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So, I am in Dublin attending an international conference on gender and education at Trinity College.

I miss my family.

A lot.

But I will share a little bit about what I have learned while here.

Let's see. Mmmmn. Well, I learned that Trinity, the oldest college Dublin established in 1592, first admitted women in 1904. I always find facts like this interesting. In his opening remarks to the conference attendees, the Provost of Trinity seemed almost apologetic about the date. Yet over one hundred years seemed like a long time to me.

Consider that many of our most prestigious universities in the U.S. did not admit women until the 1970s. For a lot of us, this is within our lifetime that a topnotch college education was out of reach to us based SOLELY UPON OUR GENDER.

Can you tell that I am warming up?

I guess it never really occurred to me when I was applying to colleges back in the 1980s, that less than a decade before certain doors would have been shut to me.

I guess that this is the privilege of growing up AFTER the major battles are fought.

Today I wonder about my own daughter. In her lifetime will she see a women president of the United States?

Will she see gender parity in congress? In business?

If so, will she take it for granted?

I wonder.

Ed. Note: Read Professor Mom's article about "Single Sex Classrooms" at http://family.go.com/education/article-115693