Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and you're listening to Stuff Mo
Speaker 1: I've Never told you. One of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: working on this show has been learning the histories of
Speaker 1: badass women i'd often unfortunately never heard of, and it
Speaker 1: is a shame because their stories and contributions are so inspiring.
Speaker 1: Back when I was a video producer for this show,
Speaker 1: I my favorite series we had, as I've mentioned before,
Speaker 1: was something called History. Um, it's just I'm a big
Speaker 1: history fan and I love learning more about these badass women.
Speaker 1: And one of my favorite historical figures I've learned about
Speaker 1: through working on this show is Surely Chisholm. So, in
Speaker 1: honor of President's Day, we agend here in the United States.
Speaker 1: Here's a classic episode delving into the life and legacy
Speaker 1: of Shirley Chisholm. Welcome to Stuff Mom Never Told You.
Speaker 1: From how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline. And Caroline, you
Speaker 1: know those times when we are researching for Stuff Mom
Speaker 1: Never Told You and we learn about a woman that
Speaker 1: excites us and inspires us so much a it's give
Speaker 1: me goose bumps right now, and we can't wait to
Speaker 1: talk about it in the podcast studio, but also we
Speaker 1: just want to tell everyone about her, like uh, Polly Murray,
Speaker 1: Shirley Chisholm. I mean, in such a political time as this,
Speaker 1: reading about Shirley Chisholm was such a breath of fresh
Speaker 1: air but also a little bit of a disappointment that
Speaker 1: she's not still around for me to hug. Yeah, call
Speaker 1: up on the telephone, say thanks, Shirley. Yeah, write a
Speaker 1: number of thank you letters to just for just for everything,
Speaker 1: because y'all, Shirley was a badass and you need to
Speaker 1: know who she is, and you need to tell everybody
Speaker 1: you know about who she was. Yeah. Unfortunately for all
Speaker 1: of us, she was a woman ahead of her time.
Speaker 1: I mean fortunately because we have such a great story
Speaker 1: to tell about her, but unfortunately because well, being so
Speaker 1: ahead of her time, she was sort of kept out
Speaker 1: of the positions that she would have done so much
Speaker 1: great work in. And so, of course, Shirley Chisholm was
Speaker 1: the first African American woman in Congress and the first
Speaker 1: black woman to run for a major party's nomination for president,
Speaker 1: among many many other firsts. But something that's really kind
Speaker 1: of beautiful and poetic about her is that. In an
Speaker 1: interview in her later years, she would say, when I die,
Speaker 1: I want to be remembered as a woman who lived
Speaker 1: in the twentieth century and who dared to be a
Speaker 1: catalyst for change. I don't want to be remembered as
Speaker 1: the first black woman who went to Congress, and I
Speaker 1: don't even want to be remembered as the first woman
Speaker 1: who happened to be black who ran for the presidency.
Speaker 1: I want to be remembered as a woman who fought
Speaker 1: for change in the twentieth century. And so this episode
Speaker 1: is sort of a love letter too, surely to not
Speaker 1: only educate you our listeners, and to educate ourselves, and
Speaker 1: to provide this sort of inspirational figure for women in
Speaker 1: politics and in this country in general, but really to
Speaker 1: honor her memory and to tell you her story. And
Speaker 1: part of us honoring her is really diving into her complexity,
Speaker 1: her passion, and her brilliance that history just has not
Speaker 1: given her enough credit for. We need to know more
Speaker 1: about Shirley than the things, the individual things that she accomplished.
Speaker 1: We need to know how and why she did that.
Speaker 1: Um And also, I mean, surely it's just fabulous for
Speaker 1: her gift of gab. Yeah. Um, some of her quotes
Speaker 1: like I don't know, I mean, we literally could deliver
Speaker 1: this entire podcast in just surely chisolen quotes because she
Speaker 1: was such an amazing figure for women in general. She
Speaker 1: was a staunch feminist. In addition to being proud of
Speaker 1: her blackness, she was also proud of her woman nous. Um.
Speaker 1: And she said at one point, the emotional, sexual, and
Speaker 1: psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says it's
Speaker 1: a girl. How ahead of her time is that? You know?
Speaker 1: Who quote Shirley Chisholm quite a lot when he's talking
Speaker 1: about his own feminism is President Barack Obama, that's right,
Speaker 1: who also posthumously awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
Speaker 1: and which says so much about the respect and admiration
Speaker 1: that he has for her. Um, which just makes me
Speaker 1: makes me already missed him being in office. Um, but
Speaker 1: let's go back to Brooklyn in nineteen twenty four. Surely.
Speaker 1: Anita st Hill was born on November twenty of that
Speaker 1: year in Brooklyn to Charles sat Hill, who was a
Speaker 1: factory worker from Guiana, and Ruby Seal sat Hill, who
Speaker 1: was a seamstress from Barbados, and surely it was the
Speaker 1: oldest of four daughters. Yeah, so she was around a
Speaker 1: lot of amazing women's no surprise that she grew up
Speaker 1: like all pro lady power um. But from the age
Speaker 1: of three to ten she actually lived on her grandparents
Speaker 1: farm in Barbados in order to get a British education.
Speaker 1: Her parents remained back in Brooklyn. They were working to
Speaker 1: make a living in the bed Stye neighborhood during the Depression,
Speaker 1: and they basically figured like, here you can go live
Speaker 1: a happy, wonderful life with your grandparents, getting an education
Speaker 1: while we work here. And so once she came back
Speaker 1: to Brooklyn, she aces public school and ends up getting
Speaker 1: accepted to Oberlin and Vassar. She opts to go to
Speaker 1: Brooklyn College on scholarship, and here we see one of
Speaker 1: the first instances. And I love to talk about mentors
Speaker 1: and teachers and things like that on the podcast to
Speaker 1: show how kids get inspired to do things. Obviously, she
Speaker 1: was not a kid at the point that she was
Speaker 1: at college, but her political science professor, Lewis wars Off
Speaker 1: encouraged her to consider a career in politics because of
Speaker 1: her quote quick mind and debating skills. But even at
Speaker 1: the time, Shirley's talking to Professor Lewis and she says,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not so sure because I've got this
Speaker 1: double handicap. That was her quote. I've got this double
Speaker 1: handicap of being both black and a woman. But of
Speaker 1: course that double handicap doesn't stop her from being active
Speaker 1: in college. She joins the debate team, and when a
Speaker 1: social club on campus denies black students entry, she starts
Speaker 1: her room. It's called Apothia, and Apathia actually stood for
Speaker 1: in pursuit of the highest in all? Can we start
Speaker 1: an Apathia club? Can we can we get a chapter? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't know how you do that, but but I
Speaker 1: think we'll just start with a framed portrait of Shirley
Speaker 1: Chisholm and a bottle of water. That's right. Um, So
Speaker 1: from there. In nine six, Shirley graduates kum Laudie with
Speaker 1: a sociology degree, and she begins working as a nursery
Speaker 1: school teacher. A few years later, in nineteen nine, she
Speaker 1: marries Conrad Q. Chisholm, who's a private investigator. Uh and
Speaker 1: in ninety two she gets her master's in Early Childhood Education,
Speaker 1: from Columbia while working as a teacher and ends up
Speaker 1: becoming the director of two daycare centers and early childhood education.
