Married? Kids?

Magzilla sent me a link to a really great interview from Women's Adventure Magazine. For the entire interview... Click here. It interviews Barbara Hillary...she is a lot of things—and now she can add to the list first African-American woman to reach the North Pole. She talks to Women’s Adventure about her mother’s influence, a woman’s right to adventure, and that epic trip, however, my favorite reply from her is below! Right on Barbara!!!

WA: Are you married, and do you have kids?
BH: Why is this important? It’s never the first question a man gets asked when he’s just won the Indy 500 or hit a record number of home runs. Women perpetuate this double standard that they dislike so much. Men shouldn’t have a different standard of behavior, but we’re the ones who allow them that.

WA: But don’t you think it’s even more impressive when you hear that a woman has accomplished some great athletic feat and you find out she’s also got a career and three kids at home?
BH: No. If you use the same yardstick, how does a guy do it with three kids at home? If you position yourself as a domestic slave, your just telling me you weren’t strong enough to demand support from your spouse. Just start holding men to the same standard and come to it from a position of strength.

WA: So, you don’t have kids?
BH: No. I think adventurous people should really figure out what they want to do and know themselves before they make lifetime commitments like marriage and kids. Take the example of a guy stranded up on Everest. The media asks him, “What were you thinking about up there while you were waiting to get rescued?” He answers, “My kids.” Bullshit. If he was thinking about his kids, he wouldn’t have gone in the first place. Did he forget he had kids before he left? You have to find the balance and be honest with yourself. The things WA readers do can impact their health or cause death. You have to evaluate the whole risk and scale it up or down depending on your environment. If I had kids or an older person to care for, I’d think long and hard before doing some of the things I do.

Enough said.