Now that I am over the shock of having Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket, I have been pondering my own reaction to Senator McCain’s choice of running mate. Here are some of the thoughts I have been having, and I am wondering whether other women, regardless of party affiliation, have been having them too.
The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin may finally force this nation to engage in a much needed dialogue related to sex, gender and the roles women and men play in our society. One of the things that struck me while listening to Palin’s speech was that this topic was not really mentioned at all except to imply that the cultural norms and expectations for women should not apply to her except when they were applied in ways that would help her get elected.
I can’t help but compare the absence of dialogue on gender issues to the way we have discussed race. We claim that sexism is over, that we have moved beyond it just the way we would like to pretend that race doesn’t matter. Barack Obama’s candidacy and our reactions to it prompted him to declare the need for a national dialogue on race in
There are those who would like women to be quiet and to pretend that the expectations related to sex and gender are unrelated to the problems faced by our families and communities. Women politicians and feminists want to talk about cracking the glass ceiling, but they don’t want to discuss the way the glass shards are affecting us as the ceiling falls. Yet despite our best efforts to ignore these issues, they will demand our attention.
While we try to pretend that race has nothing to do with achievement in the meritocracy of the good ol’ USA, the disparity in educational achievement, household income, standard of living, life expectancy, infant mortality, deaths by homicide, and incarceration between people of color and whites cannot be covered up by patriotic rhetoric and Social Darwinist philosophy that blames the less fortunate while assuaging the guilty feelings of the more fortunate and well off. Senator Obama’s life story became proof for whites that this society is no longer racist and hope for people of color that there might someday be an end to racism. Governor Palin’s story is given to us as proof that a woman can do it all. If Sarah can rise from PTA president and hockey mom to Governor and VP candidate while making a home for her family of five and even shooting and cleaning moose on the side, discrimination on the basis of gender is over. While her story is cause for hope, women understand that many of the barriers are still there. They know that citing PTA president and hockey mom doesn’t measure up as employment experience when trying to get back into the labor market after taking time off to care for the family. You see, there are some expectations for women that men do not have. They are expected to be the “home makers” of our society. The fact is, women have been doing a damn good job of it too. It isn’t that men don’t help in making a home for families and communities, it’s just that the role of breadwinner that men are expected to fill is elevated and out there for everyone to see. There is a value placed on this contribution in terms of dollars, but women’s contribution has been too often taken for granted. “women’s work” has been unpaid or meagerly paid and undervalued except for all of the hoopla on Mother’s Day.
But there is one thing most women know that men have ignored, “women’s work” is essential to our wellbeing as families, communities and as a nation. If women are going to have equality with men in the workforce, then men have to do many of the jobs that have been traditionally the role of women. They also know that most men aren’t willing to do them for the pay and recognition that has been given to women. They know that for a woman to have a family and have equality on the job, she has to have a lot of help behind the scenes. If her job pays well, she may be able to hire a “home maker” to help care for the children and care for the house. If she is married to a liberated man, he may share the “home making”, each of them giving up some of their ability to compete on the job because they have responsibilities that others without families or who have spouses full time in the home do not have. I am fully convinced that for every successful man or woman, there has been a “home maker” in the background lifting them up on their shoulders and often more than one. There are women all over America who have cared for our children, our elderly, the ill, our homes and our communities without pay or for low pay and without much recognition. If women are to have equality, we need to change the way we value nurturing in this society. Our families and our communities are getting sliced and diced from the shards as that glass ceiling breaks. The Republicans have put a woman on the ticket but they haven’t addressed the real issues for women like health care, childcare, education and family leave. These are the issues that involve the “home making” role that women have traditionally been expected to fill for low wages or no wages. It's time for a dialogue about gender. I'm still waiting for the discussion to start.
8 comments:
Thank you for saying what I think I've been thinking but unable to articulate so well.
Thank you.
You've written an excellent column which sums up so much of my frustration with the general dialog over what gender equality really means (as reflected choice of Palin, but also as reflected in our reactions to the candidacy of Sen. Clinton -- for whom I did not vote)
Unfortunately, our nation's political dialog is so shrill and our citizens' interest in understanding government so low, that we will choose our President on the grounds of the simplest and most memorable sound bites.
I keep hoping that we'll get the government we desire. These election processes remind me that we get the government we deserve.
I'm echoing uumomma, thanks for writing what's been in my heart. My rage at the whole situation has been to loud to hear anything else, but I think you just pulled it all together. Thank you. Very well said!
We're so desperate to get past our ingrained prejudices that we don't like to contemplate the leg work that's needed to make equality a reality, not a dream.
And if Obama is elected, there will be many who assume that his ascent will be the death-knell of racism. Not so.
Without diligence to move us into a post-racial world, Obama will merely be the latest triumph of tokenism.
Arguable Palin's presence on the GOP ticket is another example of tokenism--gender as bargaining chip.
Thanks, Uumomma, Tyler, and Kari. You are right Kevin, "we don't like to contemplate the leg work that's needed to make equality a reality, not a dream." We do have that dream though, we have hope and faith, and more and more of us are working hard for a time when the doors of opportunity are truly open to everyone. We dream of nurturing homes and communities that value all our gifts and give us the freedom and support to develop them to their fullest.
Just proves we're still a divided nation only now the politicians are carving us up along gender and ethnic lines instead of partitioning people into Red or Blue states.
The slicing and dicing of our sentiments will prevail until we restore the Constitution to its original intent by our Founding Fathers.
Neither Presidential candidates have pledged to do this.
Now that you know what must be done in this election go out and ACT on it in November.
Peace,
Cosmic
Thank you for your post.
Regarding your sentence, "We claim that sexism is over, that we have moved beyond it...".
Whom are the "We" that claims sexism is over? Can you be more specific?
Where can the discussion start?
Sincerely,
Pythia
Pythia,
I think there is an attempt by women who have been successful in careers (often because unpaid mothers, grandmothers, and poorly paid daycare workers, nurses aids, food service workers, etc. are doing the jobs that they need to have done for their families) to minimize the barriers that exist for others. Men in general seem totally oblivious to the work that women have traditionally done for little or no monetary reward and the essential nature of that work to our families and our society. When politicians talk about equal pay for equal work, they are only talking about making the pay equal for women and men doing traditionally men's work. There is no discussion of paying people who nurture society by doing traditionally women's work on an equal basis with those who are involved with commerce and industry.
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