Tag Archives: sexism in politics

Clinton Aides Say Treatment of Palin is Sexist

Clinton Aides Say Treatment of Palin is Sexist.

Sarah Palin found some unlikely allies Wednesday as leading academics and even former top aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Republican charge that John McCain’s running mate has been subject to a sexist double standard by the news media and Democrats.

Georgetown University professor Deborah Tannen, who has written best-selling books on gender differences, said she agrees with complaints that Palin skeptics – including prominent voices in the news media – have crossed a line by speculating about whether the Alaska governor is neglecting her family in pursuit of national office.

“What we’re dealing with now, there’s nothing subtle about it,” said Tannen. “We’re dealing with the assumption that child-rearing is the job of women and not men. Is it sexist? Yes.”

Among the eyebrow-raising comments in recent days:

  • Democrat Joe Biden, in what he intended as self-deprecating remark, observed, “There’s a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice presidential opponent. … She’s good looking.”

  • Liberal radio host Ed Schultz used the words “bimbo alert” to refer to Palin, and the Huffington Post featured a photo montage of Palin with the headline, “Former Beauty Queen, Future VP?”

  • CNN’s John Roberts recently pondered on air: “Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of vice president, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?”

“There’s no way those questions would be asked of a male candidate,” said Howard Wolfson a former top strategist for Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Barbara Risman, a leader of the Council on Contemporary Families and a sociology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said she hoped that Palin and the uproar over her coverage would prove itself to be a cultural milestone: “I think it’s really important, from this day forward, that we all ask about every candidate’s work life and home life. It’s sexism otherwise. … We have to be careful not to ask her questions that we wouldn’t ask a male candidate.”

Sexism & Sarah Palin – WomenCount || Blog

Sexism & Sarah Palin – WomenCount || Blog.

“It started Friday afternoon with John Roberts on CNN, and then in a slow build over the weekend it became clear what the leading sexist charge would be against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin: Is it appropriate for her to accept the vice presidential nomination given the magnitude of her current family responsibilities? …

The obvious retort is whether anyone would ask the same question of the father of a four-month-old with Down Syndrome and a pregnant teenager. We think not.

Stamping out sexism is about shifting the culture. It will be good for America to watch Sarah Palin on the campaign trail – bouncing from parenting to politics. That’s how most women function – multi-tasking, leaning on friends and family, and waking up each morning and doing it all again.”

AdvancingWomen.com thinks the media should stand down from their sexist harassment and disparagement of VP Nominee Sarah Palin. We are in complete agreement with WomenCount that “It is important to distinguish between the broader issue of sexism and the ideology of an individual.” It is irrelevant whether Palin is conservative or progressive on social issues and values. This is America.  Palin has every right to put forth her candidacy and make her case. Whether we choose to vote for her or not is each person’s choice.  But it should be every woman’s choice to defend Palin’s right to take the public stage and not have to endure a barrage of sexist criticism and gender biased innuendo.  Until the day comes when a women can enter the political arena and participate on a level playing field, every woman should say “What they did to Hillary Clinton, what they are doing to Sarah Palin, they do to me as well.”  So, to those in the media who, like Rip Van Winkle, may have slept through the women’s movement, wake up!  Time to move on and be fair to all of us.

Clinton’s Supporters Talk Back – washingtonpost.com

Clinton’s Supporters Talk Back – washingtonpost.com.

As one writer says, ” I am amazed that I, as an independent voter, do not seem allowed to have a mind of my own…no one, not even Ms. Clinton, can or should be able to dictate to me how to vote. I will not vote for Mr. Obama, not because I am bitter but because I do not believe that he is at all qualified for this job.

His lack of experience in every area of importance was of great concern to me during the primaries and still is.

I am a Democrat, but I am an American first and I will vote for the candidate who, I believe, will be the best leader for our country, especially in these dangerous times. Whoever loses the election, it will be because the majority of voters have concluded that he was not the best candidate for the job and not because Ms. Clinton’s supporters did not fall into line.”

