We wanna take care of everyone. I just
I'm I'm being deb deb debbie at the
editor
here. I know you are. But we wanna
take care of every single one of your
needs through some sort of governmental pro
program. And it it's just it's what the
it's what certain people are fighting against now.
We can't answer every single need that you
have. You have to get out there and

(33:28):
work for yourself. But on
on at the same time, in the same
breath,
don't put roadblocks in my way. You know?
So people who live in small rural towns
certainly
might aspire to, having a job on Wall
Street in New York. How would they get
there? How would they get there? You know?
Yeah. If you don't have how can you

(33:49):
pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you
don't have any boots? Well,
yeah, it's a it's a really complex subject.
And we started out by saying,
throughout history, woman has been looked on
as lesser
and somehow
even as evil. You know? She's she's the
bad she's the bad guy in this scenario.
Oh, yeah. Let's blame our,

(34:10):
our issues on her. Take a bite out
of this apple. Yeah. So it's a Lorraine,
that was the that was the beginning of
the whole thing. Yeah. After that Yeah. After
that, women had to suffer pain throughout their
life,
and men had to get a job.
But there are a lot of religions that
are older than Christianity
that still,

(34:31):
put Before before I forget, can I That's
right? I just need to interject one thing
here. Nasty nasty woman, is that what you
call it? Mhmm.
We have openings. If you wanna come on
the show, we would absolutely love to have
somebody that has opinions. Yeah. Just,
kciw.org
and
Brookings, Oregon. Yes. Yeah. You had you'd have
Please come join us. And Yes. I will

(34:52):
admit that the nasty woman was talking about
me being the ignore because I remember a
couple times,
I just lost the text. So so sorry.
Yeah. We Stuff happens. Well, I'm just realizing
that affirmative action higher here. So we got
do. Right. And you have to we'll have
to allow for them to make a mistake
now. I wish I wish we had a
real call in

(35:14):
of We need the money for it. That's
the that's the problem. It's very expensive to
have the seven second right, second delay. Okay.
And I wanna go back to, Shirley, you
were talking about and again, yeah, it's a
little off
the women's history, but it is part. You're
talking about the ideal
the ideal way, I guess, to raise children,
you know, the father working, the mother at

(35:34):
home caring.
That would be wonderful if it if it
happened. And there are probably still homes that
do it. They're probably
rarer now. The economy just doesn't allow that
right now, I don't think, for most families.
Well, they have to have two incomes in
order to get have to have two incomes
in life. Because women
got back in

(35:55):
the got into the work. Yeah. But I'm
ancient that was ancient. Michael's telling me no.
That's not true. Well Okay. It is The
economic realities
that came from women getting back into are
the same manipulated
economic realities
that have driven all the money up to
the one percent.
It's just different excuses for different people.

(36:16):
Yeah.
Oh, hear me. Well Well, I don't think
any of us will be able to solve
the problems that we have in this society.
But I do think that we need to
honor the women in history who have made
differences
to help forward
us in To be encouraged to know that
we can make a difference if we hang

(36:38):
in there. And,
certainly, today, everything is so different with the
kind of communication that we have, and people
can fly to another country and stand up
there and make a speech and then come
home. You know? And so it's it it's
a completely different,
world than the one that that Yeah. Sure.
Early on that I grew up in. And
and I I would like to see

(37:00):
people just kinda get back to the basics,
you know. We live in a community,
and that community starts out with family. And
I have absolutely nothing against single parents.
I'm one myself.
But I think that
that we do have a responsibility
to look at our actions and to say,
who who are these people that we're bringing

(37:20):
into the world, and what are we offering
to them? And what's the best way to
do that? Yeah. And I do I do
think that
if people are strong within themselves, if they
know who they are,
if they're they're encouraged to use their intellect
and and aren't just harnessed into some thought
about this is what we do here,

(37:41):
It's the people who open their minds
to new ways of doing things or expanding
it to say, hey. Hey. You wanna do
that? Go ahead. Go ahead and do it.
What's in your way? Well, that presupposes that
they're allowed to be educated.
There are many there's I think there's an
effort afoot
to dumb down
the Oh, of course. The new the next

(38:02):
generation and to not allow them to become
educated, not allow them to learn about history,
the true history.
And you couldn't possibly
expect,
somebody in
certain societies to say, oh, I would like
to have my children learn
about black history.
They would say, oh my gosh. That's just

