Thursday, September 04, 2008

Why women will never be in power...

Some of us have raised our daughters telling them that they can be anything they want to be, some of us blame men or the media as being more responsible for the failure of more women to be elected into power. Both are lies, we are the main reason more women do not seek office or end up winning. We say we want equal rights, equal pay, equal treatment but many of us are hypocrites. We don't judge our own sex with the same standards as males, we ourselves are guilty of the very thing that we rail against men for. Sure we try to dress it up and say our position is related only to "this particular woman" as was done with Clinton and now Palin but we ourselves as women are sending the message that we have a double standard when it comes to being a mother and a candidate.

Yes, the Mommy Wars where some women were saying even before the whole Bristol story that Palin having five children and one child with future special needs makes her a bad mother for wanting to run for Vice President. I'm not talking about Palin's qualifications as a candidate or even Palin's political party membership. I am directly focusing on her as a mother and the message we are sending to our daughters and to other women. When have you ever seen a blog post entitled, "Loving father or appalling ambition" written about a man? Yet posts like this one are out there where the question is, "Loving mother or appalling ambition." Or this other thread where a woman tries to make some of the same points I am and is shot down and of course the media focus on how Palin balances politics and family.

As an example, two of our elected representatives from NWO are men with young children, State Representative Matt Szollosi and State Senator Mark Wagoner, their job representing us requires them to be away from their young children a great deal, and requires their wives to basically be single parents when their husbands are down in Columbus or elsewhere. No one has ever suggested that either man was putting their ambition above their families, no one has ever suggested that their parenting should be questioned.

Every single day women face the decision of career or family, in this current economic environment many get by on jobs that are not really that satisfying for them personally, many are conditioned to believe that if they go for their dreams they will be viewed as bad mothers. I find it ironic that some of the women bloggers who have made this point about Palin, spend quite a bit of time on line, some of them are mothers with multiple children who write more than one blog, are out there in the media, and clearly if we are going to use the "loving mother or appalling ambition" label, who's spending time with their children while they spend hours on the internet? What type of quality time are they spending with their children as they sit in judgment of other moms?

Yeah, I know, they'll claim "that's different" but is it really? I am not suggesting for one second that women should vote based merely on gender, that to me is as wrong as those who vote based on race. What I am saying is if women truly want the double standard to cease, it has to start with them. Support or don't support Palin or any woman based on her ideology, but stop playing God when it comes to what they decide as a family they are willing to do. Or accept the responsibility that the reason why there are only cracks in the glass ceiling rather than it being shattered has to do with the mixed messages women send and the way we discriminate against our very own, not because of their political or personal beliefs but because some of us like to pretend we are superior and have the right to judge other women on their mothering...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lisa Renee - Bravo! I am so tired of hearing and reading people judge this woman for wanting to serve her country. It is not only insulting to women, but it is appalling that some of our left-wing blogger friends are lobbing such attacks. There are a few blogs that I read everyday that I no longer care to visit. Leave this woman's family alone!

Robin said...

I don't think she's a bad mother for wanting to be VP. I just wonder if she'll be able to handle the pressure of being VP on top of being mom to five children.

I know that her life is completely different than mine, and that she probably has paid help.

I know that I'm probably being sexist. But, mothers are different than fathers. In most households, the mom is the main nurturer and caregiver... the person who goes to the school meetings and keeps track of all the appointments. And seeing that Sarah Palin has a child who has special needs, more of her life will be devoted to various dr appointments, therapies and school meetings than "regular" households.

In my own life, I work part time. My husband is home, when I go to work. People still refer to his time with the kids, at night, as "babysitting". I have to laugh at that, because in my head, he's just doing his job as a dad. It's not considered "babysitting" when I'm home with the kids, before he gets home form work.

Perhaps, instead of trying to shoot a person down, because she sets her sites high, we should encourage men to pay closer attention and get more involved with what is going on in the household and with their children.

And I also want to put in that women are in power. It's just that we're behind the scenes and not in the spotlight. :)