Speaker 1: Ends up becoming her entry point into politics. Yeah, basically
Speaker 1: because a couple of years later, in nineteen sixty, she
Speaker 1: becomes a consultant to the New York City Division of Daycare.
Speaker 1: So there you see her straddling that line of public
Speaker 1: life and also still being in the education world. And
Speaker 1: so around this same time time, Shirley has joined a
Speaker 1: local Democratic club that had been working really hard to
Speaker 1: root out the white leaders of the Bedstine neighborhood, who
Speaker 1: they said were ignoring black residents who were the majority
Speaker 1: in that neighborhood. And they made a wonderful decision that
Speaker 1: ended up being terrible for them. But in order to
Speaker 1: shut her up, like god, this woman with her confidence
Speaker 1: and smarts and brilliance, to shut her up, they put
Speaker 1: her on the board of directors and she's like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: that's gonna shut me up. She surely, so, of course
Speaker 1: she doesn't. They end up removing her from the post
Speaker 1: because she was so vocal and so active in the community.
Speaker 1: They were like, oh, we did the exact wrong thing.
Speaker 1: They couldn't handle the Chisholm. You can't handle the Chisholm
Speaker 1: and uh. In nineteen sixty two, the group actually got
Speaker 1: a black man elected to the State Assembly, Thomas R. Jones.
Speaker 1: But in four Jones actually decides, Hey, I'm going to
Speaker 1: run for a judge ship. So the community was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know that surely woman we like her. So she
Speaker 1: ends up replacing Jones, making her the second ever African
Speaker 1: American woman elected to the New York State Legislature. Now
Speaker 1: keep in mind, if you've listened to our previous podcast
Speaker 1: episode on arch conservative anti feminist Phyllis schlaf Lee, nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty four is the year her star starts to rise
Speaker 1: because she helped yet racist, anti civil rights un activist
Speaker 1: Barry Goldwater as the Republican nominee for president. Yeah, running
Speaker 1: against Lyndon B. Johnson, who beat Goldwater in the election.
Speaker 1: So she's elected to the New York State Legislature, and
Speaker 1: she has two bills she is especially proud of, one
Speaker 1: of which established a program to help disadvantage high schoolers
Speaker 1: go to college, and one that changed the practice of
Speaker 1: revoking tenure for teachers who got pregnant. So you can
Speaker 1: already see from the get go at the state level,
Speaker 1: Surely is out to work for the people. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: I the fact that so early in her career she's
Speaker 1: managing to accomplish things like this, that this is what
Speaker 1: she's pushing for, and this will remain the type of
Speaker 1: thing that she pushes forth throughout her political career. I mean,
Speaker 1: it just warms my cold dead heart, basically. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I mean, and the thing is she's good at it.
Speaker 1: She's very good at what she's doing. So in Night, Surely,
Speaker 1: who is not one to just let history pass her by,
Speaker 1: she says, you know what, I want to run for Congress. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And it's sort of a perfect storm of things that
Speaker 1: convince her to run because there had been this court
Speaker 1: ordered redistricting that had carved out a brand new Brooklyn
Speaker 1: district from her bed Stye neighborhood, and the Democrats very
Speaker 1: specifically wanted to send an African American from this new district,
Speaker 1: the twelfth District, to the House of Representatives. And so
Speaker 1: she launches her primary campaign, which she said was strenuous,
Speaker 1: and she used the slogan unbought and unbossed, and she
Speaker 1: set herself apart from her three competitors with a super personal,
Speaker 1: up close and personal campaigning style. She even said you
Speaker 1: have to let them feel you. She really got out
Speaker 1: there among the people. And in addition to getting out
Speaker 1: there among the people, she also wrote around in an
Speaker 1: open truck with a loudspeaker. I love this. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: um would ride around this truck announcing ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: This is fighting Shirley Chisholm coming through and people loved it.
Speaker 1: And I would still like to note that unbought and
Speaker 1: unbossed would remain her campaign slogan. Yeah, what I really
Speaker 1: want after watching her documentary on Amazon, which is called
Speaker 1: Shirley No, which is called Chisholm seventy two, unboughten un bossed,
Speaker 1: I really want to get my hands on one of
Speaker 1: her campaign posters because it's got a picture of her
Speaker 1: with unbought and unbossed and it's really cool, you know
Speaker 1: that classic style. Well, so when we get to the
Speaker 1: general election, she's a Democrat and she's up against Republican
Speaker 1: opponent James Farmer, who's a solid opponent. I mean, he
Speaker 1: was a big figure in the civil rights movement. He
Speaker 1: was the co founder of the Congress for racial equality.
