During the inauguration, I sat at a table with the staff of the National Council for Research on Women (pictured left).

Our remembrances from the day are now posted at their blog, The REAL Deal, right here.

I’ve seen books that teach you how to apply lessons from private life to leadership in the office, but this one  takes leadership skills from the office and applies them to the home. The whole premise of Jamie Woolf’s Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom from the Workplace Can Save Your Family from Chaos is that “being a mom means being a leader,” and the foreword is by none other than CEO of Working Mother Media Carol Evans.  While I have yet to pass judgment on whether business strategies that work in the workplace transfer to parenthood, what I’m most interested in here is the way the author has fortuitously capitalized on the Michele Obama moment to promote her book–a book that was finished, I am sure, long before Obama won the election.  Ingenius, I say.

Here’s from the promo material:

Michelle Obama Has What It Takes to Be Mom-in-Chief:
5 Lessons in Leadership That Mothers Can Learn From the New First Lady

Michelle Obama has stated that her focus when her husband takes office Jan. 20 will be serving as “mom-in-chief” to her daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7. Leadership expert Jamie Woolf, author of Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom from the Workplace Can Save Your Family from Chaos (Jossey-Bass; 288 pages; $22.95) examines how Obama will lead her family through this challenging transition.

When President-elect Barack Obama moves into the White House, his aides and supporters will celebrate his historic achievement. His wife and kids will be glad he’ll finally be home for dinner. 
Michelle Obama, a high-powered lawyer and executive administrator, values family life and says she will strive to give her daughters as normal a life as possible despite their being in the pubic eye. While she intends to use her platform as first lady to be an advocate for women’s issues, military families and national service, her priority will be her children, not policy–especially in the first transition year.

Jamie Woolf, whose book teaches moms how to use “best practices” from the workplace to make family life run more smoothly, says that adopting business leadership strategies can make the difference between a smooth and a chaotic transition for any family. Here are the lessons she draws from Michelle Obama:

Lesson 1: Motherhood is a leadership job: By calling herself “mom-in-chief,’ Michelle Obama sends a message that being a mom means being a leader, giving her job a status not usually afforded mothers. By celebrating her role rather than apologizing for it, she connects the notion of leadership beyond the walls of corporate suites and presidential mansions to the homes of average parents. The best leaders, like the best parents, strive to provide the proper conditions in which others can grow and reach their highest aspirations.
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So as a build-up to the Fem2.0 conference on February 2 in Washington DC, Fem2.0 is hosting another Twittercast this Sunday at 10pm–and it’s one I’m hoping to join (if I’m back in town!).  Everyone is invited to participate. The topic this time: Why Should Men Be Feminists?

But wait…what the bleep’s a Twittercast, you say?

Twitter, again, for those not yet in the know, is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. When you join Twitter, people sign up to follow your tweets, and you sign up to follow other people’s tweets. The tweets are instantaneous – people can tweet and respond to other people’s tweets in real time. With millions of overlapping Twitter feeds, Twitter is an incredibly powerful social networking tool. I love it and I hate it at the same time.

If you want to participate on Sunday and have a Twitter account, you can send the Fem2.0-ers your Twitter name, which they will gather into a list an distribute, so everyone will know who to follow for the Fem2.0 Twittercast.

If you do NOT have a Twitter account and are curious, you can sign up for one here: http://twitter.com/home

And if you hate Twitter and “tweets” and all the rest, feel free, of course, to bypass this post.

While I was disappointed by Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration, and felt it was a double slap in the face to those fighting for gay rights after Prop 8, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the choice. It seemed that it spelled the beginnings of a new era where the many faces of America were recognized, no matter which administration was in power and even if that meant recognizing those who refuse to do the same for their fellow citizens. It also just seemed like a symbolic, if potentially politically beneficial move for Obama, and one not to lose too much breath over given more substantive battles ahead. A New York Times article reported the following on how the invocation choice was received in Oklahoma:

The church’s pastor and founder, Billy Joe Daugherty, said that the selection of the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent evangelical minister from California, to give the inaugural invocation went a long way to easing fears in Mr. Daugherty’s mostly conservative congregation about a liberal social agenda. Mr. Obama’s selection of Mr. Warren has been denounced by many gay rights advocates and other liberal groups.

And as Bishop Gene Robinson wrote, the inaugural committee’s request that Bishop Robinson, the only openly gay pastor of a major Christian denomination, give the invocation at the opening We Are One event was “an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people.”

As long as Obama’s administration still pursues that liberal social agenda (getting rid of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, shoring up abortion rights, getting rid of Bush’s 11th hour health provider “conscience” rule), I’m fine with him extending the symbolic olive branch.

But speaking of facts on the ground, in reality Rick Warren’s speech was extremely disappointing, a piece exclusionary buffoonery. First, it felt generally uninspired, an ordinary speech for an extraordinary moment. Second, while some felt it gave inclusive nods to various American religious populations, I found his invocation of Jesus and full inclusion and leading of the “Our Father” prayer as unsettling, and I was raised with both in my religious background. I can’t imagine how it felt to those for whom such prayers and invocations have no religious meaning.

