My Mom, My Life

By Lydia L. Ramos, former NBC News producer and former teacher at her and her mother’s alma mater, Phineas Banning High School, who now helps schools and families understand budgetary matters for the Los Angeles Unified School District

The long and short of it is that I have always lived in “A Woman’s Nation.” As a child, women ran the households in my immediate and extended family. Women decided what car to buy, what food to eat, and what church to attend. Women directed, produced, and starred in the show that was my life every day.

Fast forward to today. Women still run the show but we have more choices than our mothers. A Woman’s Nation in this era is pre-packaged with opportunities never before seen thanks to the countless women who fought for better wages, educational choices, and cultural relevancy. We stand on their shoulders, pulling up the next generation to stand on ours.

My mother is the one who pulled me up. When she was in high school here in Los Angeles, she had to decide which two jobs to work to pay for a family of five (her single mother was too ill to work). At that same age I was deciding which two universities to attend: The University of Southern California to study journalism or the University of California-Los Angeles to become a teacher. I chose USC, became a journalist and later, a teacher.

As a 5-year-old I apparently wanted to become either a cowgirl or an actress. Later I told my seventh-grade math teacher that I wanted to be a boss just like my mom. He suggested I become an accountant so I could have a pool in my backyard.

I didn’t really understand what my mom did except that she started to manage more and more people at the watch-making company where she worked. What I did know was that we were moving up the economic ladder little by little. She formed friendships with a diverse group of coworkers before multiculturalism was a buzz word. She brought innovative ideas to her company—many of which were eventually implemented. Her professionalism and company loyalty led her to move cross country to keep her job at one point. It was better than starting all over again without a college education. She was a company woman whose leadership and diligence moved us from welfare into the middle class.

Along with her mantra of “do things right the first time,” she constantly encouraged me to plan for college. She was the mother who came to school twice a year to meet my teachers but engaged me every night about my homework and my day. As a teen I was disappointed that her work schedule barred her from watching me play tennis in high school. Later as a teacher, I realized that she was exactly the type of parent that I desired for my students: a partner in helping students succeed from home. She was the other half of a full-court educational press.

My mother was and is the only role model I ever needed. As my colleague Dr. Sharon Robinson said recently, “When you educate a woman, you educate a family.” My mother’s street smarts educated me before I received my college education, which itself provided thousands of opportunities. I am proud to live in “A Woman’s Nation” of the past and the present.