Speaker 1: He was an organizer as part of the Freedom Writers,
Speaker 1: and they even had similar views on education, housing, employment,
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. So like, how do you pick? How
Speaker 1: how does she set herself apart? Well, I mean she
Speaker 1: did it handily because Shirley ended up winning six of
Speaker 1: the vote. Uh, and with that the distinction of being
Speaker 1: the first black woman elected to Congress. And in this case,
Speaker 1: gender was on her side. This would really be the
Speaker 1: only case that gender would be on her side. But
Speaker 1: what happened was James Farmer, this well respected African American man,
Speaker 1: was arguing during the campaign that quote, women have been
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat in black communities for too long,
Speaker 1: and that he was the right candidate because the district
Speaker 1: needed quote a man's voice in Washington and called her
Speaker 1: not only a little school teacher but also bossy oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh and a bossy female. So that's like total m
Speaker 1: r a language, right, um, And Shirley's like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: how you want to play huh Okay. So she counters
Speaker 1: all of his sexism by highlighting discrimination against women. She
Speaker 1: also highlights the power of women's organizations in this country
Speaker 1: and also her own unique qualifications as being this really
Speaker 1: highly educated educator. Um. And she also points out like, hey, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: black men have been able to go to Washington, but
Speaker 1: what have what have you accomplished that I can't. I
Speaker 1: can accomplish more. And it helped too that Chisholm was
Speaker 1: from the neighborhood. I mean, she knew the people, she
Speaker 1: was out in her truck, she lived there, she grew
Speaker 1: up there, whereas she portrayed Farmer as an outsider since
Speaker 1: he lived in Manhattan. And it also helped that surely
Speaker 1: was fluent in Spanish, so she would make direct appeals
Speaker 1: to the growing Hispanic population in bed Sty Um. And
Speaker 1: it also helped, of course that more than eight percent
Speaker 1: of the neighborhood were registered Democrats, so she did have
Speaker 1: that on her side. But nonetheless she won. Yeah, she won,
Speaker 1: And it's incredible And like, I wish I weren't as
Speaker 1: shocked and surprised at that as I was, But through
Speaker 1: so much sminty research, I'm like, wait, a woman and
Speaker 1: a woman of color beat a man by highlighting sexism
Speaker 1: well and also beating a black man too. I broke
Speaker 1: my brain. I was like, wait, normally women are slammed
Speaker 1: for victimizing themselves if they talk about gender discrimination. And
Speaker 1: but that that's how great she was. She even, um,
Speaker 1: and this would be a couple of years later, she
Speaker 1: would even go out door to door as a census
Speaker 1: worker because so many people in her bed Stye neighborhood
Speaker 1: were suspicious of census workers. But there she was, as
Speaker 1: that neighborhood gal, going out and being able to really
Speaker 1: talk to them one on one. Well, that's the thing.
Speaker 1: She literally walked her talk and she knew what she
Speaker 1: was talking about. Um. But when she ends up in Washington,
Speaker 1: she's still super active, still very outspoken, and sticks out
Speaker 1: like a sore thumb. She says, it felt like I
Speaker 1: was somebody coming out of the moon because being not
Speaker 1: only African American, but also a woman and the first
Speaker 1: at that to be elected to Congress, and all these
Speaker 1: guys knew that unboughton on boss Shirley was coming their way.
Speaker 1: So they were immediately wary of what this loudmouth, bossy
Speaker 1: female might do. She might challenge the establishment. I mean
Speaker 1: she already beat a dude in the general election, that's right, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I mean they were right to worry. She said,
Speaker 1: I have no intention of just sitting quietly and observing, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, is the expectation of any junior UH
Speaker 1: congress man or woman who comes in, Like basically, it's
Speaker 1: your first time, You're just gonna sit quietly and observed.
Speaker 1: She's like, okay, Like hell, I will, I intend to
Speaker 1: focus attention on the nation's problems. And so in her
Speaker 1: first floor speech in March of nineteen nine, she slams
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. She vows to vote against any defense
Speaker 1: appropriation bill until the time comes, she said, when our
Speaker 1: values and priorities have been turned right side up again.
Speaker 1: And here she is actively championing all of those same
Speaker 1: causes that had always been so important to her. She
Speaker 1: sponsored increases in federal funding to extend the hours of
Speaker 1: daycare facilities, and she sponsored a guaranteed minimum annual income
Speaker 1: for families. She was looking out for people like her
Speaker 1: and people like the neighbors that she grew up around
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. Yeah. She also launched the Special Supplemental Nutrition
Speaker 1: Program for Women, Infants, and Children, which probably sounds a
Speaker 1: lot more familiar by its acronym WICK, which provides support
Speaker 1: for low income pregnant women. And she also fought for
Speaker 1: programs like Headstart and food stamps. She championed a bill
Speaker 1: to ensure domestic workers received benefits. She fought for immigrants rights,
Speaker 1: and she helped establish the National Commission on Consumer Protection
Speaker 1: and Product Safety. Surely is out there working for us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she was at the forefront of overriding President Ford's veto.
Speaker 1: Now this is so impressive. She uh served as the
Speaker 1: primary backer of a national school lunch bill. So that
Speaker 1: harkens back to our episode on lunch Ladies. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: she was at the forefront of realizing, like, yes, nutrition
Speaker 1: in schools is important. We have to feed our kids.
Speaker 1: A teacher would probably know that. A teacher would probably
Speaker 1: know that. Um. And she was the one who led
Speaker 1: her colleagues in overwriting Ford's veto on that measure. She
Speaker 1: was already taken on the president, no kidding. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: little school teacher turns out to be a powerful force.
Speaker 1: And another one of her causes that was very close
Speaker 1: to her heart and that she argued very strongly for
Speaker 1: was the Equal Rights Amendment. And we are going to
Speaker 1: talk about her efforts to get that ratified when we
Speaker 1: come right back from a quick break. So, the Equal
Speaker 1: Rights Amendment was written by Alice Paul and first proposed
Speaker 1: back at the Seneca Falls Convention in nine And it's
Speaker 1: a very basic proposed amendment stating, quote, equality of rights
Speaker 1: under the law shall not be denied or are bridged
Speaker 1: by the United States or by any state on account
Speaker 1: of sex. So, of course really was all about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, she knew she had to take this on.
Speaker 1: She wanted to support the e r A. But she
Speaker 1: also knew that when she got up and spoke about it,
Speaker 1: she would be addressing largely a room of white guys.
Speaker 1: And one thing that she was so stellar at way
Speaker 1: back from her experience as an educator but also coming
Speaker 1: up through the political machine, was being able to address
Speaker 1: her audience, to meet them where they were at. And
Speaker 1: so she talked to these guys and said, listen, we've
Speaker 1: already overcome so much in terms of religious and political
Speaker 1: prejudice in this country. We you guys have already done
Speaker 1: so much to address like racial discrimination with the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights Bill and sixty four. It's time to tackle quote
Speaker 1: the most subtle, most pervasive, and most institutionalized form of
Speaker 1: prejudice that exists, sex based discrimination. And so what she
Speaker 1: does in her speech, and we read a paper that
Speaker 1: basically dissected her rhetorical style that she uses like a
Speaker 1: classic and classical Greek style of delivering a persuasive speech,
Speaker 1: and how effective she was. Of course, spoiler, the e
Speaker 1: r A would not be ratified, but she herself was
Speaker 1: an effective tool to try to get it ratified. She
Speaker 1: spells out the ways that this subtle, pervasive sex based
Speaker 1: discrimination harms women and limits their opportunity. She talked about
Speaker 1: how uh sex discrimination relegates women to low wage jobs.
