I am a so-called Second Wave Feminist and became conscious in the 1960's and active in the 1970's. By the late 1980's and certainly 1990's, women coming into the work force wondered, "what's all the fuss."

Some of the women who had been through the battles tried to mentor the younger ones, but many were intractable. They had it figured out and the dinosaurs around the office were just "bitter" and had simply not figured things out. As one recent graduate enlightened us, "well, if I have a problem, I just talk to my boss. What's the big deal?"

These women were very sharp and knew the rift between women who were passed over and the angst mangers had about this "class" of women who had been the early graduates of the top schools, but simply had not penetrated the power structure. So the younger women allied themselves with the men in power. "If I have a problem, I just talk to my boss," and these women moved rapidly into positions that women (a few years older) had demonstrated they could handle - while the male contemporaries of the older women had shot ahead.

Along the way the term "glass ceiling" was coined by one of our number. It was an invisible cap that seemed like it wasn't there until you bumped against it and went through a never ending series of lateral moves. Or in the case of women who turn situations around or fixed tertiary cases, the minute things looked good, the woman was rewarded by have a man parachuted in as her boss.

The recent graduates might as well have been hearing a lecture in ancient Sanskrit for all that it meant to them.

And yet, none of them has risen very far either.

With all these qualified women coming into the professions, why have none got the top jobs, save for a very, very, few? Are there not enough qualified women?

Look at the person nominated to take the place of Justice O'Connor. Bush could not find even one woman among all who was qualified to sit on the bench to take the place of one of only two out of nine who sit on the Supreme Court?

The power imbalance at the top is glaring.

We dinosaurs may be old, but we're not a dumb as we look. We've been around a while. The next generation may not be Feminists, but the if this keeps up, women's rights may become extinct.