But it was the contrast between Rick Warren’s invocation on Tuesday, and Gene Robinson’s on Sunday, that was the most stark. Bishop Robinson began with a explosively inclusive tone: “O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…” and continued on:

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

You should also read Gwen and Tonni’s awesome GWP post about feminism and faith from this morning.

Update:

I like this description from the New York Times of the national prayer service this morning attended by the Obamas and Bidens at the National Cathedral:

Some new traditions were also being made. The service featured no fewer than 20 interfaith clergy, including woman leaders of the Muslim and Hindu faiths. And for the first time, the preacher was a woman, the Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a mainline Protestant denomination.

It’s a question on all of our minds as we wait and watch to see what the Obama Administration will tackle first. And the feminists are getting busy. Do check out the live blogging going on at RHRealityCheck Live Blog @ 3pm eastern tomorrow–on what happens to be the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Sounds like it’ll be a vigorous and provocative conversation.

On the heels of Gwen and Tonni’s awesomely informative post-inaugural post on religion, I’m thrilled to bring you this Q&A by GWP reader-now-contributor Allison McCarthy, a graduate of Goucher College who was recently accepted into the Master of Professional Writing program at Chatham University.  Allison’s work has previously been published or is forthcoming in magazines such as The Baltimore Review, JMWW, Girlistic, Scribble, Dark Sky, and The Write-Side Up.  Winner of the 2007 Maryland Writers Association Short Works Contest, she is currently a features and profiles writer for ColorsNW.  Here she is!  -Deborah

Susan Campbell, 49, is a journalist for the Hartford Courant, the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S. and author of Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl.  The book, published by Beacon Press in January 2009, uses humor, history, and memory to great effect in relating the author’s personal evolution of faith and politics.  She currently lives in Connecticut with her family and sometimes feels mortified that she wrote a memoir, which she says is a “vain thing to do,” and then has to talk about the memoir, thus rendering her “doubly-vain.”  Campbell recently spoke to Girl With Pen about her experiences with writing, feminism, and her ever-contentious relationship with Christianity.

GWP: How did you come up with the title Dating Jesus?  Were there other working titles attached to this project?

SC: It went for a long time without a title at all – I’ve never been able to write a headline and I suck at titles.  I don’t get a lot of great thoughts in the middle of the night, but I woke up laughing because it was almost like I was dating a boyfriend that I didn’t like very much.  The Jesus I was introduced to as a girl wasn’t very human; he was very judgmental and unhappy, fairly sanitized, and in retrospect he mimicked a lot of the adults around me.  He wasn’t very radical at all and this is not a person I would get along with much as a friend, let alone a boyfriend or someone I would worship.  But I tried to hammer myself into that box, anyway.

GWP: You include a lot of footnotes, which seems to be very popular among post-modern memoirists.  What was the significance of this literary device in your novel?

SC: As a trained fundamentalist, you have to back up everything you say with Scripture.  You have to have supporting documentation.  I knew this was going to be read by people like me who want proof.  It became a verbal tic and I couldn’t quit doing it!  I thought I stole this technique from a memoir about the family who came up with Sweet and Low.  The footnotes in that book were often as funny as was what came in the text.  Originally, my intent was pure, but I found it was great fun to put these irreverent footnotes in.  I don’t think of myself as irreverent, but that’s what I’ve been told it is, so I’m going to stick with that.

GWP: In the book, you mention the role of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in criticizing the gendered roles of contemporary Christianity.  What other feminists influenced your eventual shift from fundamentalism?  Do you currently identify with any communities of feminism?

SC: When I was growing up, the only feminist I knew was Gloria Steinem and I only knew what I read in the media.  I was a fairly wide reader.  I eventually met her and tried on her aviator glasses.  I read Betty Freidan and as a young woman, I thought she made a lot of sense.  I knew enough at that age not to identify myself as a feminist because it was a dirty word.  The stereotype is so silly.  I studied Womanism at Hartford Seminary.  I think that some critics of mainstream feminists complained that it’s a movement for white, middle-class women and it overlooks the challenges faced by other demographics.  That’s a valid critique and I think even the early feminists who sprang from the abolitionist movement were women of leisure who had the time and money to devote to this very important cause, but were also looking particularly at their own lives and not necessarily to women on a different socioeconomic rung.  At this point, I don’t know what school of feminism I would say I belong to.  I’m a feminist, but I’m uniquely aware that the movement as a whole has sometimes not paid enough attention to everybody.  I think there have been time periods where a lot of people left off the bus.

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Taking off our inaugural ball gowns (woo-hoo Obama!) and picking up our pens, this week’s Global Exchange will take a look at religious faith and feminism.