Speaker 1: It excludes them from not only selective service, but from
Speaker 1: receiving the benefits both personal and professional, of serving their country.
Speaker 1: Her argument was not only and this was very important.
Speaker 1: Her argument was not only that like, hey, those military
Speaker 1: jobs pay really well, and women should have access to
Speaker 1: well paying jobs, but hey, women love their country too,
Speaker 1: and women deserve the opportunity to serve that country in
Speaker 1: the best way they can, and that is being a
Speaker 1: member of the military. She talked about how women were
Speaker 1: still barred from some college campuses, kept out of some
Speaker 1: night jobs, and a lot of what she was talking
Speaker 1: about revolved around that idea of benevolent sexism. The stuff,
Speaker 1: as you will recall from our last episode that Philish
Speaker 1: laughly so badly wanted to maintain. Surely Chisholm so badly
Speaker 1: wanted to deconstruct it. Women, she basically argued, don't need
Speaker 1: these special protections and privileges. What they need is the
Speaker 1: e r A to just guarantee a level playing field. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because she basically argued, exploitation is exploitation. Sex has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with it if we spell out legally like
Speaker 1: what you can't do. And for that reason, the amendment,
Speaker 1: in her words, was necessary to clarify the countless ambiguities
Speaker 1: and inconsistencies in the legal system. And so she explained
Speaker 1: that laws regarding women's employment, jury service, and access to
Speaker 1: education widely varied from state to state, and so the
Speaker 1: e r A, if it were ratified, would have leveled
Speaker 1: the playing field across all fifty states and get this
Speaker 1: mishmash of gendered laws off the books. Well, and she's
Speaker 1: basically saying that guys, guys, guys, guys, men, men, folk friends, colleagues, countrymen, romans, Like, Look,
Speaker 1: if all of this stuff is so different state to state,
Speaker 1: doesn't that just speak to how irrational some of these
Speaker 1: sexist quote unquote protections are. You know, she was saying
Speaker 1: that no one would condone exploitation, But what does sex
Speaker 1: have to do with it? Working conditions in hours that
Speaker 1: are harmful to women are harmful to men. Wages that
Speaker 1: are unfair to women are unfair for men. And that's
Speaker 1: like such a modern feminist refrain that you know, so
Speaker 1: many people make the very real important argument of feminism
Speaker 1: doesn't only benefit women or one type of woman. The
Speaker 1: things that feminists fight for can benefit all of us,
Speaker 1: and that includes like families, people that Philish Laughly was
Speaker 1: saying needed to be protected. Meanwhile, Philish Laughly, as you'll
Speaker 1: learn about in our previous episode if you haven't listened,
Speaker 1: was fanning the flames of panic that women might, for instance,
Speaker 1: be drafted to military service. This also you know, being
Speaker 1: in a very uh touchy time in terms of the draft.
Speaker 1: But back to fighting Shirley Chisholm. Her speech was clearly
Speaker 1: effective because the day of it, the House approved the
Speaker 1: e r A by a vote of three hundred thirty
Speaker 1: four to six. Yeah, but ultimately it was not ratified
Speaker 1: by the number of states that needed to ratify it
Speaker 1: to make it the law of the land. Right because
Speaker 1: Philish Laughlely led the anti feminist crusade that overturned state
Speaker 1: ratification of the amendment in two states and then blocked
Speaker 1: it from being ratified and three other states, leaving it
Speaker 1: short of the necessary number of states needed to make
Speaker 1: it a constitutional amendment. But again, let's get back to
Speaker 1: fighting Shirley Chisholm. Yeah, So remember at the top of
Speaker 1: the podcast when we talked about how she was really
Speaker 1: vocal in her bed Sty neighborhood about out the white
Speaker 1: politicians who were doing nothing to help the people of
Speaker 1: color in the neighborhood, and to shut her up, they
Speaker 1: were like, let's just put you on the board of Directors,
Speaker 1: and how it was like, oh, well, no, you just
Speaker 1: launched her into power, Like, thank you for giving her
Speaker 1: a voice in a platform, but you guys are going
Speaker 1: against uh, your best interest is trying to shut her up. Well,
Speaker 1: when she gets to Congress, her male white colleagues try
Speaker 1: to do the same thing, and they try to shut
Speaker 1: her up by assigning her to the Committee on Agriculture.
Speaker 1: And she's like, what seriously, the Committee on Agriculture. I'm
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn, Okay. So she appeals the decision to how
Speaker 1: Speaker John McCormick, who just basically pats around the head
Speaker 1: and tells her to be a good soldier. Well, because
Speaker 1: it traditionally is on the junior congress people to basically
Speaker 1: take the assignment they're given. You know, it is the
Speaker 1: kind of weight your turn thing. But surely Chisholm does
Speaker 1: not want to wait her turn because she knows that
Speaker 1: no one is ever going to give it to her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so she takes her complaint directly to the House floor,
Speaker 1: and as a result of her being incredibly vocal uh,
Speaker 1: she is reassigned to the Veterans Affairs Committee, which again
Speaker 1: not her first choice. But according to a fabulous quote,
Speaker 1: she says, yeah, but there are a lot more veterans
Speaker 1: in my district than trees. So she would work with
Speaker 1: what she had. She wouldn't just take what she was given.