(38:22):
too woke for me. We don't want
our children to learn about black history. The
white kids feel bad. It makes the white
kids feel bad. Oh.
Yeah. I know. I know. It's really Those
those are some fake groans, I believe.
But, really, it does presuppose that we allow
our our,
up and coming generations to be educated. And

(38:43):
I don't think there's
any any,
desire to have our up and coming generations
be educated
quite to the contrary, I'm afraid. Well, I
I go back to That's true. A phrase
that you have to be you have to
be taught how to hate.
And and if you if you buy into
the idea that somebody is your enemy automatically

(39:05):
when you look at them to say, well,
that person looks a certain way. Therefore,
they're not like me. Therefore, they're they are
my enemy.
It's it's giving lip service all the time
to how we're looking for peace. No. We're
not. We're looking for ways to hate each
other. Yeah. And
and it it really is just mind boggling
because it's schizophrenic.

(39:25):
You know, give me this message and then
counteract it by giving me the other
other message. Yeah. Women can do anything men
can do. No. They can't.
You know? It's it's it's really fascinating. And
I
I really think that that we have made
progress. We have made progress.
But it's a little bit fragile right now,

(39:45):
and I I wonder how it's gonna turn
out. I'm glad that that
I'm not in a situation to be bringing
little kids into the world right now. I
think this is gonna be a a rough
road for a while. Yeah. It's going to
be for sure. Yeah. We'll
see what Well and along that,
those lines,
the, I don't believe

(40:06):
Trump has even much talked about women's history
month.
Oh, we wouldn't say no. He wouldn't. Well
Why would that be a topic for this
conversation?
His administration,
him himself,
he did say something about how he was
a champion of women at one time. He
does pull a lot of women in the

(40:27):
cabinet. He gagged me.
But but but but but And we know
he's an honest, truthful person. What's that? When
he says something, he means that he's an
honest, truthful person. Well, yeah. We all know
how far that goes. But, again, he's
been, what, convicted of 34
Felonies. Felonies.
No. Alleged
sexual assaults. Yeah. There's 18, I believe, women

(40:51):
in that general Indeed. Territory. And also,
members of his, well, he didn't get Gates,
Matt Gates didn't get approved, thank heavens. Thank
heavens. He was a sexual assaulter. Hegseth Hegseth.
RFK Jr,
Elon Musk Come on, please. Linda McMahon, and
husband
are all have these sexual assault cases.

(41:13):
Have they been proven?
I I guess not yet, but it's like,
where there's smoke, there's fire. Yeah. He was
recorded
talking bragging about him sexually assaulting women, and
he could because he was a star. So
that's on that point, Shirley, you were talking
or or we were all talking.
With this group,
women's

(41:34):
rights, if you will, are not gonna go
too far. You know, especially like with with
Linda McMahon and her husband. Her husband was
convicted, by the way, I think. Okay. But,
but Linda McMahon,
was yeah. I mean, all of that
wrestling, the the wrestling,
worldwide,
I can't remember the name of it. Liberties.

(41:54):
But But it's all it's all such a
show. It's but it's the kind of a
show that Trump loves to be a part
of. And so this is the kind of
a show that he's bringing
into our politics,
into our,
government.
No. He wants it to be a show
that is violent

(42:15):
and,
oppositional.
He absolutely loves it. He's talked about he's
going to change the, the type of shows
that we see at the Kennedy Center, which
will very soon be the It'll be very
soon be the Trump Center. I know that.
That's wrestling. But maybe that's what he'll have.
Right there on the stage, we could have
world champion wrestling.

(42:35):
Yep. Yep. We certainly could. Well, and we
still have a little bit of time, but
before we work, I wanna bring up just
a couple of
women
that were part of women's history, very important,
and kind of along where Shirley you were
talking about and we were talking about in
the good old days when the woman could
stay home pretty much and help raise the

(42:55):
kids.
Eleanor Roosevelt
She was just gonna mention. I thought was
looking at her
history, if you will.
She was kind of one of the
not really the first ones, but she pretty
much championed
going around,
visiting the, I call them the common people,
seeing the problems and the issues. She kinda

(43:17):
changed the way a first lady was booked
out, I believe. Right. Yeah. And she was
pretty powerful and outspoken.
And And always the woman behind the man.
Well, there you go. And she certainly was
one. And Franklin
grew grew up in
extremely guarded or pampered world where he he
didn't know that that people lived in tenements

