Hello world! I have always been passionate about women’s rights issues. My parents raised me to live in an “equal” world and always told me I could do anything I wanted to do. It absolutely outraged me in high school when my orchestra director would ask “the boys” to move the chairs and stands. And while an undergraduate my mentor was a female band director who often spoke of her struggles as a woman in both academia and the band world. Although I feel somewhat more accepted as a woman in the orchestra world, it is frustrating to me that the band world remains such a boys’ club (and the orchestra world can be too…). And most recently I have started reading blogs/books about starting a family while in grad school or as a young professor (no I’m not announcing anything – just reading! :-) ).