Speaker 1: But if she saw an opportunity, even if it is
Speaker 1: there's something more adjacent like veterans Affairs, she would use
Speaker 1: that to work for the people. Um And from nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy one to nineteen seventies seven she served on the
Speaker 1: Committee on Education and Labor, and also in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: one she became a founding member of the Congressional Black
Speaker 1: Caucus and then from seventy seven to eighty one, she
Speaker 1: served as Secretary of the Democratic Caucus US and also
Speaker 1: in seventies seven, she became the first black woman and
Speaker 1: the second woman ever to serve on the ultra powerful
Speaker 1: Congressional Rules Committee, and was a founding member of the
Speaker 1: Congressional Women's Congress. So, like we said at the top
Speaker 1: of the podcast, Shirley Chisholm just has so many firsts,
Speaker 1: racked up, so many first and I think they're so
Speaker 1: important to note, not just by virtue of the fact
Speaker 1: that they are first, but to really illustrate how in
Speaker 1: it she was that she was at the forefront of
Speaker 1: all this stuff, because I feel like the early days
Speaker 1: of the Congressional Black Caucus are frequently framed as like,
Speaker 1: look at these men doing all of this stuff in
Speaker 1: the interest of the black voter. But she was right there,
Speaker 1: just right there, at the front. And to me, again,
Speaker 1: that just hearkens back to our episode on Polly Murray,
Speaker 1: We're like, hey, she was one of the founding members
Speaker 1: of Now Okay like now as frequently framed as like
Speaker 1: a middle class white woman things. You know, you frequently
Speaker 1: hear about Betty friedan you don't hear about Paul Murray
Speaker 1: and the other women of color who were there from
Speaker 1: the get go, and so Shirley Chisholm has a similar
Speaker 1: kind of parallel story in that regard well. And also
Speaker 1: when we see her hustle kind of outlined like this,
Speaker 1: it makes sense. But oh, yeah, she ran for president. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So that timeline that we just gave you, what's missing
Speaker 1: in there is that she ran for the Democratic nomination
Speaker 1: for the presidential election of nineteen seventy two. And don't
Speaker 1: think for a second that she didn't face constant hurdles.
Speaker 1: But has that ever stopped her before? No? No, And
Speaker 1: she she knew that there would be hurdles ahead of her.
Speaker 1: She once said, I ran because most people thought the
Speaker 1: country was not ready for a black candidate and not
Speaker 1: ready for a woman candidate. Someday, it was time in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two to make that someday come. Yes, I
Speaker 1: love that. Sure he doesn't wait for tomorrow, she makes
Speaker 1: tomorrow today. Yes, I would campaign for her today. Um.
Speaker 1: And the thing is, like we said at the top
Speaker 1: of the podcast, Yeah, she was proudly a woman, she
Speaker 1: was proudly African American, but she believed that she could
Speaker 1: and should represent everyone, and then everyone should have a
Speaker 1: voice in politics, and that she was that candidate. She said,
Speaker 1: I'm not the candidate of Black America, although I'm black
Speaker 1: and proud. I am not the candidate of the woman's
Speaker 1: movement of this country, although I know I'm a woman
Speaker 1: and I am equally proud of that. And the thing is,
Speaker 1: She's like here, I am ready to be the candidate
Speaker 1: of the everyman and the every woman. But she still
Speaker 1: had people yelling at her on both sides because she
Speaker 1: was really discouraged to find that women didn't want her
Speaker 1: to discuss black issues and black people didn't want her
Speaker 1: to discuss women's issues. But of course, you know, even
Speaker 1: though she was stuck between a rock and a hard
Speaker 1: place in that regard, that certainly didn't stop her from
Speaker 1: flexing her feminist muscles. One badge of hers or button
Speaker 1: that I am certainly going to have to find on
Speaker 1: eBay and pay a million dollars for shows her face
Speaker 1: in the middle of the venus symbol with the text
Speaker 1: to represent all Americans. I mean, surely like Paully Murray
Speaker 1: was so committed to intersectionality as well, she she knew
Speaker 1: that that was part of her identity and she couldn't
Speaker 1: and didn't want to divorce herself from that. UM. And
Speaker 1: the thing is, though, the deeper involved she got into
Speaker 1: politics and the further her presidential campaign went, the clearer
Speaker 1: it became to her that of the double jeopardy status
Speaker 1: that she possessed of being both black and female, gender
Speaker 1: was what held her back more because even feminists were
Speaker 1: split over her candidacy. And this was the most heartbreaking
Speaker 1: part of that Shirley Chisholm documentary where you see women
Speaker 1: like Bella Abzug and Glorious Steinham start to moonwalk slowly
Speaker 1: away from her. Yeah. So, despite the fact that Shirley
Speaker 1: Chisholm had a ton of women and a ton of
Speaker 1: white second wave feminist women working in her campaign, ultimately
Speaker 1: those heavy hitters like Absug couldn't support her. And I
Speaker 1: mean that that sums up so much about politics in general. UM. Basically,
Speaker 1: you had a lot of people arguing that they needed
Speaker 1: someone who could actually win UM. And so despite the
Speaker 1: fact that Chisholm had founded the National Women's Political Caucus
Speaker 1: with Betty for Dan, with Bella Abzug and with Glorious Steinhem,
Speaker 1: both abs Againsteinem through their support behind George McGovern. Uh,
Speaker 1: he basically had very similar policies and platforms as Shirley
Speaker 1: Chisholm did. And so you had people like Abs Againsteinem
Speaker 1: who were like, well, I don't know, I mean, like,
Speaker 1: it's great that you're a woman and a woman of
Speaker 1: color and you're really educated and outspoken, but like, we
Speaker 1: think McGovern stands away better chance of winning, and as
Speaker 1: women who are trying to get what we want for
Speaker 1: ourselves politically, we need to try to bet on the
Speaker 1: winning horse. And as Robert Gottlieb, who worked on her campaign,
Speaker 1: talks about in the documentary, it's not an apples to
Speaker 1: apples comparison to UH to consider, well, if she were
Speaker 1: running in sixteen, everything would be different, Like how this
Speaker 1: is inconceivable that it would happen, Because, as Gottlieb says,
Speaker 1: having a woman run for president was like having some
Speaker 1: body from Mars run for president. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: beyond inconceivable at the time. Yeah, And she surely Chisholm,
Speaker 1: as you might expect, was so fed up with this
Speaker 1: constant refrain. It wasn't just Steynham and Abs like, it
Speaker 1: was just about everybody who was reading the news or
Speaker 1: watching her campaign. She was so fed up with this
Speaker 1: attitude of like you're you're great, We're so glad you're
Speaker 1: doing this, but we need somebody who can actually win,
Speaker 1: because she was like, look at my history. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: because no one was arguing with her politics or against
Speaker 1: her politics or against her accomplishments. They were just like,
Speaker 1: you are two woman and too black for this to happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not realistic because think of the rest of America.
Speaker 1: But also like think of how much she'd already overcome
Speaker 1: against so many odds. But it seems like oftentimes in
Speaker 1: our society, we love a trailblazer up to a point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we'll take one trailblazer, but we don't want the
Speaker 1: floodgates to open, you know. And it feels like there's
Speaker 1: a lot of that going on, where it's like, listen,
Speaker 1: you've already made history. You you're the first black woman
Speaker 1: to win a seat in Congress. You know, are aren't
Speaker 1: going to relax, so relax. But surely Chisholm did the opposite.
