If I ran the zoo

Women, women everywhere.

I noticed more women recently in places where we hadn’t seen them before, such as covering men’s sporting events on television and serving as governors and in the police and military. You can even watch all-women’s basketball on television – or attend and watch them play live.

This gave me hope that we were making good progress in gender equality until I looked it up and found that the experts predict equality in gender will not be achieved for another 137 years.

That just blew my mind. I did a little research and found that in Missouri, for instance, a woman makes 78 cents for every dollar a man makes in the same job. Countrywide, women have much less access to capital when looking for loans. There are still great gender gaps when it comes to participation in local boards and commissions. Obligatory childcare is a major need.

We do have more women in elected office than in past decades, but the gap is still big. Only 45 women have served as governors of a state since the founding of the United States. Running a state as a governor is very similar to running a country as a president. I’m hoping that our next president will be a woman and I’m leaning towards Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

I wish Joe Biden would realize that he’s too old to run for reelection but I’m thinking maybe his idea is to get reelected and step down when his memory gets too weak. That would make Kamala Harris the first woman president, but from everything I’ve heard about her, she would not be our best choice.

My first job in journalism was as a sportswriter, and I’m a big sport’s fan. I’m hoping to see women end up playing basketball in the NBA and baseball in MLB. I doubt we’ll see a woman playing football in the NFL but you never know.

Obviously they won’t be able to share the men’s locker room but that’s just a small adjustment to make.

Let’s hope and pray that young women in the future will have unlimited opportunities!