THE NEW AGENDA to Serve as Watch Dog for Women Candidates

The New Agenda (www.thenewagenda.net), a non-partisan women’s rights advocacy group with men and women members nationwide, recognizes the history making selection of Governor Sarah Palin as Senator John McCain’s running mate. As Governor Palin hits the campaign trail, The New Agenda members will serve as watch dogs monitoring news coverage and statements by political pundits, campaign surrogates and other commentators for any sexist bias.

“We cannot and will not sit idly by while another qualified candidate goes through what Senator Hillary Clinton had to endure. Issues are fair game. Sexist treatment is no longer fair game,” said Amy Siskind, a co-founder of The New Agenda.

The New Agenda members are monitoring the airwaves, blogs, and print reports for derogatory language, misogynist attacks, and denigrating statements. The New Agenda will respond swiftly against any perpetrators of such attacks.

“Our members were outraged that within 24 hours of Governor Palin’s historic candidacy she was dismissed as “tokenism,” she was referred to as a “MILF” (mother I’d like to f*uck), and chuckling male commentators said:” The only thing she didn’t say was who needs some pie I baked this morning?” added Siskind.

The New Agenda members are committed to promoting women’s leadership and ensuring that women candidates are treated with the respect they deserve. We are confident that the media, the campaigns, and campaign surrogates can turn this historic election into one we can look back on with pride.

For more information contact:

newagendapress@yahoo.com

Unity Deferred – Can You Cross Out ‘Hillary’ and Write ‘Sarah’? – NYTimes.com

Unity Deferred – Can You Cross Out ‘Hillary’ and Write ‘Sarah’? – NYTimes.com.

“It turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet!” That was Sarah Palin, the Republican governor of Alaska, as Senator John McCain introduced her to the country as his vice-presidential nominee. “We can shatter that glass ceiling!” she proclaimed.

What’s a woman to do? Or at least, the woman who so badly wanted to see a woman in the White House?

Democrats, who make up the party that has long claimed the bigger pool of up-and-coming women, were quick to dismiss Ms. Palin as not experienced enough to be a heartbeat from the presidency. Mrs. Clinton’s supporters will never back her, they insisted, because she is against abortion rights.

Not. So. Fast.

That underestimated, or at least underappreciated, the raw feelings of many Clinton supporters, and particularly the women among them, despite the almost flawless display of harmony in Denver.

At the very least, Ms. Palin’s selection unleashes gender as a live issue again, just when Democrats thought they had it under control. (This might not be a bad time for Mr. Obama to reconsider that question of retiring Mrs. Clinton’s campaign debt.)

“This puts the issue back on center stage,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “There are going to be some really fascinating conversations that are going to come up around gender, in some ways that nobody expected.”

“It’s not about being bitter for Hillary,” she said. Still, “I think the Democratic Party took women for granted in the primary, they didn’t step on sexism when they should have, and I can’t support them.”

Yes, they said, they were troubled by Ms. Palin’s opposition to abortion rights. But Ms. Hoover said she felt betrayed by pro-choice groups, and in particular politicians like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who were helped into office by pro-choice groups like Emily’s List but came out early to support Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton, despite her being the first viable pro-choice woman to run for president.

Ms. Hoover has stopped giving to Emily’s List as a result. “It doesn’t make sense to me that, frankly, Emily’s List didn’t hold them accountable for having been elected on that platform but then not supporting that platform,” she said. “The setback for the pro-choice movement is almost deserved.”

Clinton’s journey awakens a new women’s movement – The Boston Globe

Clinton’s journey awakens a new women’s movement – The Boston Globe.

Clinton’s presidential bid galvanized women as no other campaign in recent history has….In Denver this week, many of these women have been talking about the emergence of a new movement that would unite women across the generational divide to combat discrimination, unequal pay, and other concerns.