Speaker 1: And I loved watching footage of her so angry, so
Speaker 1: and just so just over it, where she would say,
Speaker 1: if you can't support me, or you can't endorse me,
Speaker 1: get out of my way. Yeah, because she had voters,
Speaker 1: she had reporters, she had all of these people asking
Speaker 1: her about like, why are you staying in You're just
Speaker 1: taking votes away from mc govern. Because the whole thing
Speaker 1: there was like a huge just the same way as
Speaker 1: in this election cycle, there were a huge number of
Speaker 1: Republicans vying for the nomination. There huge number of Democrats
Speaker 1: in the primary race at the time. And so basically
Speaker 1: you've got people saying, hey, your politics not that much
Speaker 1: different from an Edward Muskie, not that much different from
Speaker 1: a George McGovern, You should probably just drop out. Like
Speaker 1: you've done a great job. Your politics are on point.
Speaker 1: You know, you're very outspoken and educated. Uh but I mean,
Speaker 1: white America, I don't know if they can take you.
Speaker 1: So let let George McGovern win and get those delegates
Speaker 1: so that he can go to the convention and clinch
Speaker 1: the nomination. Right, which absolutely echoes UM a lot of
Speaker 1: things that Bernie Sanders supporters heard in this past Democratic primary. UM.
Speaker 1: And also this is this is rather reminiscent of well
Speaker 1: as well. She had to sue in order to participate
Speaker 1: in debates because people were that quick to dismiss her.
Speaker 1: She you know that they didn't even invite her to debates,
Speaker 1: and she became There's footage in this documentary you guys
Speaker 1: have to watch it, um from a television interview that
Speaker 1: has several of the Democratic contenders, including Chisholm, on and
Speaker 1: she becomes visibly fed up when the interviewer asked her
Speaker 1: which opponent she would support. And it's not that that
Speaker 1: language is like anti Shirley Chisholm specifically, because you hear
Speaker 1: that in every race, Like, hey, you know, well everyone
Speaker 1: is still asks every Republican politician, which will you really
Speaker 1: support Donald Trump? Yeah, well yes and so. But I
Speaker 1: think at that point, by the time this interviewer asks
Speaker 1: her the question, she's like, seriously, I am still a contender,
Speaker 1: Like I'm still in this to win this. And the
Speaker 1: thing is, though, I mean, this was a this was
Speaker 1: a dangerous time and a dangerous race. George Wallace, the
Speaker 1: segregationist Paul Titian was shot five times and paralyzed from
Speaker 1: the waist down and that's when he ultimately dropped out
Speaker 1: of the race. Uh. Sureley Chisholm herself had several attempts
Speaker 1: on her life, and in the documentary where she's interviewed
Speaker 1: years and years later, she still can't talk about it.
Speaker 1: It's still so painful to her that people hated her
Speaker 1: enough to want to take her life. There was one
Speaker 1: man who was following her around with a knife, but
Speaker 1: luckily her security team kept him from getting too close
Speaker 1: to her. But even within the Congressional Black Caucus, which
Speaker 1: you would assume would be fully supporting her, Sureley found
Speaker 1: herself an outsider because some caucus members had wanted to
Speaker 1: rally behind black male candidates from each state who wouldn't
Speaker 1: be expected to win, but at the convention, those delegates
Speaker 1: would be so scattered that they could then leverage those
Speaker 1: collective delegates for those black candidates across those many states.
Speaker 1: UH on behalf of platforms that would um help black
Speaker 1: the black population, like black voters. So but they couldn't
Speaker 1: decide like which ones essentially that they wanted to UH
Speaker 1: to put up for the nomination. So Shirley was like, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: let's not wait for someday. Let's make it today. I'm
Speaker 1: going to run. I'll do it. Yeah. At least she
Speaker 1: was consistent, right, like, let's stop waiting around. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know, she said, I am looking to no man
Speaker 1: walking this earth for approval of what I'm doing, because
Speaker 1: basically this journalist had asterlake. Uh. You know, some of
Speaker 1: your Congressional Black Caucus colleagues, some of those dudes are
Speaker 1: a little sore that you're throwing your hat on the ring.
Speaker 1: And that's when she was like, I don't don't care. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, a lot of those Black Caucus members
Speaker 1: were resentful. They thought she'd sell out black interests for
Speaker 1: women's interest. Um. A lot of them considered her coalition
Speaker 1: building as betrayal. You know, she worked with women black
Speaker 1: and white, She worked with Hispanic, she worked with white
Speaker 1: liberals and welfare recipients. And a lot of her black
Speaker 1: colleagues were like, what are you doing. You're leaving You're
Speaker 1: leaving your people behind. And in her viewpoint, it's like no,
Speaker 1: I'm yeah. She's like I'm five steps ahead of you.
Speaker 1: Catch up. Yeah, Like I'm bringing people together because like
Speaker 1: I have already said, gentlemen, i am everyone's president. And
Speaker 1: at one point, her Congressional Black Caucus colleague, Representative Bill Clay,
Speaker 1: questioned her sanity during a press conference. It was getting
Speaker 1: to that level of sexism, and as Shirley later said,
Speaker 1: black male politicians are no different from white male politicians.
Speaker 1: This woman thing is so deep. I've found it in
Speaker 1: this campaign if I ever knew it before. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: a lot of her male Congressional Black Caucus colleagues ended
Speaker 1: up throwing their support just like Steinhum and Abzug, behind
Speaker 1: people like George McGovern um. And that was for a
Speaker 1: lot of reasons. It went back to the whole belief
Speaker 1: of like, we need someone who can actually win. But
Speaker 1: as a lot of those men said on camera and
Speaker 1: interviews in the documentary, like we need to hitch our
Speaker 1: wagon to a star, and if we are going to
Speaker 1: rise in the ranks of you know, either our party
Speaker 1: or on the national political stage, we need to share
Speaker 1: the spotlight with the guy who's gonna win. That operative
Speaker 1: word of course being like that guy right who's gonna
Speaker 1: win well, and surely did not give up all the
Speaker 1: way to the Democratic National Convention. She knew she was
Speaker 1: not going to win the nomination, but she also knew
Speaker 1: the potential leveraging power of delegates, so she showed up
Speaker 1: with one two delegates, which was more than either Ed
Speaker 1: Muskie or Hubert Humphrey, and she was really hoping for
Speaker 1: a deadlocked convention in which she could use her delegates
Speaker 1: say like, listen, I will break the tie. I'll throw
Speaker 1: my delegates to you if you will provide a black
Speaker 1: running mate. She also wants to negotiate for a woman
Speaker 1: to serve in the cabinet and a Native American to
Speaker 1: serve as Secretary of the Interior. Had talk about an
Speaker 1: intersectional politician, because there's footage of her again saying we
Speaker 1: need a Native American person as the Secretary of the
Speaker 1: Interior because these were their lands, This was their land.
