Amanda Lamb: We've come a long way, baby

“Mommy, does the governor have to be a woman?” my youngest said recently after seeing news coverage of our female governor.

“Wow,” I said, holding back the laughter welling up in my throat. “That’s a great question. But, no, the governor can be a woman or a man. The people of our state vote and elect the person they think will be the best person for the job."

This answer seemed to satisfy her for the moment. She skipped off in the direction of her bedroom while I mulled over what had just occurred. I recalled a similar conversation I had with my father when I was about her age.

“Daddy, can a woman be the president?” I asked him as he put me to bed one night after President Gerald Ford was sworn into office (yes, I’m that old).

“Well, yes. She could. It’s never happened. But it might happen someday, maybe in your lifetime. Maybe you will be the first women president,” he said like any good supportive father whose visions for his child are hung on the moon.

And to think that the world has now changed so much that my daughter would ask if the governor is always a woman. Just at that moment ,she came bopping out of her bedroom with an armload of Barbies.

“So, I get it mom. The governor doesn’t have to be a woman, but it's better if she is, right?”

Out of the mouths of babes…