Women Who Behave…

10:38 PM…Twenty-One days until Amour turns exclusively Duchess Diaries

Ever really considered the phrase, “Women who behave rarely make history?” It comes from 1970’s feminist Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who penned a tome pointing out that women who behave are left out of history entirely. So how is it we become women of history?

According to The Fixer it is in our level of audaciousness. “Taking risk, taking a chance, all out,” she says. It’s audacity that causes the Kardashians to actually believe sex tape hijinks are interesting and create relevance. If the measure is fame and fortune; they kinda aced it. Let’s assume we’re after history of a more significant type. Need some examples?

How about our dear gal Eve? Without her, we would neither recognize our nakedness nor be afraid of snakes. She did, however, provide us with lessons on power over men, persuasion and that the way to his heart is through his stomach.

Cleopatra used her many charms to woo, manipulate and influence the most powerful men in the world. With much success. And she gave us the first smoky eye and liner. Again, there’s the snake thing. Instead of capture, she chose death by snakebite. The pleasure was all the asp’s.

They say Amelia Earhart kept a scrapbook as a young girl. In it she placed clippings of successful women in male-oriented positions of the time. Women who were tearing it up in law, advertising, film direction, management and engineering. She remains an icon of stick to your dreams for young girls worldwide.

Even our dear Jackie, noted embodiment of perfection, was considered a disciplinary problem at Miss Chapin’s Manhattan school for girls. She lived with a married man in her later years and when criticized for wearing across the pond designers, a soft “Pfft” elicited from her lips. Oh, and she loved Paris more than life itself. So there’s that.

Sandra Day O’Connor, Arizona offering, and the first woman on the Supreme Court was refused employment by forty firms after law school but to this day insists being a woman makes no difference. She worked for no salary and shared an office with a secretary. She went on to be the first female Majority Leader in the state and kicked some serious butt on the top court, keeping everyone guessing which way the moderate conservative might vote. And, she dated Chief Justice Rehnquist when they were on Law Review at Stanford. Ooh-la-la.

Helen Gurley Brown, at age forty, wrote the game changer, “Sex And The Single Girl,” causing tongues to wag nationwide. She kept it up when she took over Cosmopolitan magazine and told women they could have it all. And by all she meant love, sex and money. My how times have changed, non? Those of us of a certain age can attest to thinking it a compliment to be thought of as a “Cosmo Girl” in the late seventies. No lie. In our silk blouses and double pleated trousers, braless.

So what audacious thing did you do today girlfriend? Not by anyone else’s definition; but by your own. Did you strike a blow for a cause? Did you ace that promotion? Did you score that new job? Did you fall in love? Did you take the first step in changing your life for the better?

You got this girl. Go make history.