(43:39):
and lived the way they did. I believe
that's that is correct. At all. He was
a mama's boy. He wore a dress till
he was about 16 or some damn thing.
I don't know, but No. Ma very much
a mama's boy.
They would, like, drive the limo through some
poor neighborhoods. They weren't even looking out the
window, and it
it wasn't something that computed.
And

(43:59):
Eleanor took him to places like that Right.
And showed him that we need to do
something about that. Mhmm. She was also,
his legs when I went to going out
and inspecting things and looking for things to
worry about.
Yeah. Well, see, that's that's the problem right
now is that
the people who are the wealthiest are the
least
able to understand

(44:21):
the common
pardon expression.
The ordinary
Joe on the street, so to speak, you
know, because
it's it's very hard to understand. You know?
They just don't get it. They don't walk
you. Pull yourself up by your bootstrap? Yeah.
Why don't you get out there and get
a job? Yeah. What's, you know, why why
should I pay you? Look at you. You
don't dress right. You know? I mean, it's

(44:42):
it's really, really interesting that that we have,
at this point in time,
so many very, very wealthy people who are
calling all the shots. It's the autocracy. It's
it's the oligarchy. Well, I mean, we are
in an oligarchy now,
with Well, I hope we get out of
it. Yeah. It's,
I'm counting on women.

(45:04):
Well, let's count on women. Yes.
If you just stand up, you're most of
the people in the world. If you just
stand up, you won't be able to say
no. But a lot of people are standing
up. Yeah. There are a lot. They're Happy
to see that. We have some we have
some good women in congress right now.
And,
as much as,
the stride as strident as she is, AOC

(45:27):
is very well spoken.
And when she did the tour
around the speaking tour with, Bernie Sanders,
I watched it, and they were on fire.
Yeah. I mean, they felt them real great.
Really on fire. Yeah. And, boy, what a
good team of the very old guard, Bernie.
Bernie. Yeah. Bernie and AOC.
And AOC. And Striden we need Stridency. We

(45:48):
do. And Jasmine Crockett is another one that
I real I just love the way that
one went. Got humor. And I think that's
one of the the good things about her
is she isn't strident. She's
she sees it, and she calls it. And
she's a she's an attorney. She's a a
lawyer. Yeah. Well, it's it's the law. All
hail Trump.
Everybody has to hail Trump. Well, I doubt.

(46:10):
But the women who the women who are
not hailing Trump are the ones that we
have to count on right now. We'd have
to count on all the people who I
I
I don't remember what maybe it was Bill
Maher
last night said,
nobody in Trump's orbit will correct him. And
that's how he winds up giving speeches talking
about

(46:30):
transgender
mice and stuff like that. He Oh, yeah.
He does understand the meaning. Completely wrong.
I I I always used to think,
doesn't he have doesn't he have people who
kinda review what he says? Evidently not. So
Bill Maher says nobody in his orbit will
correct him. How did they let him get
away with it? I mean, I'm astonished.
Yeah. I don't know. What what Bill said

(46:51):
that that what he says what
Trump says
is gospel, and nobody will correct him. And
he was saying that, you know, someday he
may come walking out onto the stage with
his fly open, and nobody will tell him
his fly was open. But the next day,
everybody would have their fly open.
Can you can I count on that? Well,
that see, that's the difference between men and

(47:13):
women. I don't think we would be that
stupid.
Well, I I didn't wanna turn in this
into Trump bashing. But Yeah.
Politically, we do have to look at
at how people can get power
and keep power
despite
the facts. You know, be

(47:33):
it's it's sort of like it's it's mind
blowing. But I think that we,
I think that we are living in an
age also where communication is so strong
that people can see. The thing that worries
me is is the AI,
the opportunity for people to just
put your picture in into a scene where
you never were there, and and somehow that's

(47:55):
gonna become the truth. Mhmm. Yeah. And and
that again, we're Yeah. Paying so much attention
to trying to make things,
electronically
so much more
interesting and superior and not taking care of
the real needs. And I think that's the
dichotomy. Like like Trump says, everything is computer.
Yeah. But we still need to have food.

