Tag Archives: leveling the playing field

Veteran Mary L. Schapiro Will Be First Woman SEC Chair

Women’s groups have begun a “Cabinet Watch” to keep track of how many women Obama actually selects to lead in his administration. Until recently, the picture looked pretty bleak. Obama had appointed only four women out of 16 announced cabinet positions. That score should improve today when Obama will announce his pick to head the SEC: veteran regulator. Mary L. Schapiro, will be the first woman to chair the SEC on more than an interim basis.

Once dismissed by the head of the Chicago Board of Trade as a “blond, 5-foot-2-inch girl,”and dissed by then New York state Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer….. remember him, the guy whose career imploded along with his resignation as Governor of New York in a call girl scandal?  Schapiro has risen  through hard work and tough, smart moves to the top of the heap.  Sound familiar?

Schapiro has gained respect for her investor first principles, her willingness to listen and an exemplary record of expelling crooks and cracking down on unsavory practices and sales abuse. Something the current SEC has notably failed to do. Certainly they failed to detect Bernard L. Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme and failed to provide effective oversight of the kind of abuses that led to the current financial collapse. I mean, that was the SEC’s job, right?

In a recent speech, Schapiro said “Clearly, our regulatory system failed to compensate for the failures of market discipline and failed to appreciate the interdependencies of financial institutions and the risks they shared. The system did not allow regulators to stay ahead of this crisis and prevent it from ever occurring.”

So, the “old boys club” has had their shot at regulating the markets and look where that got us. In a mind boggling recession and still headed South.  As has been said, a woman has to be twice as good to get the same job as a man.  Now, at last, a woman has a chance to go in and straighten out the mess we’re in.  She’s done it before. My bet is, she will do it again.  I certainly wish her well.  And chalk up another first for women.

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A FEMINIST DREAM AT THE GOP

A FEMINIST DREAM AT THE GOP by Kirsten Powers

“If you drive around my home state of Alaska for very long, you’re sure to see a bumper sticker exclaiming, “Alaska girls kick ass.”

Last night, “Sarah Barracuda” more than lived up to that slogan as she fought back at the media and Washington naysayers who’ve ridiculed her as a bimbo bumpkin interloper and showed she isn’t going to be pushed around.

Had the media not been viciously attacking her family for the last few days, the speech might’ve seemed too tough. With that backdrop, it was more than appropriate.

The Obama camp also gave her the perfect chance to smack it around for being elitists – since its first response to John McCain picking her was to ridicule the size of her home town.

On that stage last night, Sarah Palin represented everything the feminist movement claims to strive for: a successful working woman with a happy family life and a husband who helps raise the children. Yet, rather than hailing her accomplishment, the feminist establishment has sat by silently as she’s savaged for being a working mother…

Turns out old feminism is really just a bunch of good ‘ole girls telling you what to think.

Ladies, don’t you worry your pretty little heads about deciding what you believe; the audaciously named National Organization for Women is here to speak on your behalf.

NOW put out a press release saying that Sarah Palin doesn’t speak for women’s rights. That’s NOW’s job.

Except if a conservative woman is being smeared in the media with sexist attacks and held to a completely different standard than her male counterparts. Then NOW has nothing to say about women’s rights.

Time for a little truth in advertising.

Liberal women have been furiously penning identical screeds against Sarah Palin – blasting McCain for not understanding women and then announcing, “Now, let me speak on behalf of all women and tell you what women want in a candidate.”

Talk about condescending.

Where is the condemnation for the sickening misogyny, such as the DailyKOS’s mock Playboy cover with Palin? The Huffington Post’s photo montage of Palin, headlined “Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?” The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn criticizing Palin for being a working mother?

Well, I suppose she could’ve stayed home and baked cookies.

But conservatives shouldn’t get too self-satisfied – they have plenty to atone for, too. Having discovered sexism now that their darling Sarah is under attack doesn’t get them off the hook for their part in tearing down liberal working women in the past. (See: Clinton, Hillary, cookies.)

Many liberal women remember how infuriating it was to watch the conservative Phyllis Schlafly travel the country lecturing women about the evils of equal rights and urging them to not work (as she worked and was away from her family). Now, she supports Sarah Palin.

At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Pat Buchanan demonized Hillary Clinton as a “radical feminist” who hated the institution of marriage despite her seeming attachment to her own marriage against all odds.

When asked during the primary by a supporter about Hillary, “How do we beat the bitch?” McCain laughed and answered: “That’s an excellent question.”

Both sides suffer from the same illness: Ideology trumps all.

Now it’s time for both sides to move past this and embrace some postpartisan feminism. Sexism will never stop if both sides are blind to it when it happens to their opponents. ”

For all the new women’s groups, progressive or conservative, who are supporting Palin’s right to run without being harassed by the media, or denigrated by other political groups, AdvancingWomen.com says: “Kudos!”