Are we ready for a female president?
That question has been the topic of many conversations lately. In the past, I've been guilty of the pessimistic "this country won't elect a woman," but lately I've been wondering if that attitude is the only thing keeping us down. Sure, I don't trust a lot of the men (and, perhaps equally, a lot of the women) in our country to consider a woman as a viable choice for president, but to what extent does that lack of confidence create an environment where nobody believes a woman can be president? I've started rethinking my response to the "Who do you think will get the nomination in '08?" question, attempting to work in the subtle assumption that it could be Hillary just as easily as it could be anyone else. This article (from the Connecticut Post) made me start rethinking my answer to the '08 question, especially when I read this quote from a 17-year old CT girl, which left me feeling a little sad about young women and the perception we must be giving them about 21st century politics:
Emily LaDona is sure there will one day be a female president. She just thinks that day is a long way off. "I think it's going to happen eventually," said LaDona, 17, of Waterbury, who works at the Lafayette Deli in Bridgeport. "But I think the world isn't ready yet."Perhaps its time to be more optimistic.
3 Comments:
I agree that those sentiments certainly don't help. But the way Hillary Clinton is viewed seems like proof to me that it is not only pessimism that keeps us from having a woman in office, but a level of personal criticism and a heightened need for likeability that we just don't apply to men. I'm certainly not her biggest fan, but men with a far worse resume and list of bad deeds have been embraced warmly by americans.
I agree. I think if Hillary Clinton is elected, every move that she makes will be judged to much higher standards than if a man was again elected as president. Yet I refuse to let that be a reason for a woman not to run. Who knows when the world will "be ready"? Maybe without feminists like us pushing the world to progress, it'll never be "ready." We will gain nothing from inaction.
I would definitely like to agree that without feminists like us pushing the world to progress, we'll never be ready -- it validates a lot of the work and the social justice movements I believe in.
Feministing.com asked yesterday whether women, especially feminists, should be supporting Hillary by default. While its hard to agree that any candidate should be supported by default (on the basis of party, race, gender), I think it is a valid point worthy of discussion. View some responses to their question here: http://feministing.com/archives/006446.html
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