Reflecting upon Women Rights: Sit Down Chat with a Fort Collins Notable Author
On a sunny but crisp Tuesday afternoon, I was fortunate enough to be invited into Barbara Fleming’s home for a conversation, her fluffy grey cat, Shadow also wanted to be present. As a Fort Collins native, a freelance writer, retired teacher and journalist Barbara Fleming has written/co-wrote ten books and novels — the majority of these books focus on Northern Colorado. Today I sit with Fleming as she reflects upon The 19th Amendment.
In earlier years Fleming moved to Denver for a short while to work, this is where Fleming and her husband started their family of three children. She later resided back in Fort Collins where she went back to school and became an English teacher, she taught at high schools and community colleges in the area. Fleming is a passionate historian and once she starts writing she finds it hard to stop. Fleming’s thoughts on writing.
Nadia Elers: Do you consider yourself an active member of the Fort Collins community?
Barbara Fleming: Yes, I write a weekly column in the newspaper on the history of Fort Collins. As a result to that I do a lot of presentations and have interactions with a variety of people through the community.
Nadia Elers: What has inspired you to write many of your books on Fort Collins?
Barbara Fleming: I’ve always been interested in history. I had to set it aside to raise a family and teach but when my husband and I retired, we moved back to Fort Collins and I started taking up my interest again. There was a happy circumstance that occurred, I was invited by a publisher to write a book about Fort Collins; that got me started. So I didn’t go seeking them they contacted me. I wrote that (Fort Collins: The Miller Photographs) with a co-author Mac McNeil. We wrote two more books together and I’ve since written three others and three novels as well. Once you start writing, it’s hard to stop.
Nadia Elers: In your life, what are you most proud of?
Barbara Fleming: My three children. One lives in Johnstown, one in Denver and one in Virginia, he’s the one that had children so they live as far away as they possibly could.
Nadia Elers: What does this centennial year of the 19th Amendment mean to you?
Barbara Fleming: I have done a great deal of writing and research about Women’s Suffrage and gaining the vote. Colorado was the second place in the United States to grant women their vote. Colorado was the first State. It’s really important to me that young women, in particular, don’t take for granted the ability to vote and don’t blow it off. Women died so future generations can vote and we need to appreciate, value and honor that by voting. I have never missed an election.
Nadia Elers: As you grew up in Fort Collins, are there changes from then and now in regards to being a woman?
Barbara Fleming: Very much so. My mother was a professor at the college and she was the only woman in her department. She was badly treated and because of that she never received a raise, all the other professors got regular raises. She never got a raise, she got all the bad lab times, all the nitty-gritty that nobody else wanted even though she was the favorite professor of the students. The head of the department believed that women should stay home and have babies. Yes, things have changed tremendously since then.
When I was growing up women were confined to one or two career paths until they got married. You could be a teacher, nurse or a secretary, you could be those things but you weren’t supposed to aspire to do anything else. You were supposed to get married and have children, that was a women’s role. In 1962 when Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, that really began the women’s movement in the United States. That was a couple years after my youngest child was born and after I read that book I decided I’m going back to school. And so I did, I went back got my degree and started teaching.
Nadia Elers: Have you ever come across challenges or limitations being female in your professional life?
Barbara Fleming: Yes, I don’t know a women my age that hasn’t. When I was going to college, I wanted to major in history and teach but I was told women don’t do that, you’ll never get a job. So I majored in English instead, I allowed myself to be intimidated which was pretty much the culture of the time. I should have stood up for myself but we didn’t know how to do that. When I was teaching I had to wear a dress, hoes and heels no matter the weather, I couldn’t wear pants to teach. Then I worked in a newspaper company and of course, I was the women’s editor, I couldn’t do any hard stories or features.
Nadia Elers: What do you wish for females in the future?
Barbara Fleming: To be able to stand beside men as their equals. To be treated with dignity and respect, be able to do anything they feel they are capable of doing.
Nadia Elers: How does it feel to be awarded Marquis’s Who’s Who in America Women, featuring in the 2020 edition of the book?
Barbara Fleming: It’s nice. I don’t particularly seek publicity or awards and honors but it’s kind of nice to be recognized.
Marquis Who’s Who Publications.
Nadia Elers: Do you have any additional comments or thoughts?
Barbara Fleming: Only that history is the foundation upon which our societies are built, and we can learn valuable lessons from it. You and I will be history someday; we should live our lives accordingly.
Barbara Fleming has voted every election she has had the opportunity to, no doubt she will be voting this 2020 Presidential election and so should you. For more information on voting check out this Election 2020 Voters Guide.