The inauguration is a good place to start for an examination of religion, since we don’t have to tell you that our pal religion – and the controversy surrounding it – was on full display during the festivities. President Obama’s selection of Pastor Rick Warren to conduct the inaugural invocation set off a firestorm of protest from the left, and particularly gay-rights and women’s rights organizations, for his recent support of the gay marriage ban in California (as well as previous positions on divorce and abortion, among other issues).

On the progressive side, Bishop Gene Robinson, the “first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop in a major Christian denomination,” and enemy of the religious right, was chosen to give the opening prayer at the We Are One concert held on Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial (the controversy continued when HBO decided not to include Bishop Robinson’s prayer in their official coverage of the event).  Reverend Sharon Watkins was selected by the President to be the first woman to lead the national prayer service on the day after the inauguration.  And who can forget the Reverend Joseph E. Lowery’s inaugural benediction?  For our purposes, this obsession with, and prevalence of, religion during the inauguration provides a perfect inroad to explore the historically complex relationship between women’s rights and religion.
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Live blogged from Caroline’s on Broadway

By Marco Acevedo (for accompanying pics where here it just says “IMG”, visit Marco’s front page post over at Open Salon, from which this is poached – with Marco’s permission, of course)

10:52 a.m.
I’m at our table in Carolines with my wife Dee (aka Girl w/Pen) and a happy, mimosa-fueled crowd of feminist confreres watching as the bi-Presidential caravan heads out from the White House. (This is unfortunately taking the form of an after-the-fact dispatch, since I don’t have Internet access here).

We’re here at the invitation of The White House Project (“a non-partisan organization committed to enhancing public perceptions of women leaders and advancing a richly diverse, critical mass of women into leadership positions.” Although Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show, declared herself pointedly partisan during her opening monologue. Her comment on the news that Cheney will be in a wheelchair for the inauguration: “Cheney supposedly hurt himself while moving. I guess he did let the doorknob hit him in the ass on the way out.”)

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Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show

11:08 a.m.
Talk at the table: Who is acting President in the ten minutes between the swearings in of Biden and Obama? Seriously, ten minutes is a long time. A lot can happen. Why aren’t they simultaneous?

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My babe, Girl w/Pen

11:19 a.m.
The Carters are announced. The brand strikes up some rousing Sousa (what’s happening to me? Wearing a flag pin, tearing up to Sousa… must be middle age.)

11:22 a.m.
The Clintons are announced. The Carolines crowd goes wild. Conversation around the table: the symbolism of yellow (gold?) and purple, the vestiges of royal ritual. Everyone on the podium seems to be wearing a jot of one color of the other. Hillary particularly striking in her purple coat.

11:24 a.m.
Sasha and Malia, appear, all smiles and regal pace. Carolines erupts again. Whoops at the sight of the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin. Regal presence.

11:31 a.m.
Cheers and gasps for Michelle resplendent in glittering yellow. Boos and hissing for Dubya as he ambles along on his perp walk. I can’t help thinking he looks alone. Interesting that the First Lady doesn’t accompany the outgoing President.

11:39 a.m.
Obama appears on the flatscreen. Cheers, applause, a scattering of Carolines attendees rising to their feet. Comments at table: the office has already aged him, and he hasn’t even been sworn in. But he looks filled with the moment, calm and accepting.

11:44 a.m.
President-Elect Barack H. Obama is announced. Thunder and cries. Closeups on the screen of black men and women in the crowd on the mall.
I feel the moment expanding.

No more time stamps.
The rest is a blur of fluid motion quickly setting as rock-solid history.

Hugs and involuntary shout outs during DiFi’s impassioned opening speech. Her words about the nonviolent roots of this triumphant moment are superimposed to dramatic effect over the visage of our outgoing President.

Boos and guffaws at the appearance of Reverend Rick Warren for the opening prayer. Loud comments throughout the prayer, hisses at its close.

Aretha blesses,caresses and weaves “My Country ‘tis of Thee” in vaults and spires over the mass of humanity carpeting the Mall. Not your white grandma’s Kate Smith.

Noon.
Obama becomes President of the United States by Constitutional decree, although he hasn’t yet taken the oath. The moment passes under the soothing and introspective tones of Yoyo Ma and Itzhak Perlman.

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Yoyo Ma at the Moment. Grace.

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The Girl w/Pen happy and proud

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Boy w/Pin

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A jumbotron in Times Square

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Obama Generation

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For posterity

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My cold fingers, the Flag and the Square

(crossposted with permission from Open Salon)

I was so excited bout it all this weekend, I painted my nails red and blue. Yep, I really did.

Off to Caroline’s on Broadway now to watch the festivities with a bunch of friends and colleagues. It seems there’s so much to say, and no words in which to say it.

ENJOY THIS HISTORIC DAY!

For those of you who, like me, are not currently in DC, some highlights from the concert. On the eve of MLK Day, it’s moving to see this taking place in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Pete Seeger, The Boss, and a bunch of other performers singing “This Land Was Made for You and Me”:

Beyonce singing “America the Beautiful”: