With the GOP war on women in full if incoherent swing - the latest: Romney argues rich white moms staying home with their kids are making a career choice but poor black ones are welfare queens - it's helpful to note that some gender issues do show progress. Today's 76th Boston Marathon honors the 40th anniversary of the legal entrance of women in the race, and of Title IX anti-discrimination legislation that led to equal participation in high school and college sports. In 1967 (above), Kathrine Switzer got booted aside by race official Jock Semple when she tried to run. Today, citing history, she joined the celebration of a field with more women than men; a great Lady Gaga parody video for equal rights echoes her.

“We knew stepping across that line we were making history just as our suffragette mothers did.’’ - Switzer