Whatever happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?

Women’s History Month: How Far Have We Come?

Looking back to Miss Alice Paul, The National Woman’s Party, and becoming a lobbyist

Image by Author and DALL-E. (There has NEVER been a plane parked in front of the Dulles terminal!)

It was a warm summer morning in Washington, DC, when I pulled out of my reserved space in the Senate parking lot on Capitol Hill. I took care of my buddies on the Capitol Hill police force — they patrolled the parking lot and the adjacent Alva Belmont house where I lived — by bringing them a thermos of hot coffee. In exchange, they helped me start my reluctant old Volkswagen bug. On cold mornings it took two of us — one to turn the ignition key and one to hold the choke open in the back of the car. Sometimes it takes a village.

It was 1969. I was a flight attendant with Eastern Airlines. This day, I was headed to Dulles Airport for a trip to Mexico City, where I had a layover at the Sheraton in the city's heart. I looked forward to a rendezvous with my Cuban novio, Rafael, the hotel manager. We had plans to spend a romantic weekend in Acapulco to celebrate my belated birthday.

My birthday had been the week before, on July 20. That night, on a layover in a crappy hotel in appropriately-named Flushing, NY, I broke the number one rule for on-duty flight crews! I ordered a rum…