A Girl in Three Parts by Suzanne Daniel

Author:Suzanne Daniel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

I miss Patricia badly. The girls at my new school wouldn’t be interested in sewing or babysitting or working in a gas station. Annabel Renshaw writes short stories in her spare time, mostly science fiction with female protagonists who save the planet. I’ve read over some of them and they do seem pretty good. She plays her viola in a mixed-youth orchestra group and wants to be a barrister, whatever that is. She tells me that her father is a barrister—one of the best at the bar—and that her mother—like any spirited woman—is a women’s libber.

“There’s more to life than waiting on your husband,” says Annabel toward the end of geography. “Mum and her friends are big fans of Germaine Greer. I found a copy of her book stuffed under the lounge cushion after one of their coffee mornings.”

And with one thick eyebrow raised, as though she’s about to classify me, Annabel asks: “So, Legs, are you a women’s libber?”

Thankfully, the bell rings.

Joy doesn’t wait on her husband—probably because she doesn’t have one. And even if she did, it’s more likely that he’d be waiting on her. I think she could be a spirited woman, so this afternoon while making the mint tea at Number 25 I decide to ask Joy if she’s a women’s libber. I’m hoping there might be a hint of what a women’s libber is, exactly, wrapped up in her answer.

“Well, yes…yes…I’m proud to say that I am, Ally.” Joy’s voice drops half an octave like she’s taking an oath. “It surprises even me, but as it turns out, I am…I am a women’s libber.” She reaches across the corner of the kitchen table and pours the mint tea between our two pottery mugs. Joy doesn’t usually pour the tea.

“What actually makes someone a women’s libber?” I ask, sipping my tea.

Joy settles in, the way she does when she’s about to go through her emotions: “Life has a way of shaping you, darling,” she says. “You’re born into certain circumstances, which you just accept—blindly at first—and often for quite some time, but then things happen that prompt you to start to think and, God forbid, start to question.

“And when you’re finally given the chance to connect the dots with the experiences of other women, you realize that you’re not the only one thinking these thoughts or questioning the world in this way.”

Maybe Joy thinks she’s answering my question, but I’m still pretty hazy about what being a women’s libber actually involves.

“When I was growing up, I simply accepted that men were in charge: in charge of society and in charge of me. My father was a decent enough man, quite loving really, but he was very much the head of the house and he told us what to do, where to go and what to be…well, actually…more precisely…what not to be. My poor dutiful mother just accepted it as the way of the world, and my dear sister Joan was very pretty, but not what you’d call exactly bright.

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