After a historic night of “firsts” for women in Tuesday’s elections—Virginia’s first female governor; the first Muslim woman elected to statewide office in Virginia; an all-women transition team in NYC; and Detroit electing its first woman mayor—it didn’t surprise me that the very next day brought a New York Times headline asking, “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” (later softened to “Did Liberal Feminism Ruin the Workplace?”).
When I became the first woman to lead the New York City Fire Department, and the youngest in more than a century, most stories also zeroed in on the “first.” They also pointed out the things I didn’t share with my male predecessors, but failed to mention all the experience I had that they lacked.
