And that's all the German I know [ota]

[ichbinzillah]

Zillah has been quiet for some time--studying in the library, mostly. She's been reading her usual choices--Hannah Arendt and some of the French existentialists. There's a part of her that likes to think that she can always learn something new, and that knowledge is power. It's important to her

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[non_foxy_widow]

Someone else is coming up to the porch, a lady in her early forties who looks like she wandered in out of some Victorian costume piece on Masterpiece Theater.

Emmeline is just coming back from her morning constitutional: the paths are a bit uneven due to snow, but it's good exercise. "Good morning," she says, friendly in a polite, British way.

[non_foxy_widow]

"No doubt: men have a hard time letting go of the ideas that they find the most profitable to their egos," she says, thoughtfully. "But in my time, some were slowly starting to let go of a sense of profit and starting to embrace a sense of equity."

[ichbinzillah]

"That's good," she says with a little but firm nod.

[non_foxy_widow]

"But tell me... are women allowed to find their own employment of their own choosing at any profession which they desire?" she asks. "I have had some disagreements with people, since I have felt that a woman should be allowed to be gainfully employed at whatever she puts her mind to."

[ichbinzillah]

"Yeah, women can work wherever they feel like working," she replies. "But they just might not get paid as much as a man."

[non_foxy_widow]

A small frown might curl her lips, but she relaxes her face. "Do I dare ask the reason for this discrepancy?" she asks.

[ichbinzillah]

"There's no good reason, really. Just pure old-fashioned sexism."

[non_foxy_widow]

She snorts a little dryly. "I suppose one could say that it goes back as far as the Garden of Eden, though I doubt that the first marital spat was over something an apple," she says.

[ichbinzillah]

She laughs a little.

"Yeah, really. Who knows?"

[non_foxy_widow]

"There's been a hullabaloo over the books by Mister Darwin, in my time: I personally think the argument does more harm than good. What should it matter if one believes that God created man, or if one believes that man arose out of some lower creature, as long as one believes in the good of mankind and seeks to improve the lot of the less fortunate?" she says.

[ichbinzillah]

"People are still arguing about that, actually," she says wryly.

[non_foxy_widow]

"I am sorry to hear that, though I suppose that is yet another thing that people are loathe to let go of their set ideas, letting the need to be right trip up their need to keep an open heart, if not an open mind," she says.

[ichbinzillah]

"Yep, exactly," she says with a sigh. "It's annoying and frustrating."

[non_foxy_widow]

"I suppose that it makes the matter a challenge, but there are times, no doubt, when one tires of being tested at every step," she replies, sympathetically.

[ichbinzillah]

"Oh, definitely, but the fight goes on, right?"

[non_foxy_widow]

"I suppose that fight gives one a challenge to face, but one would hope for some results in surmounting that challenge," she says, thoughtfully.