1976. My 6 year old sister and her best friend, Elie, whizzed through the front door, locked it behind them, and dropped the front blinds. I heard them race through the house, securing the other doors and closing the rest of the blinds. The house grew still and silent.

BAM BAM BAM!

My hand was on the doorknob when Elie placed a tiny hand on my wrist and whispered, “Don’t open it!” Then my sister pulled her under my father’s desk and slid his chair in after them.

I peeked out the blinds and saw Elie’s big brother, my friend, Teddy. I unlocked the door and slid outside, heard the double-locks click shut behind me.

“Where are those brats?” He demanded. “I’m going to kill them.”

“What did they do?” He shrugged; he didn’t want to say. “There’s something in your hair,” I pointed out. He rubbed at it and his hand came away pastel pink. He swore.

“You can’t hide forever!” He yelled at the front door and biked away before I could ask where everyone had been hanging out for the last week. Back inside, I asked what was up.

“We’re women’s libbers!” My sister boasted, puffing out her chest.

“Is that paint on your hands?”

Ellie smiled shyly. “We painted the clubhouse pink.”

“Clubhouse? What clubhouse? Where? Whose?”

“My brother’s and the other boys,” Elie whispered. “In my backyard. They built it out of junk…”

“…and they put up a sign that says NO GIRLS ALOWWED,” my sister added. “So we painted it pink.”

The boys, my friends, had banned girls from their club. I was the only girl in the gang. For you youngsters, this is like Will and Mike banning Eleven from their club.

And my sister and Teddy’s sister had painted their clubhouse pink.

In 1976, women business owners couldn’t borrow money without a male cosigner. Employers could legally discriminate against pregnant women. State laws still declared that husbands had sole control over joint holdings with their wives. No woman had ever served on the supreme court. Public schools could still legally discriminate based on sex. All-male orgs could still legally exclude women and Mississippi had not ratified the constitutional amendment enabling women to vote. Law firms could still legally refuse to promote women to Partner just because they were women. FMLA, not even a dream.

Yet my sister and Elie had painted the clubhouse pink.

The American Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 outlined the policy hell unleashed last year. Project 2026 outlines policy changes that discourage women from working, from living as single parents, and Pete Hegseth just blocked promotions for women and for men of color.

“Again” means going back to the years before 1976, when women were banned from juries (1975), unable to get housing or credit because they were women (1974), were refused jobs while they had preschool children (1971), couldn’t get a “no-fault” divorce (1969), couldn’t buy birth control (1965).

I’ve got a can of pink paint. You want some?