People my age have come a long way and have seen American culture evolve dramatically and profoundly. Among the many powerful images of a woman clinching a major American political party’s nomination for president the most powerful was not in the newspaper. Rather it came in the form of a text from my daughter-in-law in San Diego. Two little girls, 11 and 9, are sitting in front of a television set watching Hillary Clinton speak to her supporters after her decisive primary victories last week. Fiona and Eliza will come of age without the limitations faced by their grandmothers, and their mother and aunts, on the sole basis of their gender. What a fine moment it was, and what a long way we have come.

It wasn’t all that long ago, after all, that conventional wisdom was certain that a woman could not pilot an airliner safely, perform open heart surgery, lead a battalion into combat, preach a sermon and administer the sacraments. In my lifetime not only the structures that kept those limitations in place have mostly disappeared but so have the underlying cultural assumptions that provided the rationale. It was only twenty years ago that a woman we know, a dear friend, confided that her anxiety skyrocketed at the thought that a menopausal woman might be piloting the plane on which she was a passenger. She was not alone in her fear.

And a few decades before that I was part of a meeting to set the compensations for denominational executives that concluded that it was appropriate to pay the lone woman on the staff a lesser amount than her colleagues because her husband had a lucrative job. Furthermore, I here humbly and remorsefully confess that I made the motion that did it.

It has been quite a journey and I am grateful for it and for all the people, mostly women, who challenged my assumptions and pushed me to change my mind. It began in my own home. My daughters, who had to fight for the establishment of a girls’ track team in Junior High and then pretty much managed the project on their own are now fully engaged in their vocations as special education teacher/homemaker/ fierce advocate and fighter for social justice and inclusivity, and equally forceful advocate/fighter and physician- public health researcher. They taught me and are still teaching me and they make their mother and me proud and profoundly grateful every day of our lives. Their mother, by the way, never bought into the conventional assumptions about what women are capable of doing, has never flagged for a moment in her hopes and support for Hillary Clinton. We had different positions during the 2008 primary election and a hint of domestic discord. I attempted to win back some favor by giving her, for Mother’s Day, a life-size cardboard cut-out figure of Mrs. Clinton who stood, looking very presidential, in our den for more than a year. This time I’m all in with her. And I think a woman, who happens to be incredibly qualified by experience, intellect and temperament, as President of the United States is a very hopeful prospect.