“This is beyond Hillary now,” said Maerose Tengsico, a 55-year-old insurance claims adjustor and the head of the California chapter of 18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise, which organized a march through Denver yesterday. “This is about women in general. . . . I think there’s going to be another movement coming, a different kind of movement of women for women. We’ve been silent for some time.”

Several dozen of Clinton’s strongest female supporters met three weeks ago in New York to organize The New Agenda, a nonpartisan group focused on women’s issues and electing women candidates. Amy Siskind, a major Democratic donor and activist from New York who helped start it, said in a phone interview yesterday that she has received e-mails and calls of support from around the country.

“I think the grave mistreatment of Hillary during the primary has been an awakening for a lot of women who. . . didn’t consider themselves to be feminists in the past,” she said. “Millions of folks feel like the Democratic Party abandoned its loyal base of women in this election.”

Victory for WomenCount on Democratic Platform!

WomenCount || Blog.

Perhaps nothing is more important for women of this country than the recognition and focus of attention on makeing it clear that sexism and gender bias has no place in our political process. As the WomenCount Blog puts it:

“Last night, as one of the first official actions at the Democratic National Convention, delegates approved the Democratic Party’s Platform, including recognizing the ideas and energy that Senator Hillary Clinton introduced into the primary — the ideas that more than 18 million people showed support for with their vote.

And perhaps most importantly, the platform committee accepted the challenge that WomenCount put forward — by including language that makes it clear that sexism and gender bias has no place in our political process.

Here is what the platform says:

We believe that standing up for our country means standing up against sexism and all intolerance. Demeaning portrayals of women cheapen our debates, dampen the dreams of our daughters, and deny us the contributions of too many. Responsibility lies with us all.

What does that mean?

It means the Democratic Party has begun the process of turning our values into action — standing up for families, defending our civil rights and strongly denouncing sexism, which sadly continues to be so prevalent throughout our society, and our political process.

The Democratic Party platform represents a big win for WomenCount – and for women everywhere. It also represents the beginning of a new effort for us, to make sure that the Party lives up to the goals it has established, and that the Republicans accept similar language in their platform.”

Tennessee Guerilla Women: Primary Misogyny Sparks New Feminist Movement

Tennessee Guerilla Women: Primary Misogyny Sparks New Feminist Movement.

The New Agenda is a group of smart, savvy, powerful and powerfully connected women who are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”, with it being the misogyny and denigration of women that dominated the primaries and led many to stop watching CNN and some of the other major media networks.

Amy Siskind, former Wall Street executive and political activist, one of the founders of The New Agenda, describes the groups goals, one of which is the following: “Our long-term goal is to cultivate and groom women to run for public office at all levels of government – including the presidency”

This blog will continue to follow the progress of The New Agenda, and we wish them good luck with their goals, which so many women share.

We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby – Or Have We?

As noted in a recently formed Yahoo protest group, Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of democracy is eternal vigilance”.

So, as we look out over the wreckage strewn in the wake of the primary season, one might ask, what did it mean for women? How did it impact us? On the one hand, we did get a viable woman presidential candidate who captured 18 million votes. On the other hand, women, exemplified by Hillary Clinton, surely a serious and capable candidate, were savaged, in a way which might have echoed in our communal memories the witch hunts in early New England or the wholesale subjugation of women in the Middle Ages, when our lands were taken away, we were denied an education and had to flee into a nunnery to be allowed serious intellectual pursuits.

A woman president of the U.S. was not to be, not in this season, despite the women leaders who’ve emerged across the globe. But, is sexism the only reason Hillary lost? No. Unfairness and ethical lapses in the caucus system played a part. And Hillary and her campaign also made some mistakes which turned out, in hindsight, to be pivotal, perhaps monumental. One of her biggest was depending on two smart, perhaps brilliant, and controlling men, her husband and Mark Penn, to shape her campaign, when the latter, according to Harold Ickes, didn’t fully understand either proportional voting or the caucus system ( and for this wrongheaded advice, she drained her treasury of some $4 million leaving her constantly playing catch up financially). Equally important, someplace in the fog of the primary war, the HRC campaign let Obama high-jack the two themes which had been reliable Democratic winners: the need for change and the desire for Hope, as in the Man From Hope, Bill Clinton.

