<em>We've got a generation now who were born with semi-equality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attaché' cases and our three piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before they join in fighting the battle.</em>
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<strong>~Erma Bombeck</strong>

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I'm pretty sure Erma was talking about me in that quote.

I was born in 1974, right in the midst of second-wave feminism. By the time I started elementary school, things had pretty much died down on the feminism front. We had a female Supreme Court justice. A woman ran for Vice President. Murphy Brown and Designing Women taught me that women were strong, smart, capable people. Feminism had done it's job. Equality had been more or less achieved.

In my early 20's, I was in an email ring with a bunch of women who were a bit older than me. They had actually lived through second-wave feminism and were often telling me that I needed to be more alert. They would tell me that while things were better, they weren't perfect. And they would remind me that any freedoms gained could be snatched away at any point.

I suppose I knew this was a possibility, but it seemed so unlikely that I never gave it more than a cursory thought. Of course women would continue to enjoy the freedoms that they had. Of course men would listen to women about issues that affected women. Of course dignity and civility would be the