On the 30th of this month, we’ll be exactly 229 years distant from George Washington taking the oath of office as our first president, and for all practical purposes, the real beginning of our country. Recently, I marked my own milestone, turning 60. And at three-score years, I’ve been around for roughly one quarter of our entire history as a nation – we are a young country to be sure. And so it is not surprising that, especially in the early years, we saw a great many things done for the first time by an American. As the years have passed, we’ve seen fewer “firsts,” which makes sense. But one troubling trend that continues is how often we hear the phrase “first American woman to…”

My grandmother was 24 when American women first got the right to vote. Growing up, I spent summers on my grandparent’s farm in Iowa, and to me Grandma was a very real person – but a person who, as a young woman, was denied a fundamental right. My mom (age 2 at the time women got the vote) was middle-aged when one day she found that her application for a credit card was denied unless she removed her own name, and instead entered “Mrs. Russell Bidlack,” which really ticked her off. And when I was a lad of about 10, my dad took my brother and me to Washington D.C. to see the sights. We went to the gallery overlooking the U.S. Senate, and my dad pointed out Senator Margaret Chase Smith, and said “that’s the woman senator.”

Just in the course of my own life, we’ve seen lots of “first woman to” events. A law passed in 1974 (yes, 1974) made it illegal to deny women like my mom a credit card, and in 1978, it became illegal to fire a woman if she becomes pregnant. It took until 1993 for marital rape to be criminalized in all 50 states, and it wasn’t until 2012 that women were allowed to box in an Olympic games. So many firsts for women, and don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing, but, really, why is it taking so long?

Well, at least the new century has largely erased gender bias, right? I mean, it’s not like it took until the year 2000 for the first woman to command a U.S. Navy warship at sea, right? Actually, it did. And love her or hate her, it took until 2007 for us to see a woman as speaker of the House, in the person of Nancy Pelosi. We saw another first in 2012, when the U.S. Air Force promoted its first female 4-star general. I remember discussing gender issues during my own time in the Air Force, often with one of the very smartest and most capable people I’ve ever met, then fellow Captain Michelle Johnson. Colorado readers may know that name, because that former captain was appointed to the rank of 3-star general and given command of the U.S. Air Force Academy as that institution’s first female Superintendent in 2013.

I guess I’m just wondering, when will we see the last first? I remember cadets at USAFA, when I first arrived in the late 1980s, had trouble getting their (mostly male) minds around the idea of female general officers. Today’s cadets have no such trouble, as they’ve seen male and female generals and admirals as a normal part of their military service. And perhaps that’s the key – normal. After Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, most stories about her, for a long time, felt the need to point out that she was the first woman to serve there. Today, with three of nine Justices female, the news stories are now far more likely to note a perceived political bias when reporting on a justice, rather than gender, and that’s a good thing. Perhaps, just perhaps, at least in the Supreme Court, we may be mostly past thinking about women as novelties and “firsts.”

Maybe. But I firmly believe that misogyny remains firmly rooted in far too many places in our society. As the father and grandfather of women, I want them to go as far as their hard work and intellects will allow. So, I confess to mixed feelings when I see a new “first” for women. I’m proud of the accomplishment, but I can’t help wondering what took so long. How long until the very last “first?”