Christine M. Flowers: Womyn's Studies

THE FIRST time I encountered the concept of "women's studies" was as a freshman at Bryn Mawr 30 (gulp) years ago.

The catalog promised a number of topics specific to my sex, including women in history, in the arts, in science, in athletics, etc. Having chosen to attend a single-sex college, this wasn't exactly a shock, though our then all-male brother school didn't offer "men's studies" (except in certain dorms on certain weekends, but that's another op-ed).

I never signed up for any classes in the girl-power curriculum because it seemed that focusing on only 51 percent of the population was a bit narrow-minded.

Many sister Mawrters informed me that I was, in fact, the one with the narrow mind.

And given that women have been making some very interesting headlines in recent days, I've come to believe they had a point.

So just to show that a lipstick-wearing-female-chauvinist-piglet can evolve, I've designed my own minicourse in Women's Studies. Ready, class?

Lilly was a manager of a Goodyear plant who, when she realized her paychecks were significantly lower than those of male colleagues in identical jobs, sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Unfortunately, she missed the legal deadline, which required a plaintiff to file the claim within 180 days of the initial act of discrimination. Lilly argued that she hadn't known about the discrimination until decades after it began. The Supreme Court, in a controversial 2007 decision, ruled against her.

It seemed unfair. You had a nice hard-working grandmother who'd been cheated because of her sex. People got incensed, not just women.

Congress tried to amend Title VII in 2008 during the campaign to make it easier to sue, but Republicans still had some pull and blocked it on the grounds that the legislation was too vague and could let unscrupulous lawyers file frivolous lawsuits and bankrupt employers.

But it's a whole new ball game now, and the new guy in town has a soft place in his heart for our Lilly, who followed him around on the campaign trail like a cuddly mascot. President Obama used Ledbetter's plight to show that discrimination was still very real, and that something needed to be done to protect women, blacks, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community and everyone else suffering from discrimination.

And so, with a Democratic Congress, and a president who supported the bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act became a reality last week.

It's hard to be against something called the Fair Pay Act, so criticism has been limited. But it's worth mentioning that under the language of the new law, which lets you sue for discrimination years after the initial wrongdoing, companies that absorb other firms can be held responsible for discrimination they never participated in, while the people involved in the original, possibly reasonable decisions are dead. Statutes of limitations are there for a reason, even though some people think they're just a technicality to let unscrupulous businessmen and pedophile priests off the hook.

Of course, who cares about slamming management when a cuddly granny gets to smile?

My family refers to my life from adolescence to early adulthood as "Christine: The Lost Years." I'm absent from most of the snapshots from that era.

I wandered in the Kodak wilderness because of 10-15 pounds of pudginess when figure-hugging fashions were the rage. Many women can relate. No big deal.

Of course, most women aren't gorgeous blond singers who traded, at least in part, on their face and figure to make a fortune.

Jessica Simpson is. Jessica Simpson has. And now, there's a little bit more of Jessica than we're used to seeing. My first reaction: She's still a beauty and there are more important things to worry about, like tax-avoidance in high places and an economy in nosedive.

But I think it's a little hypocritical for people to be saying, "It's so unfair to focus on her figure" when that's one of the reasons she got to be a star. Because, let's be honest, Maria Callas she's not.

Some unhinged woman gets a bunch of docs to implant her with eight embryos so she can impersonate Mother Goose. Critics are in an uproar because no one stopped her from making her own reproductive choices.

Kind of ironic, isn't it?

Class dismissed. *

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer. E-mail

cflowers1961@yahoo.com. Hear her on WPHT 1210/AM, Saturday 8-10 p.m.