A Conversation with Anna Quindlen

Last Thursday evening, I had the privilege of attending an event at which Pulitzer Prize winning writer, Anna Quindlen was the featured speaker. I have long been a fan of her work, especially the Last Word column in Newsweek. For thirty years, Quindlen has written about her family, her work, politics, education and social justice and she is just as outspoken in person as she is in print.

The topics ranged from her children--("If I ever write a memoir about motherhood it will be called Mistakes Were Made," she quipped), politics ("I always dreamed about the day when a woman and an African American would run for president. Who knew it would be at the same time?" she joked), and her work, which she organizes by week ("One week is Column Week; the next week is Novel Week," she explained. "I wake up every Monday with a blank slate"). Billed as a conversation with Anna Quindlen, the evening featured a one on one conversation between Quindlen and Philadelphia journalist, Jane Eisner that felt intimate and profound.

What has resonated with me in the days following, however, has been the difference that five years seems to make in terms of feminism and one's commitment to the cause. Quindlen is exactly five years older than I am and I feel like if she was Class 1, I was Class 1c. There is no doubt that I attained some of my accomplishments because women like Quindlen paved the way and to a certain extent, I rode on their coattails. But I think because those pioneers (she was, after all only the third woman in the New York Times' history to write a regular column for its Op-Ed pages), had to bang their heads a little more forcefully against the proverbial glass ceiling than I did, she is a bit more strident, a bit more adamant and a bit more of a feminist than I and I think her attitude is, to a certain extent, all about timing.

Maybe not. Maybe it's about opportunity, living and working in New York City. Maybe it's about playing with the big boys and winning. Certainly it's about being held to a higher standard and working twice as hard for half the recognition and having to lobby for the chance to compete--all provinces through which I too have traveled--but it's also about being more vocal during the journey.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Quindlen is an ardent Hillary supporter because they came of age at the same time--between five and ten years earlier than I did--and it seems to have made all the difference.

Anyway, the best quip on feminism came from one of Quindlen' sons who proudly wears the black tee shirt that his mother, the current president of Barnard's Board of Trustees, gave him. On the front it reads; Dare to use the F word. On the back, it says Feminism. When she saw him wearing it, she expressed her surprise and delight, patting herself silently on the back for having raised such a socially conscious male. "Mom," said son explained. "I always wear this shirt. Chicks love it."

Touche.