women’s leadership

The feminist blogosphere has been chewing over Gropegate these past few days (see the post with 364 comments over at Shakesville) and I just watched James Carville and some Republican strategist “analyze” the incident and the brouhaha on The Situation Room.  Carville, who I generally really like, acted like a total pig.  While the speechwriter apologized and Hillary accepted, Carville thought he had nothin to apologize for, he was just a 27-year old havin some fun, whohoo ye haw!  Amy Siskind, cofounder of The New Agenda, has a piece up today at The Daily Beast on it too.

I’m with Shakesville on this one, who asks “ why, pray tell, do so many people seem so compelled to make excuses for what is, at best, such puerile, obnoxious, and just plain disrespectful behavior?”

I mean, seriously?  Really boys?  Sigh.

Don’t miss this piece responding to Hillary’s presumptive nomination as SOS from my fellow Progressive Women’s Voices-er, Michelle Wucker, titled “Great Expectations,” over at WMC today.  As a colleague of mine said last night, “Hillary is a tough lady for a tough job.”  Hells yeah.

Ah, insomnia!  One thing it’s good for is catching up on my online reading.  I’m late to the table on some of these, I know, on this one, but in case you missed any of them too:

Rebecca Traister, The Momification of Michelle Obama, and some interesting counterpoints at Slate’s XX Factor, “Michelle Still Has Feminist Cred” (Emily Bazelton) and “Sarah, Michelle, Hillary” (Melinda Henneberger).   Pundit Mom calls it in Will Michelle Obama Spark the Next ‘Mommy Wars’ Skirmish? Me, I’m with XX Factor on this one.

C. Nicole Mason at Women’s eNews, Michelle Brings the New Everywoman to White House

Erin Aubry Kaplan at Salon, First Lady Got Back

And, as always, the Michelle Obama Watch blog.

What Will Hillary Do? The latest:

Ted Kennedy Asks Hillary Clinton To Head Senate Healthcare Team
11/19/08
LA Times: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), considered a prominent contender to become secretary of State in the Obama administration, was offered an alternative Tuesday — to be a senior member of the Senate team aiming to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system.

Why Obama Wants Hillary for His ‘Team of Rivals’
11/20/08
Time: As he wrapped up his second week as President-elect, it was clear that Obama was taking the long view in both diplomacy and politics. How else to explain the fact that he had all but offered the most prestigious job in his Cabinet to a woman whose foreign policy experience he once dismissed as consisting of having tea with ambassadors?

And while we’re on the subject of Cabinet appointments:

Will Tom Daschle Be The Secretary Of HHS The Reproductive Rights Community Wants?
11/19/08
RH Reality Check: Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s record on reproductive and sexual health and rights is a mixed one.

This just in: The Daily Beast released a poll this morning that reveals the depth of women’s anger in the aftermath of Hilary Clinton’s and Sarah Palin’s campaigns. “The Barrier That Didn’t Fall” (downloadable) summarizes and analyzes survey results from 1,000 U.S. voters, coming on the high heels of “the first-ever presidential election with two high profile women candidates who ran but did not win.”

The stats:

• By an overwhelming 61% to 19% margin, women believe there is a gender bias in the media.
• 4 in 10 men freely admit sexist attitudes towards a female president. 39% of men say that a male is “naturally more suited” to carrying out the duties of the office
• Only 20% of women polled are willing to use the word “feminist” about themselves. Only 17% said they would welcome their daughters using that label.
• 48% of women thought Hillary Clinton received fair media treatment and only 29% believed Sarah Palin was treated fairly. In contrast, nearly 8 in 10 voters thought the press gave fair treatment to Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
• More than two-thirds of women said they were being treated unfairly in the workplace (68%)

In the words of a very articulate dear friend of mine: BLURGH.

(Thanks to Anna for the heads up.)

Courtesy, as ever, Rebekah at WMC:

For Women, It’s Not The Gender, It’s The Agenda

11/14/08

Boston Globe: While all eyes were focused on Palin and the “Sarah-centric” (her words) crowds that turned out for her rallies, there was a quieter “women’s story” in this race that may make the doorway a little narrow.

Summers May Be Off Of Treasury Short List

11/13/08

Politico.com: Intense backlash from women’s groups may have pushed former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers off the short-list to lead Treasury for President-elect Barack Obama, according to widespread reports circulating in Democratic circles.

Hillary Clinton Emerges As State Dept Candidate

11/14/08

Boston Globe: Sen. Hillary Clinton emerged on Thursday as a candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for Barack Obama, months after he defeated her in an intense contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Women Gaining Political Power

11/13/08

CNN: “Women are about 54 percent of the vote,” CNN contributor Hilary Rosen said. “Do we have equal representation? No. Are we closer to it? Yes.”

POLITICS-US: Feminists Say The Work Has Just Begun

11/13/08

IPS: Women’s right activists see an open door to the White House of President-elect Barack Obama, and they plan to walk right in and take a seat.