Speaker 1: Should they not have a representative in government who can
Speaker 1: have a say. But unfortunately, George McGovern had put together
Speaker 1: enough delegates to where he didn't need Shirley's, so she
Speaker 1: didn't really have a chance to break that deadlock and negotiate.
Speaker 1: And much later in life she would lament the lack
Speaker 1: of true democracy, saying that it's more deals and bargains
Speaker 1: than what people assume democracy is. Yeah, so here's this powerful,
Speaker 1: driven woman who, as her record clearly shows, wants to
Speaker 1: act on behalf of families, wants to help the average
Speaker 1: American worker, um, wants to do right by her people
Speaker 1: in in her country, and she is getting to this
Speaker 1: national stage and realizing, Oh, the track that I've been on,
Speaker 1: where I'm trying to help people of all colors and
Speaker 1: genders and backgrounds, that's not really what this is about.
Speaker 1: It's about it's about that leverage and about making those
Speaker 1: deals in back rooms. And it really seemed like that
Speaker 1: was distasteful to her. Yeah, because it seems at least
Speaker 1: that surely Chisholm was never out for power personal game.
Speaker 1: She was out for the people, legitimately out for the people,
Speaker 1: hence her campaign tagline of being unbought and unbossed. And
Speaker 1: the thing that I was really hardened to learn after
Speaker 1: her failed campaign was that she was still highly respected.
Speaker 1: She had made an impression on the American public. She
Speaker 1: returned to Congress a popular figure. In the nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: four Gallop Pole, she was listed as one of the
Speaker 1: top ten most admired women in America, ahead of Jackie
Speaker 1: Oh and Coretta Scott King. Yeah, she was tied in
Speaker 1: sixth place with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. It was
Speaker 1: a popular woman, you know. She she her love for
Speaker 1: the people and her desire to do right by them,
Speaker 1: I think really attracted her a lot of fans. But
Speaker 1: the thing is, at the same time that Philish Laughly
Speaker 1: is pushing the right wing evangelical Christian bent to the
Speaker 1: Republican Party, Shirley is becoming disillusioned by that hard right turn,
Speaker 1: and in nineteen eighty two she announces she will not
Speaker 1: seek re election, and one of the reasons was because
Speaker 1: of the country's conservative turn with the nineteen eighty election
Speaker 1: of Ronald Reagan. And she was also at this point
Speaker 1: super fed up with being misunderstood. She said she felt
Speaker 1: that her fellow African American politicians did not understand all
Speaker 1: of those coalition building efforts that she had started and
Speaker 1: maintained over the years, because she was like, listen, guys,
Speaker 1: we can't do this by ourselves, nor can white people
Speaker 1: do it by themselves. Like if we share politics and
Speaker 1: political ideology, we have to work together. And I just
Speaker 1: think that every step of the way. She continued to
Speaker 1: face these hurdles in her career, and by the time
Speaker 1: the country got so conservative, she was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm out, I gotta I gotta tap out. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: but she we can't forget that. She remained in Congress
Speaker 1: and was reelected up until she was finally like I
Speaker 1: don't want to be reelected again. You know. She was
Speaker 1: a very successful state politician, um, and she remained active
Speaker 1: even after she stepped down. She helped co found the
Speaker 1: National Political Congress of Black Women. She taught at Mount
Speaker 1: Holyoke College Ine. She also campaigned for Jesse Jackson's presidential
Speaker 1: bids and eighty four and eight, and when Bill Clinton
Speaker 1: nominated her as ambassador to Jamaica, she was like thanks,
Speaker 1: no thanks, because for health reasons she she didn't want
Speaker 1: to take it on, and she ended up in classic move,
Speaker 1: She settled in Florida, like you do uh, and from
Speaker 1: there she wrote and let heard and until she died
Speaker 1: on January one, two five. Yeah, I mean, I am
Speaker 1: so grateful for what she did for voters, what she
Speaker 1: did for Americans, what she did for women and women
Speaker 1: of color, the fact that she was able to so
Speaker 1: successfully be on the national stage and be so vocal um.
Speaker 1: But it does break my heart. But she felt so
Speaker 1: unwelcome finally in politics that she was like I'm done
Speaker 1: because surely chose it was obviously not the type of
Speaker 1: person to back down. So the fact that politics at
Speaker 1: that time were becoming so hostile that she was like,
Speaker 1: I'll just go lecture and get out of here. Like
Speaker 1: that's that's very telling. Yeah. I mean because if she
Speaker 1: were sitting here in the podcast studio today, I would
Speaker 1: flip out. Um. And then I have a hunch she
Speaker 1: would be a little mystified at how celebratory we are,
Speaker 1: because she said in her autobiography quote that I am
Speaker 1: a national figure because I was the first person in
Speaker 1: one hundred ninety two years to be at once a congressman,
Speaker 1: black and a woman. Proves I would think that our
Speaker 1: society is not yet either just or free. And that
Speaker 1: is the exact reason why she says repeatedly that she
Speaker 1: doesn't want to be remembered solely as being the first
Speaker 1: African American woman elected to US Congress. I think she
Speaker 1: would be so much more excited to hear us talk
Speaker 1: about her record of advocating for UH domestic workers, for immigrants,
Speaker 1: for women of all colors, UM, for education and children
Speaker 1: in this country. Um. You know that's where she found
Speaker 1: her power and inspiration. Well, in one final quote of
Speaker 1: hers that this makes me think of is sort of
Speaker 1: another way that she has phrased the whole thing of
Speaker 1: you know, I want to be remembered as someone who
Speaker 1: fought for change in the twentieth century. At one point,
Speaker 1: she also said, I want to be remembered as a
Speaker 1: woman who was herself, you know, I mean she she
Speaker 1: never compromised at all who she was. And oh man,
Speaker 1: if you could just get only you could like bottle
Speaker 1: up Shirley Chisholm's character, you know, and sell it. I'd
Speaker 1: take it like a vitamin every day, oh as would I.
