Mavis Tells Tavis About Jockey Dreams And Suffragette Heroes

Mavis Leno, a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation and Jay Leno’s cooler half, spoke on Tavis Smiley last night about a political awakening involving jockeys and suffragettes.

Leno’s description of her childhood dream of being a jockey is kind of funny, but what’s really interesting is that the crushing of this dream led her to read up on the history of feminism, including the real physical danger women faced in agitating for the right to vote. It’s sad that Leno didn’t learn about this in school — of women in her history textbooks, she says, “It was Marie Curie, and that was it.” But it’s kind of cool that her dad was the one who turned her on to feminism— parents and educators alike could learn something from him.