So where did that leave us? With a brilliant, and, as it turned out, tough and capable candidate, who knew the issues, had a grasp on how to solve them, but lacked the charisma of the new kid on the block and the backing of some of the key old white men such as Howard Dean; male identified women happy to be in the old boys’ club themselves, like Nancy Pelosi; and some with a sense of entitlement, who failed to get that far in the primaries themselves, like Ted Kennedy. In the end, although Hillary had been steered away from running as a woman, it was women and the women’s vote, particularly those who had endured the harshest forms of sexism in earlier decades, who felt her pain and rallied around her. But by then, perhaps just after Illinois, and certainly after a disastrous February pile up of caucus losses, it was too late.

In the past decades and certainly in this primary season, women in this country have certainly chipped away at old stereo types and made some incremental progress. As Hillary Clinton noted “We’ve made 18 million cracks in the highest and hardest glass ceiling.” But we haven’t made nearly enough progress and we’ve taken a couple of steps backward.

Here are 2 videos on sexism in this political race. The first has Hillary’s speech on “women’s rights are human rights’ in the background and egregious sexism in the video.

The second is of the over-the-top remarks of commentators and Obama’s campaign and Obama himself.
As the sexist tone in the media reaches a fever pitch, the Women’s Media Center created this video to illustrate the problem and send a message to the media: Sexism might sell, but we’re not buying it!Sign our petition here:
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/sexism_sells.html

So, it appears, we still have a long way to go, baby.

For those of us who wish to continue to try to level this very unlevel playing field, one resource which I found helpful , is Madeleine Albright‘s “Win with Women Global Action Plan” . Although it is aimed to a global audience, most of the issues are exactly the same as we all experienced in our local caucuses and the primaries.

In Albright‘s plan you will find “experiences and advice of women political party leaders from around the world”. The Plan is organized around four main themes which address women’s participation as voters, political party leaders, candidates and elected officials. ” On this page you can click on each theme and get a good summary of it. You can also download the whole Win With Women Global Action Plan.( I was a signatory on this plan.)

There are also some strategies mentioned which have to do with training women , an initiative one hopes could be financed by the political parties themselves or non-profits organized for the purposes of empowering women in politics

Some other specifics this plan asks for the following:

a. Increase the number of women elected officials at the national, state and local levels.

b.Ensure that political parties include women in meaningful leadership positions and in meaningful numbers.

c. Encourage greater participation of women in government decision-making and advocating for legislation that enshrines the full equality of women and men.

There are really only a couple of strategies which have been effective historically:

1. Getting goals written into law such as TItle IX and sexual harassment laws: only about 10 or 12 years ago women were having to file sexual harassment lawsuits against major Stock Brokerages, Oil companies etc. for egregious behavior. Once they understand how much it will cost them, they cut out that behavior.

2. Keep moving women up, with the goal of having 50% women in a particular group, like the Congress. That’s when change happens

3. In the same vein, have a plan to move women into local office, starting w Sheriff and dog catcher. Eventually they can rise to mayor. And, as the late, great Gov Annie Richards used to say, her election was on the backs of women mayors. In my town, San Antonio, Texas, we are moving women into City Council, where they now dominate and the next step is mayor.

In other words, don’t focus on telling the media or anyone not to be misogynist . Focus on getting ( a greater number of ) women the power, then the misogyny will start to be kept under control.

Also, since legislation historically has been effective, we might all think about getting behind a bill passing through the legislature right now, governing the FCC, which could restrict the media’s use on the public airwaves of certain words against women such as the B word.

Working around those intiatives would certainly be a good start.