Sandoval County sisters break down sexism throughout the years

Women well into their 80s have seen a thing or two. They've lived through conflicts, diseases, racism, sexism and so much more. Three sisters here in Sandoval County have had their fair share of life so far and have some advice to give to fellow women.

Catherine Barett, 89 (soon to be 90), of Corrales; Jeanne Case, 86, of Rio Rancho; and Mary Sangi, 81, of Corrales, are those sisters, and each has a unique story to tell.

Barett, the oldest of the bunch, is a history teacher who has lived through some important pieces of history herself.

"I was about 7 when World War II was going on," she explained.

While she was pretty unaffected by what was going on, there is one day in particular she remembers easily.

"My dad picked me up from a friend's house, and I was standing on the front seat of the car because you could do that back then without getting arrested. He asked me, 'Do you know what war is?' I told him 'Yes'. He asked, 'How do you know?'" Barett recalled.

At the time, she said, she knew what war was because she had seen "cowboy and Indian" movies.

"He told me the Japanese, and I had no idea what that meant, had attacked us and that they're going to go to war and that he might have to go to war," she added.

She said it was the first serious conversation she had with her parents when he did end up going.

"It didn't really register totally what it meant," she said.

But as people from her neighborhood slowly started getting drafted, she says that's when it really began to sink in.

She and Case, being the middle sister, were called to help the war effort while they were in grade school.

"So we collected used bacon grease because it contains nitrates. We also collected tin foil and scrap metal," Case said.

Most of what they collected ended up going into the girls' section of the Catholic school they attended at the time.

"Because boys needed to be able to run more," Barett said with an eye roll.

During air raid drills, Barett says, girls were required to stand next to the furnace. She added that if a bomb had been dropped on them, the furnace would have been the first thing to explode. The reason given to the girls was that, "Boys might become priests one day."

During a time when women were about to gain strength in several careers that were deemed "men's only," Barett and her sisters grew up as the first generation of women that didn't rely so heavily on men. Their mother, Barett says, was one of the strongest women she knew and evenly matched the strength of their father.

When their mom found out why girls were required to stand next to the furnace, Barett says she "had a fit."

"Our mother was actually quite aggressive in many ways and she wasn't crude," Case said.

Sangi says she was very well spoken and would always make herself understood. Case added that their mother would write in to the newspaper to express herself.

The sisters added that anytime there was something going on with them, their mother would come to bat for them.

Now, each of the sisters has made a name for herself. Barett got her bachelor's and master's degrees in teaching; Case became an English teacher, massage therapist and chaplain; and Sangi explored business and real estate.

Case is a former nun who was in the service for 15 years and left the sisterhood. There were many reasons she left, including wanting to teach in inner city Chicago.

"I had a higher calling to teach. So I left. I was able to find myself, and I knew that we all have our own calling," she said.

At the time the priests said she wasn't qualified enough to teach the children religion, even though she had been studying religion longer than some of the priests had.

Sangi says she, like other women and her sisters, had to recreate herself a few times.

"We'll always be recreating ourselves," she said.

She has been in many careers with real estate, textbook publishing and even working at Dillard's. Then, after taking a break from work, Sangi ended up finding her passion in painting.

Something all three sisters agreed on was that while it has gotten easier for women over the years, there are still some sexist undertones in today's world.

"I think there will always be something that we have to deal with," Sangi said.

Barett says today's girls and women should at the very least get their high school diploma and possibly go into college or learn a trade.

"Because a woman should be able to support herself. You can't always count on men to be there," she said.

She says so many women endure and make excuses for men that treat them poorly. She added that women are often left helpless without knowledge of finances after their husbands die or leave them.

"I think New Mexico should make it mandatory for schools to teach finances and budgeting," she said.

Sangi agreed, saying women have to respect themselves overall.