my daughter still believes she is currently living in a world where women and girls are considered and heard just as fairly as men and boys.

When I walked into my 8yo daughter’s classroom yesterday morning, there were two words on the wall – power and privilege. I was not there to hear the lesson that the teacher had in store, but when I picked her up today, I asked her about it.

“What did you learn about today?”

“Nothing” was her answer. That’s always her first answer.

“Did you learn about power and privilege?”

“Yes,” she said.

I asked her what she thought those two words meant. She told me “It’s about how men had all the power and were in charge back then.” Then she told me the teacher read a book about Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“It was I Dissent, the one we have, Mom.”

“Oh, that’s a great book,” I said and then we walked together quietly. I was dropping her off at an art class and then taking her back home for dinner where she had math homework and recorder practice and reading to do.

But I kept thinking about the words she used.

“Back then.”

I’m not sure if that’s what the teacher said or that was just her own interpretation of the lesson, but it occurred to me that for all the reading we have done about rebel girls and women who have overcome great obstacles to succeed, my daughter still believes she is currently living in a world where women and girls are considered and heard just as fairly as men and boys.

And after she goes to bed, I turn on the news and listen to the world where we are not.