I found your article interesting since I have a GenX daughter and a Millenial daughter and two granddaughters whose place in this chain hasn’t been named yet, and hopefully will, despite the imminence of Climate Change (An Uninhabitable World a definite and sobering read, and not for those who are faint of heart). I am a child of the sixties and seventies for all intense and purposes, so I guess I’m a hippie love child.

Recently I sat in a room of 25 women of my age and younger as we brainstormed a program for a small Caribbean island — WeChoose/Don’t Trouble We(has a gofund me page), where we are implementing a program that will help prevent sexual violence against women. It is very prevalent there and there is no government or legal structure to intervene. The question was asked of us who in the room had not experienced a #Metoo moment. Not one hand went up. We all looked down and there was a long silence of mourning.

For me it is about not experiencing or allowing men’s sexual predatory behavior to be implemented within the context of a job or in a marriage. In your article you speak about dating and self-esteem. We’ve all made mistakes in this arena and it’s how we learn who and what we want in the long term.

With my daughter’s I always encouraged them to be financially independent and to avoid jobs in which men exhibited this kind of behavior. I’m happy to say they’ve formed a very successful company together and this financial independence has allowed them to determine the terms on which they have relationships with their partners. They are not perfect and they’re both still learning, but their financial independence and high self esteem are getting them through a lot of extremely difficult circumstances.

I will give the same message to my granddaughters. Value yourself and find a way to make the money you need in work situations where you control the inevitable patriarchy that still pervades much of our society.

Honestly it was only 150 years ago that women were the property of their husbands and could be locked up in insane asylums for having any opinions of their own. We’ve come a long way baby, and we’ve still got a long way to go to eradicate the privileges and habits of a society and civilization founded primarily on the Droit du seigneur.