Saturday
Sep202008
Can a woman lead? a country or anything else?
Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 3:20AM
Now the debate raging over Sarah Palin, has become interesting to me.
Call me a smart-ass (as my man did), but I wasn't the least bit surprised that McCain got a woman in to steal some ex-Hilary supporters. In fact I was expecting it, but apparently the press and many others were surprised, and in some cases even amazed.
Well, ces't la vie. I am not going to bore you with my political views here, and nor do I want to hear yours. I'm not interested in Sarah's position on abortion or anything else for that matter, for the purposes of this discussion.
Which is this.
Why were her fiercest critics women, both in the press and the public. Why? This harks back to my post two months ago, about women supporting each other and competing fairly instead of smacking each other down. You can read an except below and others opinions or go there.
Now I'm not suggesting that all women should agree with her rather conservative opinions on major issues, but why go for the jugular, why suggest that she can't hold office and have babies.
We all know men don't get ask these questions that's not surprising.
What is rather sad however, is that the people landing her with these dreadful names, bad mother, ambitious, liar, were in the main Women!!!
Women who themselves had to claw their way to wherever they were in the press or normal life, and hadn't got where she has, and were not going to let her escape, without a good lashing! So let's Shame her, blame her.
It's not men who did this mind you, there may have been a few, like Obama himself who refered to her as a pig, by saying " you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig". apparently Hilary did have something to complain about when she said he had to control his mouth. But in the majority it was women who did this, and will continue to.
This is what happens in the corporate world every day. Put a whole bunch of ambitious, formerly-held-down women in a room and unleash their tongues, and you get what’s called a catfight or a smack down, you choose.
Men have always protected each others sins and pleasures. Women don’t.
Ask any women who her fiercest critics have been, and you have your answer.
It’s the reason men rule the boardroom, we women are so competitive and “mean” to each other to use your own words, that I’d rather work in a room full of man eating lions than in corporate.
girldom.
We claim to not want divisions based on gender and then have “blogher.” Why not flogher?
And, if anyone of us, ( even those like me who try to support women s’ efforts where-ever I go), can say they don’t commit the sins you list below, regularly, then I’ll eat both my hat and shoes.
Sex in the city wasn’t a hit just because of the sex, it was the sharp competitive girl chat that made it a hit, competing for the attention of men is what makes us bring out the claws.
Please leave your opinion on woman supporting or attacking each other below.
Wisequeen.
Reader Comments (10)
I know you don't want to hear our views but I am not a Palin supporter BUT I don't understand it either why women are bashing her for this. I have watched it time and time again in my own business. I have never yelled at an employee. Never belittled an employee but I am tough with high expectations. Where men with similar traits would be respected I've been called (not to my face) a bitch, difficult to work for, etc. Perhaps it's our own insecurities that makes us do this. Our own female guilt that all (most?) successful women have whenever they miss a child's special moment because of a work-related event. It's in our nature as mothers to believe that WE should be there no matter what.
As women, we should be proud of this moment of how far Hilary went and the fact that the Republicans finally have a woman on the ticket. We should be proud that Sarah is attempting to have it all--family and work. We can disagree on her politics, believe she doesn't have what it takes to be VP, but to bring her family into this (a special needs child and a pregnant teen) should be out of the question. Until we can treat each other as we want to be treated by men, maybe we don't deserve this.
Interestingly, there were plenty of women who became upset at the immediate questions (posed mostly by the MSM) about her "fitness" for office due to her role as mother. Most feminists came out and said that her motherhood should be off limits. Even when not agreeing with Sarah Palin, most prominent women said that her personal life should be off the table. It's actually mostly perception (fueled especially by the GOP following up on questions posed by MSM) that feminists rounded on Palin. Most didn't.
One of the other problems now is that for some reason women are expected to support her, no questions asked, because she is a WOMAN. The other problem is that the McCain campaign is now turning any question of Palin's policy decisions as governor and inquiry into her political views as "sexism," claiming that any attempt to question her legitimately is an attack on her personally.
Thanks for your comment Susan, I heartily agree with everything you raised and am as mystified as you are as to why we keep shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to our fellow women. I hope that one day women will just be able to lead well or badly just as men do and be judged on that and not on how big our boobs are or wether we wear lipstick.
Thanks Miranda. I expected the feminists to attack her because of her views, but have seen many women, admittedly mostly democrat, slam her as the bottom of the barrel. Those who came out in support regardless of her views, were older women in politics who were no longer competition to her.
Why have we never had a female president if America is such an equal and democratic place?
It's so easy for us to yell at the television and gossip about how horrible a person someone is, especially when we don't know them at all. The reality is that she and many other women have led high powered careers while raising families. Women are built to muti-task. Whether or not she can run the country will be determined by her words and actions over time. Her family will be the least of our issues whether or not she gets into office.
The women who have personally attacked her should be ashamed of themselves. I can't state it more eloquently than the blog post so I won't try, but we have to stop tearing each other down just because it makes us feel better in that moment. (By the way, I'm not a fan of Palin's politics, but the petty nonsense that people are throwing around about her is sickening.)
Is it possible that some of the women, who are slamming her, disagree with her extreme conservative policy stances? Palin is a nutjob and any women that stands with her stands against everything women have worked for in the last 100 years. Is it also possible that the women who think she put her career in front of her family are the type of women who would not even consider doing such a thing. Just because you are a woman who does not like her, does not mean you are against a woman in the VP slot, it just means you don’t want her to be the one.
Dear Demsforchange, you miss the point of this post. Which is this:disagreeing with someones policies, does not give you or anyone else the right to attack someones personality, intelligence or life choices. No one's vote is that powerful. She should be allowed to prove if shes a good or bad leader without all the backlash.
That's the intelligent, thinking persons approach, not to mention democratic. Look up the word "democratic".
Hilary was attacked because she had an ugly child by the way in the beginning, so I don't think this has anything to do with the quality of the women in question, just MEAN MEAN people.
Dear Sky sister, What a pity there aren't more thinking people like you to make a real contribution this election. We should stop gossiping and start thinking.
The personal attacks are sad. I don't know her enough to dislike her and I don't know enough about her experiences to discredit her.
My question is: is Sarah Palin better for women than Obama? On one side we have a republican (mostly conservative), on the other a black democratic (often more open to new courses). Women need new courses to enhance their chances and get the same opportunity men get.