A few weeks ago, I was honored to attend the graduation of my little sister as she accepted her master’s degree in education from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX. The speaker at the graduation was an influential business woman and politician in Texas. My brother-in-law and I decided this would be a great time to be immature and make each other laugh by criticizing the way-too-long speech.

His mother, who sat next to him, said to me, “Why aren’t you paying attention to this? She is talking about how far women have come and how traditional gender roles are being reversed.”

Being a smart ass, I simply replied well I stay at home and my husband works, how’s that for role reversal. My situation, I said, is traditional. But after I left the ceremony, I thought about my situation.  

I am a stay-at-home mother of three, but I made the choice to be a stay-at-home mother because it was the best decision for my family. There wasn’t a man who said I couldn’t go back to work. In fact, my husband desperately wanted me to return since I was making 50 percent of our household income.

Today, women are in a much different situation. We are in charge of our fate. Traditional roles do not define us or our generation. There I was sitting in a ceremony at a women’s college (men too are accepted, but the college is prominently women) where the only Ph.D. recipient was a female, and I didn’t even give the powerful woman speaking her due respect. My sister’s mother-in-law was right, I should have been listening.  

Living in America means I am granted certain rights that women in other countries fight for every day. But it wasn't always that way, something I easily forget. The fact that a woman could rise to any sort of leadership position in the south was something she was proud of, and something I should have respected her for achieving. 

So don't make the same mistake I did. Spend a few minutes listening to an influential and powerful woman.