My maternal grandmother,Ann,was born in 1918 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,and my paternal grandmother,安娜1904年出生在俄罗斯，后来搬到加德纳小镇。MA at the tender age of two.
They lived in an alternative universe from the one we,our daughters,nieces,和孙女住在今天。尽管我很珍惜他们的记忆，that's a good thing.
My grandmothers lived in a male-dominated world.They played the roles passed down from their mothers and grandmothers in traditionally Jewish Orthodox homes;they cooked,cleaned,raised the children,最肯定的是，他们没有在屋外工作。And,unlike today,they all had large families.娜娜my mom's mom,eventually did the bookkeeping for my grandfather's electrical business,but only because he needed her help and the price was right (free).
我的祖父母保持犹太洁食，not out of choice,但因为这是意料之中的。My grandmothers used two sets of dishes,so in addition to doing all the cooking from scratch,they washed and dried each dirty dish by hand.
当男人们在逾越节晚餐后放松时，Shabbat dinners,break-the-fast meals,and nightly home-cooked meals,the women were tasked with cleaning up the very large mess.对他们来说，this was the norm.It was their life,他们的宗教信仰，他们的传统。The women of my grandparent's generation couldn't have imagined life unfolding any other way.
When my mom graduated high-school,she realized there was one big difference between her and her brothers: they were allowed to go to college and she was not.She wanted to.She was an excellent student and loved learning.But as far as my grandparents were concerned,in the late 1950s,college was strictly for boys.After marrying,and while raising four,young daughters,我妈妈上了大学（十三年多），最终获得了学士学位。She became a respiratory therapist and then a practice manager for a large medical group.她猛烈地打破了模型，paving the way for my sisters and me to follow our dreams.
然而,there were still barriers.例如，while growing up,we girls could play softball,网球，track,or be on the swim,gymnastics,or cheerleading teams (I was a cheerleader my sophomore and junior years – GO BRUINS!).然而，足球，lacrosse,basketball,高尔夫，足球，and wrestling were off limits.Those were for boys.A few of these sports are still limited for girls,但在全国各地的高中里，这项计划正在慢慢实施。
And there is another area where girls have progressed.Sexuality,whether gay or straight,我年轻时经常被禁忌和沉默所支配。同性恋不是人们公开谈论的事情。
谢天谢地，life for my 25,19,and 7 year-old nieces is different.They have the freedom and independence to travel the world on their own.我的两个老侄女去了欧洲，巴厘最近以色列和尼加拉瓜，我的小侄女帮助一个贫困的城镇建造了厕所。这些天,girls attend college,pursue any and all of their career choices,play whatever sports they choose,and are more free to express their sexuality in an honest and authentic way.These are the latest barriers that have been torn down;玻璃天花板已经破碎成数百万无法辨认的碎片。
Of course,there are still barriers to be broken,最大的是一个坐在椭圆形办公室桌子后面的女人，symbolizing the fact that the country is ready for a woman having the ultimate power.We're not there yet.And though it feels like we're in a backlash moment right now (we are!),my guess is,it won't be long until even that glass ceiling is shattered.
Chipping away at sexism and outdated ideas about gender has real-life consequences.我希望我的家庭中的下一代女孩生活在一个真正改变了的宇宙中，而不是我的祖母所经历的。
