The Unlikely Feminist: How a Father's Love was Heard Across the Country

Sandy Illian Bosch, far right, stands with friends at the Women's March in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Saturday.

My grandpa was a good man who loved his wife and his brood of children and grandchildren. He was an active volunteer in the community and a kind gentleman who never uttered a four-letter word in his 98 years of life. He also was a staunch Republican who embraced the party’s conservative platform.

And yet this man, who had little tolerance for liberal agendas and believed the Spanish language had no place in America, was a feminist. He almost certainly never used this word to describe himself, but my grandpa was married to one of the first women to ever graduate from Iowa State University. He raised seven strong, educated women and three men who have gone on to raise strong, educated daughters and kind, open-minded sons. He loved, supported and respected the women in his life and raised his sons to do the same. If only through voicing his own ideas, he challenged their thinking and empowered his children to have voices of their own.

And on Saturday, Jan. 21, those voices were heard in marches all across the country. The women who he raised to be free thinkers and kind, loving humans were among the crowds in Madison, Des Moines, Chicago and Washington, DC. His grandson marched with his family in Sacramento. And I marched in Ann Arbor.

As I walked alongside people of every race, religion and gender, I wondered, as I often have in recent months, how he would have voted in this election. And then I realized that it wouldn’t have mattered. The way that he lived his life spoke much more loudly than the way he cast his vote.

The respect he showed for his daughters produced a small legion of “nasty women” who feel empowered to make a difference. His love for his family produced dozens of open-minded people who are speaking out against hatred and intolerance.

While my grandfather’s vote was always red, the way he raised his daughters was decidedly blue. His love won. And ours will, too.

A former journalist of 25 years, Sandy Illian Bosch is a freelance writer and communications manager living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She also is an advocate for our country’s growing aging population.

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