How far have we really come?

In my Maddie and Nate series, the main characters are two generations older than I am. Maddie was born in 1938 and Nate in 1933 - both would be considered members of the “Silent Generation”, sometimes referred to as the “Traditional Generation” because they are characterized as a cohort adhering to traditional behavior and societal norms.

Because theirs is not my lived experience, I’ve had to dedicate a significant amount of time to research in order to portray their situations and experiences starting their careers in the 1960s accurately. Newspaper archives, historical novels and memoirs have been my primary sources.

As I work on the next book in the series, I've been diving deeper into the lives of women in the 1960s - a fascinating era of transformation, struggle, and empowerment. The 1960s was a time when women were pushing back against traditional roles, taking bold steps toward independence, equal rights, and self-discovery. From the rise of the feminist movement to the personal battles women faced at home and in their careers, the decade was filled with stories of courage and change.

Creating my characters' lives has made me think about the differences and similarities between Maddie’s era and my Gen X perspective. Women of the Silent Generation were exceedingly rare in science and engineering professions and nearly non-existent in the senior and management ranks. Paying tribute to those trailblazing women who paved the way for me to pursue a technical career motivated me to give Maddie a non-traditional career. Other characters in the stories embody the traditionalist cohort, women who did not aspire to careers outside the home and men who didn’t think it was right that any woman should.

When considering the ongoing battle for workplace equality, the fight to maintain women’s reproductive rights and societal expectations surrounding marriage and motherhood, it’s sometimes disheartening to think that as much as things have changed… we haven’t come far enough in the last four decades.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!