Behind Every Good Man

by Sara Goodman Confino

“Freedom. Self-sufficiency. Respect for who we are, not who other people want us to be. The same life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that this country promises men.”

And you may think women will vote how their husbands do, but I’ll tell you this much: behind every good man is an even better woman.”

For the first time in my life, I was speaking my mind for myself. Not someone else. And it felt like coming home.

Men liked to feel independent even if you couldn’t trust them to get the details right.

“Mama told me once that behind every good man was an even better woman,” I said quietly. Anna turned to look at me. “You know full well he wouldn’t be anywhere without you. And Michael wouldn’t be here without me. It seems a shame to just let them make all the decisions after we put them in the room.”

“He said that his charge to us wasn’t just to change the world, but to fix it. And he told us to look at ourselves in the mirror every single morning and ask ourselves what we were going to do to make the world better that day.”