Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Amy McPhee Allabest. In the course of this season, we've gone in-depth and up close with dozens of people's experiences navigating present-day patriarchy.

We've heard stories of personal struggle, of generational trauma, of feminist revelations. We've listened to fantastic essays on what a more

egalitarian future might look like. And we've been pointed towards critical changes that our

world and our culture are sorely overdue for. On today's episode, we're going to be talking

about what it takes to actually make those changes happen, about the

process of change itself. We'll be talking about how challenging the idea of change can be,

about some of the forces which fight against it, tooth and nail, and about the harm that those

conflicts can cause. But ultimately, we're going to be talking about how essential these acts of

transformation are for ourselves, for our culture, and for our world, and how we're going to be talking about how essential these acts of transformation

are for ourselves, for our culture, and for our world, and how everyday people, just like you and me,

can make these changes manifest. To begin, we'll first look at one of the most powerful forces

opposing change, and that force is tradition, cultural traditions, family traditions, religious traditions,

and more. And to help us understand the impact that cleaving to traditions can create,

we're going to hear from Shauna Wrench, who will share a beautiful essay about her grandmother,

her mother, herself, and the harm that too often happens when the tradition of

patriarchy is perpetuated. We're so grateful to have her here with us. To introduce our first guest,

Shauna Wrench, is a wife and mother of four kids ages 16 to 6. She grew up in the north suburbs of

Chicago, but moved to Arizona with her family at the end of high school.

She went to Arizona State University looking at various degrees but decided on education

before taking time off to get married and have her first child.

She went back to school in order to complete a bachelor's degree at NAU and started teaching.

She's taught from kindergarten through sixth grade, but loves

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