At a time when many women were encouraged to think about going to college only as a potential route to getting their “Mrs.” degree, that is, finding a spouse, the message I got was the opposite. I would not be able to count on getting married and having a husband who would take care of me. “You need to be able to support yourself, and you aren’t going to be able to support yourself on a high school degree, so you have to go to college,” my mother would tell me.
