There’s a reason I’ve got that 80s pop song “Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves” by Eurythmics running through my head. I just read “Women embrace the power tool” by Libby Copeland of Slate featured in today’s Denver Post about women single handedly remodeling their homes. I look the tile work in my kitchen and bathrooms and smile. I did it myself.

Copeland notes, “Lately the DIY [Do it yourself] movement seems to be flattening gender roles.” Men are going gourmet while women are hitting the power tools.  

Women are packing heat as well. Few missed the story earlier this week of a woman who defended herself and her children against a crazed intruder who broke in before the police could arrive. She shot him and he fled.

In addition to power tools and pistols, women are doing it for themselves on public policy. We have a powerful tool—the pen—and we don’t have to rely on middlemen like the press and special interests to tell us what to think. That’s what the Independent Women’s Forum and its initiative the Colorado’s Future Project are all about. We sisters are doing it for ourselves.