In recent years I've become more resigned to the mindset that thinks of women as being somehow subservient and inferior to men. It seems a lost cause. Sometimes, however, I still flare, especially in the presence of men I expect better of.

When I was a kid in a large family, I had three brothers within a range of 1 1/2 years younger to three years older to me. Over and over it would happen that the boys were allowed to do something that I was not- camp in our woods overnight, raise rabbits, get first dibs on going swimming when the car was almost full and on and on - and I would be told that "They are boys." And over and over again I would wail, What difference does that make?"

I never got an answer that satisfied me. And I still haven't.