(48:17):
We still need to who's who's gonna to
take care
of bringing in all of the the crops,
the harvest, if if we don't have any
people to to work in the fields? I
mean, it's just Or the slaughterhouses.
Yeah. Something. Well, we we can like, they're
doing Florida. We can change the child labor
laws. Oh, that's
exactly right. Yeah.
Or potentially would be kicking out so many

(48:38):
migrants that we need to fill those jobs
out. Get the 11 year olds out here
in the feed. Yeah. Yeah. Picking picking cotton
or whatever it is to do.
Well, you know, through working with this station,
and, we we have to depend
on young people
and
smart young people, and a lot of them

(48:59):
are ladies that we have had here in
our studio,
I have a lot of hope right now
that they're gonna
start rising up and take care of all
this old
crazy guard that I don't know how this
has got rejuvenated
in our society.
When you were a teacher,
did most teachers,

(49:21):
feel that they had a responsibility
to educate kids and
would would might want to
deal with some of the silly things that
are coming on about not teaching black history
and things like that. Wait. Well, when I
was when I was teaching, those were the
books
in the classroom that we taught. We taught
the the kite runner, for example, in the
ninth grade. Mhmm. We taught that book about

(49:43):
the sharecroppers,
in the sixth grade.
Yeah. We were we we taught
the classics
that, that some of them now are being
banned. Yeah.
It's, the Well, Santa Feisig. The To Kill
a Mockingbird, I think, has been banned in
schools. It's like,

(50:04):
hello? Yeah. Yeah. I do believe it has
been. But in some states depends on where
you go. Not in every state. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean,
You know, the the library here has very
strict guidelines as to what's in an adult
section and a children's section. Mhmm. And you
can't go in the adult section unless you're
a certain you can't even go in the
library
by yourself unless you're a certain age. Yeah.

(50:25):
Well, not that. I can understand that. Yeah.
But but what I'm saying is
kids are protected from this
Yeah.
Well, we
we always
allowed
parents to come into the classroom if they
wanted to and to be there and to
observe and to
say to raise their hand just like the

(50:46):
and we we kept
a a classroom in control.
And we never had cell phones in the
classroom. Well, but children Can't imagine that. Growing
up never spoke back to a teacher. Never
spoke back. I mean, they did. When I
was teaching, they never spoke back. It was
it was you raise your hand if you
have a comment to make. You and,
the teacher was in control. Yeah. The teachers

(51:07):
are not in control. In my school.
Oh, well, no. Probably not. Well, I probably
sent you to the principal more than once.
Well, I had a I had a seat
with my name on it.
Well, just just to back up what you
were saying, Billy, there are people who
are hired to write the textbooks that will
be used,
and so they change depending on the political

(51:30):
scene.
So,
you know, when I was growing up, we
we taught how nice the Indians were to
the pilgrims. You know? I mean, it it's
just so sanitized. It's ridiculous. Yeah. But,
but but we don't we don't want to
tell people, uh-oh. I did this horrible thing.
You know? Oh, I'm so sorry. No. We

(51:51):
just we'll just pretend it didn't exist. Just
whitewash it. Yeah. Mhmm. And, you know, there's
a movie that
called Song of the South. Does anybody remember
that? Sure. Yeah. I saw it recently, in
fact. That? Oh, did you really? Yeah. Oh,
I thought that was banned.
Isn't it? Was it banned? Banned things in
this country. This is America. Oh, I'm sorry.
Excuse me. I think I saw it on

(52:11):
on YouTube.
Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that.
But, you know, certain movies
that are so innocuous in my way of
looking at things, it reminded me of a
book as a child that I really loved.
It was Little Black Sambo.
Mhmm. And to me, there was nothing
it was just an entertaining story.

(52:31):
There was nothing political or anything to
to ruin my poor little mind. You know?
And I'm thinking But if Why
are we telling people that it's not okay
to read these
these books? Or You know? Any books. When
I watched Song of the South, I knew
it was was criticized and,
okay, we kinda stereotyped.

(52:51):
Was it uncle Remus's Ezra? Yeah. Yeah. Uncle
Remus. To some extent, but we didn't make
him a
a dumb, uneducated person. If anything, he was
a bit of a philosopher. Yeah. He was.
Yeah. Yeah.
I I haven't watched that in quite,
many decades, but I kinda as I go
back and see little clips, it does kinda

(53:12):
look stereotyped
to me. If you yeah. It was.
Is that the one that had the crows
singing and stuff like that? No. That's that's
Dumbo.
Oh, okay.
Okay. It was somewhat stereotyped,
but there were look. Let's face it. Go
back and look at some of those cartoons.
Even some of whom I love the Marx
Brothers, but some of the Marx Brothers comedies

(53:33):
were pretty
pretty,
racist.
Well, yeah. Mox Brothers? Oh, yes. Yeah. Well,
and There's one particular scene I remember where
they're talking about look at them darkies and
that kind of a thing. Yeah. Wow. Here
boy, we are way off of the history
right now. But,
and I do kind of wanna go back

(53:55):
to that before we,
end our time. And I back to a
text, Mike, that you had read. Did I
hear that right where the person was questioning?
We were talking about how women
in the seventies even couldn't get their own
credit card. Were they denying that or were
they No. They no. They were mentioning that.
Oh, oh, okay. Okay. Then I heard that
wrong. Yeah. I heard that wrong. That yeah.