This afternoon, a guest post from Amanda Marie Gengler, Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Behavioral Sciences at Barton College in Wilson, NC. Here’s Amanda! -Deborah

While the election is over (hooray!) and we are at least temporarily saved, as Judith Warner wrote, from the “specter of Sarah Palin” as VP (or worse), her meteoric rise over the past 2 months is a stark reminder that we have a long way to go in gender and politics. Tuesday morning Palin appeared on the Today Show; back home, back in her kitchen, deftly navigating between the fridge, dishwasher, and countertop as she chatted with Matt Lauer and mashed food for the baby.

Some had suggested that the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate represented a strange milestone for women: the one where mediocre women can achieve the same success as mediocre men. For years unexceptional men have easily attained exceptional positions, while exceptional women have struggled to do so. So why doesn’t Sarah Palin mark this feminist “victory”?

Because Palin is exceptional in the area a woman must most be: her femininity. While Hillary Clinton was derided for her pantsuits and her age, Palin’s background as a beauty queen, a mother of five, and her lavish wardrobe of fitted skirts and stylish heels (eagerly subsidized by the RNC) remind us that whatever other assets a woman may possess, her proper gender performance trumps them all. A quintessential femininity is the highest card in the deck. While McCain’s motivations were likely complex, it would be difficult to argue that if the photos and biographies that accompany Sarah Palin and Kay Bailey Hutchison were reversed, his choice would have been the same. He rightly guessed that her smile, figure, and photogenic family would resonate with an American public still deeply invested in traditional and essentialist views of gender.

Yet we are to believe that the highest aims of feminism have been realized when a VP candidate can be deemed “hot” by Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live, and lusted after by male voters across the nation. We are again reminded, in 2008, that if we are not properly plucked, pinned, coiffed, rouged, and of course, lip-sticked, we may risk our very professional lives. It seems after all, that those exceptional “true” women–the ones who manage to be maternal enough, to smile enough, to stay slim enough, and to keep all the obligatory feminine balls in the air (never missing a deadline, a diaper change, or a bikini wax)–set the bar today’s girls are to strive for.

Funny how “progress” can look so much like the past.

–Amanda Marie Gengler is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Behavioral Sciences at Barton College in Wilson, NC.

Courtesy of our gal Rebekah at WMC again:

Potential Treasury Secretary Sheila Bair Is A “Woman To Watch” 11/10/08
Jezebel.com: Despite being the lone government employee on the list, Bair tops it not just because of her work in finance as the chair of the FDIC but because, more importantly, her name is bandied about as a black horse candidate for Treasury Secretary in an Obama Administration.

Women Seek Voice In Cabinet As Obama Team Short On Female Faces 11/10/08
Globe and Mail (Canada): The dominance of men on Obama’s transition economic advisory board begs the question: are women being overlooked?

Latinos And The Obama Cabinet 11/12/08
Washington Post: Latino political advocates, citing the importance of Latino votes in President-elect Barack Obama’s victory, are pressing him to appoint at least two and as many as four Latinos to his administration’s 20 Cabinet-level positions.

A quick tidbit to share from a recent dialogue on women’s leadership between Naomi Wolf and emotional intelligence guru Daniel Goleman, entitled “The Inner Compass for Ethics and Excellence.”

Naomi, among many other things of course, is co-founder of the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, where I’m a Fellow. During the dialogue, Naomi says something in reference to some of the young women who pass through Woodhull that may be tres a propos for GWP readers:

“Something we see a lot, is that young women come in, especially if they are highly educated, with a false voice – a false demeanor as a leader. You were talking about the visionary who speaks from the heart to the heart, but you can’t get there if you are presenting or accessing a persona that is artificial. People feel it and they are not moved. And you don’t produce as well as you could if you are putting all this energy into presenting a false front. It can be young women who have spent time in the academy, who tend to talk in an academic, stiff, jargoned way; women in the nonprofit world who tend to use abstractions; women from a male-dominated workplace, or who are surrounded by scientists in a male-dominated atmosphere, who feel like they have to repress the range of knowledge and interaction they have as women in order to be taken seriously. What’s really beautiful, is that when you bring out your highest ideals and aspirations and talents, and you send it out in the world, that’s when you are most effective. You see this amazing transformation.”

I’m thinking young men who come out of the academy and wonkland tend to speak stiffly too. But not, IMHO, Obama! Then again, he’s been said to have a “feminine” style of leadership–whatever that is.

Also from Naomi this fall is a new book: Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. And to that I say hells yeah–we sure could use more revolutionaries of late!

(Thanks to Matt for the heads up.)

There’s just so much post-election goodness out there in the analysis department, we’re posting links as we see them. (Thanks, Virginia, for that Katha link!) S’more:

Alice Walker’s letter to Brother Obama, at The Root

FlowTV’s Special Issue on Sarah Palin, which includes columns titled “In the Feminine Ideal, We Trust” by Janet McCabe / Manchester Metropolitan University; “Palin’s State,” by John Streamas / Washington State University; “Reading Sarah Palin,” by Bernadette Barker-Plummer / University of San Francisco; and “Sarah Palin: Castration as Plenitude,” by Nina Power / Roehampton University (Thanks to Mary Celeste Kearney for the heads up.)

Gloria Feldt at Heartfeldt Politics on Sarah Palin Clothinggate, and how the emperor has no towel (this one made my day)

And a great link round up, as always, from Ann over at feministing