Speaker 1: And so I have really high hopes for this biopic
Speaker 1: that Anika Nanni Rose is supposedly working on. She's set
Speaker 1: to produce and star in it, and I will definitely
Speaker 1: eat that up if and when it comes to theata's
Speaker 1: absolutely um So, listeners, we want to know from you
Speaker 1: had you known about Shirley Chisholm. Are you listening to
Speaker 1: this episode owed in Brooklyn, possibly in bed sty and
Speaker 1: feeling a whole new significance for where you are? I
Speaker 1: hope you are, so let us know your thoughts. Mom
Speaker 1: Stuff at how stuff works dot com is our email address.
Speaker 1: You can also tweet us at mom Stuff podcast or
Speaker 1: messages on Facebook. And we've got a couple of messages
Speaker 1: to share with you right now. I have a letter
Speaker 1: here from Grace in response to our flight attendant episode. Uh.
Speaker 1: She said, I was a flight attendant for just under
Speaker 1: two years, from early two thousand and four through late
Speaker 1: two thousand five. I was happy to hear you speak
Speaker 1: about the profession because it is ultra glamorized, but is
Speaker 1: not at all what people think it is. Here are
Speaker 1: just a few things I have to say about my experience.
Speaker 1: Number one, sexual harassment. I'm average looking at best, and
Speaker 1: I got inappropriate comments from passengers as well as pilots.
Speaker 1: I even had one pilot send me a Panis pick
Speaker 1: on an overnight. I told him if he ever contacted
Speaker 1: me again, I would get him fired and blacklisted. Sadly,
Speaker 1: no idea if I could actually do that. Our airline
Speaker 1: didn't have weight limits technically, but they absolutely did not
Speaker 1: hire larger people, and we were expected to wear heels
Speaker 1: when working, even in airports. Heels are so super practical
Speaker 1: for people who were trained in CPR to save your
Speaker 1: life doing heavy lifting, et cetera. Number two schedule, you
Speaker 1: have to bid for your desired schedule. This means you
Speaker 1: work a different schedule every single month and when you
Speaker 1: don't have much seniority, you work long trips. You're gone
Speaker 1: for four to five days and nights at a time
Speaker 1: and never get a regular schedule. It does improve a
Speaker 1: time on the job, but most people don't last more
Speaker 1: than a year. Number three pay I made under eighteen
Speaker 1: thousand my first year, barely more my second, and I
Speaker 1: didn't sleep at my home for over two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty days a year. Pay is based on hours in
Speaker 1: the lane. Neither pilots or flight attendants are making an
Speaker 1: hourly wage until the plane door is closed, and they
Speaker 1: stopped getting paid when the door opens. Yeah, while you
Speaker 1: are boarding andy planing, we aren't getting paid. This also
Speaker 1: means the time we take to to get to the
Speaker 1: airport early, which is required to check all of our
Speaker 1: safety equipment, et cetera, is time we aren't getting paid.
Speaker 1: When on overnights we get a super small stipend to
Speaker 1: help with food costs. Number four free flights depending on
Speaker 1: your airline. You don't really fly for free. I got
Speaker 1: discounted flights and the rates were different depending on what
Speaker 1: airline you flew. You were always stand by and they
Speaker 1: oversell all flights and I had to dress up on
Speaker 1: top of which I didn't make nearly enough money that
Speaker 1: I could afford to travel, even at a discount number
Speaker 1: five turnover. Because the schedule sucks, the pay sucks, you
Speaker 1: are gone all the time, et cetera. Most people don't
Speaker 1: last longer than a year. Seems like a lot of
Speaker 1: companies do it on purpose because flight attendants makes so
Speaker 1: little their first five years on the job that it
Speaker 1: keeps labor costs lower for them. And this is just
Speaker 1: scratching the surface for me. I know people who stayed
Speaker 1: with it, and once on the job about five years,
Speaker 1: you have more seniority, which improves the job quite a bit.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it. I was in a relationship and
Speaker 1: the travel made it hard. We've been together eleven years now.
Speaker 1: He rules and couldn't deal with what felt like a
Speaker 1: really abusive job. If you haven't already, please check out
Speaker 1: the passenger shaming on Instagram. It's a riot. Love your show,
Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, and thanks for your insights. Grace.
Speaker 1: I have a letter here from brief subject line trans
Speaker 1: pants suits. She writes, your recent show about pants suits
Speaker 1: struck a particular chord with me. Finding a suit as
Speaker 1: a transgender woman is hard. First, we have to fight
Speaker 1: the societal norm that all trans women wear skirts or dresses.
Speaker 1: Seven type transgender pants suits into Google. My first three
Speaker 1: results are from a site about dealing with transgender victims,
Speaker 1: of assault suits for trans men and a lawsuit about
Speaker 1: a tra 's girl in a locker room. That's not
Speaker 1: helpful at all, Google. Then we have to fight other
Speaker 1: trans people saying that we aren't trans enough because we
Speaker 1: want to wear a suit. And finally, we have to
Speaker 1: find someone who is actually decent at fitting a suit
Speaker 1: onto our larger frames. Shout out to my tall and
Speaker 1: plus sized lady friends, and that probably involves custom tailoring,
Speaker 1: which is just another expense. There's a lot of info
Speaker 1: for trans women on how to be hyper feminine, but
Speaker 1: very little for those of us who want to express
Speaker 1: a different side of our femininity. Our society is starting
Speaker 1: to understand that sis gender women can be whatever they
Speaker 1: want to be, so hopefully we can start to admit
Speaker 1: that a trans woman's favorite color doesn't have to be pink.
Speaker 1: And we also offered a helpful ps In response to
Speaker 1: our episode on period Tracker apps, she said using natural
Speaker 1: family planning was the best decision my wife and I
Speaker 1: ever made, enabling us to discover some medical problems that
Speaker 1: would have gone unnoticed otherwise but showed up when we
Speaker 1: tracked her cycle. I would definitely to give a shout
Speaker 1: out to the Creighton Method natural family planning as the
Speaker 1: super cheap method nothing more than a piece of paper
Speaker 1: and pen required. Well, thank you Brief for all that
Speaker 1: insight and love back to you and listeners if you've
Speaker 1: got anything to share with us Moms stuff at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com is our email address and for
Speaker 1: links to all of our social media as well as
Speaker 1: all of our blogs, videos and podcasts with our sources
Speaker 1: so you can learn more about fighting and surely Chisholm.
Speaker 1: Head on over to stuff mom Never Told You dot com.
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com