(54:17):
That's true. Well, that's that's because they were
not in the workforce. They were not considered
to be in the workforce, and so they
had no need to have it. A
if you if you wait until you're married,
then your husband will tell you what to
think. And that's just You know? The way
That's the point. The way my sister's,
first,
the first few years of her marriage were
like that. Yeah.

(54:38):
Well, there was a time I remember my
dad saying, you know, those those guys back
in Washington, they know what they're doing. I
mean, when No. Seriously. Yeah.
Because there there wasn't
television and there wasn't all of the stuff
that we have now. So you send somebody
to Washington to represent you, and you assume
that they know what they're doing. And you
assume that they're actually representing you. And they

(55:00):
tell you. You know? So it's an entirely
different world. It is. Yeah.
And some not for the best. I'm sorry
to say. No. That's that's for sure. We'll
see. Well, you know what they say about
assume. Uh-oh. I know.
It makes an a s s out of
you and me. That's right.
I'm like, oh, yeah. I've done that a
lot. I know.

(55:21):
And we are kinda running down or out
of time here. So we it's March, what
is it? March 30, might be correct? Tomorrow's
the least So we we finally get into
it. We snuck it. One more day of
women's history month,
and we are a little late on that,
but at least we did what we could
to cover it. And we're surely and everybody,
we're all correct on saying that. Little fashion,

(55:43):
we've done something to change the world. And
it and I just hope people go over
to the library
and look up some of these books about
women in history.
I am just fascinated. I haven't really read
the whole thing, but I'm fascinated with this
book.
Well, it's a it's a history by Karen
Abbott.
I wonder how much,

(56:04):
trouble these women got into,
and it'll probably say in the book. Yeah.
I think to wave wave their flag. You
know? One one ended up in jail, and
one
ended up being shot by
a colonel. And yeah, oh, yeah,
they do get in trouble. And the bird
like, again, the burning of the witches. I
mean, that was not a little fake story

(56:24):
when. Yeah. That was really going on. Sad.
The final question is why are men so
eager to
victimize women? Why why is that? Why why
are women that target the Genesis
Yeah. Probably. Book of Genesis. Am I correct
there? I'm not a Bible scholar. Yeah. I
think it's It was the woman's fault. Yeah.
Yeah. That's right. It She's had enough sense

(56:46):
to realize that snakes can't talk, and she's
imagining this. And she's just doing what she
wants to do and blaming it on the
damn snake. Right. Well, you know, being a
being
a being a herper, I am very insulted
by that. My phrase has always been, you
bite in, you buy in.
She had him bite into the apple, so
he had to buy into the fact that

(57:07):
it was sinful to have any
any relations
with her unless she could
be in painful
childbirth.
You know? So And so childbirth is the
whole point. Why didn't God just make another
man out of that rib if that's what
he want? Oh, no. Never mind. Now I
get yeah. Now I know.
Why do they both have belly buttons?

(57:30):
So it's religion
at the basis of much of what we're
dealing with. I I agree. Everywhere. I absolutely
believe that. A %. So And there is
started. There's a great move afoot to try
to make believe that our forefathers were Christians,
which they were not. No. You know? So
this is not a Christian nation. For those
of you who think that it is, you

(57:51):
know, from the very beginning. Even if they
were, they don't have a proud history. So
yeah. This country was was was founded on
slavery, manifest destiny,
white supremacy, and there's another one. I can't
remember who it was. Well, they were all
Genocide?
No. But the Genocide. Yeah. Most of them
most of them were,

(58:12):
oh,
and I'm and now the phrase is is
absolutely
skipping my mind Oh, well. At three fifty
nine and twenty seven seconds.
We are down to the last thirty seconds.
So I wanna thank Billy and Shirley, of
course, as always. Like to have them back
all the time.
And,
every last quick minute down to quick seconds

(58:34):
because we are out of town. Really loved
or hated what we had to say,
we have this telephone number. Next time around,
give us a text. Please. Let us know
what you think. And this is KCIWLP
one hundred point seven,
beautiful Brookings, Oregon. Thanks, everybody.