Millennial Life: The Transitional State of Women

I can't remember how I got suckered into going to Girls State. I didn't run for student council and was certainly not a high school activist. I was an editor for the yearbook, part of the supercomputing club, and watched too much anime.

Girls State was a well-meant attempt by one of my teachers to develop a fire I didn't see in myself. This is what good teachers do. I must have then gone on to apply and might even have had an interview, but I certainly don't remember that. I just remember packing up my dad's old duffel bag as a high school junior to go to a university six hours away and play pretend government.

The American Legion Boys State and American Legion Auxiliary Girls State are summer leadership and citizenship programs for high school juniors, focusing on how the American government works and encouraging kids to envision themselves actively taking part in their government.

I had never envisioned that for myself, but there I was, packed in a cafeteria and dispersed to different dorms with a pack of other girls. To my relief, I was paired with two other introverts, a Native American girl from a reservation and a girl from a town of 8,000 people. I came from the Big City of 30,000 people. We had a Walmart; what was that even like?

Attendees were split into towns, and ours was Cactus. Somewhat foreshadowing my future, I took a hard pass at the idea of running for any type of office because campaigning sounded terrible. (And only 20 years later, I found out I was correct!) I took one look at the slated list of jobs and picked fire chief.

"That's an... appointed... position," a classic Type A girl told me witheringly. Undeterred, I petitioned with a poster of a fire sprouting out of some crudely drawn sticks crossed out and told them it wouldn't happen on my watch. My roommates cheered from the back of the room. The newly elected mayor of our town sighed and appointed me.

These are the only memories I have. I couldn't tell you who won governor, but I do know that I wrote letters to my roommates for a year or two, and I have used the shirt with the New Mexico Girls State logo as a nightgown ever since.

I was reminded of my experience when I heard NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" review a recent documentary called "Girls State." The documentary featured a summer program in Missouri and came four years after a Texas Boys State documentary.

Host Linda Holmes shared the analysis that the boys were shown what power would look like when, and not if, "they get access to it." For the girls, it showed them only "what they would need to do" to earn power.

The programs for boys and girls are typically held at different university campuses. However, this time, they were held together in Missouri, and the girls glimpsed the difference. The boys were not making bracelets or decorating cookies. They were debating access to abortion, given the then-recent Supreme Court leak that would lead to the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

An intrepid Type A girl from the film, realizing that her spark might be in journalism instead of vying for governor, did some digging and found the hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference in funding. The cherry on top: The governor of Missouri came to swear in the Boys State winner. He did not swear in the Girls State governor.

When younger women tell me that they don't need feminism anymore, I've been exasperated. Now, I'm thinking maybe they just haven't hit the ceiling yet. Those who came before us lifted it enough so the younger crowd couldn't see it. But as soon as they are given a ladder and are told to climb, that ceiling remains.

The documentary reminded me of my eye rolling at our singing, and I felt a kinship with a hardened girl who had been told they must fix each other's crowns. She said, "I'm sick of this fluff. When are we going to do something?"

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Cassie McClure is a writer, millennial, and unapologetic fan of the Oxford comma. She can be contacted at cassie@mcclurepublications.com. To find out more about Cassie McClure and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.