Path to Page Workshop Part 4

Recently, I went on a day long hiking and writing workshop in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Northern Michigan. The class was lead by Ann-Marie Ooman and sponsored by Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, the park liaison group that coordinates volunteer efforts to maintain the historic buildings on the park grounds.
The hike went through the Port Oneida Historical District, which contains unoccupied homes, barns, beautiful forests and breathtaking views of Lake Michigan.
The following is an excerpt from one of my writings that day, in its first draft form.

Port Oneida Schoolhouse

Prompts:
1. Once...
2. I remember...
3. I dreamed...
4. What I understand now...

Once, not that long ago, these doors were open everyday, letting in the neighboring children summoned by a bell to class. It was the hub of the community. Did the children like to be here? That would've depended on the comparative differences for each child between home life and school. What was the teacher like? They would've had him or her for several years until the teacher either moved on to a different district or married and abandoned the career altogether.
I remember the competitiveness of elementary and junior high, the value of proving myself outside of home and excelling among my peers. It was a place where girls really could compete, and even had the advantage. An advantage that evaporated quickly after college. These girls in Port Oneida would've lost that advantage earlier. While allowed to attend school up until maybe 8th grade, they would've had somewhat equal footing with the boys here. Vocational training at home would be very different based on gender expectations.
As a child, I dreamed of a limitless world, the stuff of Disney fables, where women are valued for substance. Their ideas appreciated and given equal footing.
What I understand now is that it was an illusion. Without the security of gender roles and stability of the family as a unit, more is expected of women with less reward. As child bearers and rearers, women are still a vulnerable population that need special considerations and protections. In our haste to control our lives as women, we have lost our natural biological selves. What Would Nature Do? It would extinct us for our errors.