Alva Review-Courier -

Almost everyone agrees that women in the United States have had to struggle to attain some measure of equality in their lives. For example, a little over a century ago (in 1920, to be exact), women were first allowed to vote in most states – 131 years after the U.S. Constitution went into effect.

Obtaining the right to vote, moreover, was not easily accomplished. Women had been organizing and demanding that most important right of citizenship for decades before the country’s politically powerful men finally agreed to grant it to them.

Likewise, women have struggled throughout the nation’s history for equal opportunities in education, employee rights, politics, and participation in several fields of endeavor (like the military, fire-fighting, and law enforcement) that were for years reserved only for men.

Being able to participate in sports on an equal basis with their male counterparts was another goal that women had to fight long and hard to achieve. But sometimes perseverance pays off, even if it seems to take forever for the days of equality to arrive.

Similar arguments could (and should), of course, be made about other groups of Americans who have also struggled to attain equal opportunities, but this article is about American women working to be accepted into and then achieving great things in one particular sport.

That entertainment activity is operating at high rates of speed machines with motors and wheels – specifically automobiles and motorcycles. Moreover, this article focuses on one specific type of motorsport: drag racing.

The sport of drag racing has several organizations that sanction competitive events. The premier body is rightfully called the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), the term “hot rod” being a slang phrase that refers to a car that has been modified to perform at maximum speeds.

Anyone who watches drag racing events on television these days is going to see several women who are top competitors. They win individual races and sometimes they become year-end champions. That was not, of course, always the case – as we will explore beginning next week.