Why I am Optimistic for Women
November 18, 2008
by Amy Siskind
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The winds of change are blowing…
Say what you will about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin; but here is the same simple truth: our country will never be the same.
As is true throughout the history of our great country, often steps backwards or horrific events must occur to let in the light of day. Have the women of our country been so busy living their lives that we just did not see? See that as far as we may have come, we are still second class citizens in this great country. If we didn’t see it before, we have seen it now.
Tina Brown wrote an illuminating piece today in The Daily Beast. The article cites a poll conducted of 1000 U.S. voters with these important findings:
- 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 are willing to use the word “feminist” about themselves. Only 17% of all voters 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%).
Well now we do see. Now we realize that we must band together and work for change.
As great as our country is, we still have ample evidence that women are second class citizens:
- Domestic abuse: one in four (25%) of all women, across socio-economic lines, will be a victim of domestic abuse in their lifetime.
- Fair Pay: women do not get payed fairly for the work they do: The Wage Gap still exists and women earn 77 cents for every one dollar a man earns.
- Political Representation: Only 17% of U.S. Senators and Congress are women. This while 54% of voters in the 2008 election were women.
So what shall we do? We will band together and work to make things better. We will be an inclusive movement of women and like minded men. We will start today to understand that 80-90% of women rights issues impact ALL women, and until we join hands together we will have no power.
“If women want any rights more than they’s got, why don’t they just take them, and not be talking about it.” – Sojourner Truth.
Well Sojourner – I think we just will!
The winds of change will blow even stronger given the fact that women consitute 51-52% of the population. Justice, equal pay and equal political representation are solid platform planks for a viable 3rd party.
I just read a rumor that Palin will get a big advance on a book deal. This makes me wonder about books — does anyone know if there are any books being written now about the appalling public display of sexism during 2008?
Also someone (Anna Belle?) had a post about where are the parenting books on how to raise feminists. Any thoughts on that?
(I would love to help on a project to write one of these books. I can proofread, edit, copy-edit — whatever. No writing or publishing experience but I am a fast reader and a picky proof-reader.)
“Viable” and “third party” are mutually exclusive terms. At least we know why they’re paying a male to posture at the head of every last posting.
Good idea, votermom!
Does anyone remember this series of books.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunfire_(series)
They were great for learning history from the point of view of a young girl in various time periods. “Laura” was where I first heard of “Suffragettes” and the beginning of the women’s movement when I was about 8yrs old. They had very mild teenage romance in them (which bored me because I was too young to be into that) but were mostly about what it was like to be a young girl during WWI or on the Oregon trail etc. They all start out silly or spoiled etc and wind up surviving some difficult situation and end up stronger and more independent. I think books like those gave me a lot of historical infomation but also I remember I would think
“if Kathleen could survive the great Irish potato famine and come to America for a better life, I can finish my homework AND help with the dishes before bed!”
I know it sounds silly now but they were very inspirational to me. That style might be good for a model.
Dr Lynette Long is going to write a book detailing the Democratic Presidential race called ‘Forever Change’. I am sure she will cover the sexism. She has a new radio show on BlogTalkRadio called Sins of Omission too.
I never encountered the Sunfire series. I know there is are several American Girl books that are historicals, and there is another series on girls from different lands.
I was thinking more of a book aimed at parents, though a series aimed at kids is also obviously needed.
I think votermom has some great ideas. Also, looking over the skills she has to offer, I had an idea…. As part of signing up as a member, why not have a section on skills that members can offer the New Agenda? I, for example, could help in women’s history curriculum development and I am sure many members have wonderful volunteer capacities.
I recently found out that my 11yo does not know who Florence Nightingale is. (?!)
votermom,
I’ve heard of a million books coming out about the election but I don’t know how many, if any, will address the sexism. I think a book about how to raise a feminist is a great idea. The books for young girls would be good too because you can create first generation feminists whether the parents get involved or not. The subliminal sexist message has always been out there for young people. I think it would be great to have a subliminal feminist message as well. Besides what we say and directly try to teach, things and ideas have a way of seeping into the culture and into young people’s minds. Lets start seeping feminism!
Ali,
That is a great idea! If we can create a database of skills and experience when people originally sign up we can pull them in when we need them even if they don’t participate daily.
This is a great post, Amy.
I’ve got a number of posts lined up that look at the status of women in global politics, and I’ll be linking back to this post in a number of them.
Thanks for posting it.
Does anyone have any information about the way Axelrove ran Deval Patrick’s campaign against Kerry Healy? I saw this entry on Corrente but there were no links.
“The deranged hatred of Hillary Clinton has been manufactured by David Axelrove in much the same way he did so for Deval Patrick against Kerry Healy (also a female).
By the time Axelrove was finished with Healy, she too was reduced to a loathsome characterful that the masses thought deserved to be beaten with a stick.”
From the Tina Brown piece:
” So passe is “feminism” that the bi-partisan woman’s activist group New Agenda, formed by Amy Siskind in August after Hillary’s defeat, is canvassing for new names to re-invigorate the cause (suggestions gratefully received).”
Well,well- hats off to you, Amy ,and us- but just what is that label to replace feminism? I’d like to reclaim it and polish its image but if there’s another label, I’m all for it.
And I too am optimistic, when I’m not steamin’ mad.
hi bluelady,
we discussed this notion on ophelia (our radio show) last night and most seemed to think the word is gonzo.
seeing tina’s poll this morning that only 20% of women like the word, i think we’ve been delivered marching orders.
Great post. This election year opened my eyes and I will never be the same. If anyone has a good recommendation of a book that provides an overview of the women’s movement, or even of the historical beginings, please post. I want to start educating myself . . . and maybe others – Christmas gifts
I found the following: The National Women’s History Project, which has a lot of resource material.
http://www.nwhp.org/
Enjoy!
As a librarian, I see a lot of books come through directed at girls and parents. Some of the best books are Christian-oriented. The authors write about the sexualization of young girls by the media, television, schools, etc. They write about teaching girls not to base their value on their image, bodies or sexuality. Unfortunately, a lot of books coming from mainstream publishers send the opposite message. The Gossip Girl and Clique series are just a couple of examples.
There should be more secular books available sending the message to young girls and parents. The Christian-oriented books (which are the ones I prefer) may be avoided by some parents, and they don’t end up on school shelves because of church & state issues.
As for history books for kids, I read one recently that I thought was great: “If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights” by Anne Kamma.
Oh, oh – I’m talking about books. This could get pretty long …
Tina,
This is very helpful. And with a 5 year old girl, I find your opinion on children’s books very interesting. Thanks.
Tina, I have two daughters — you can keep on talking as far as I am concerned!
One thing we COULD start right away on a group blog is reviewing and recommending books for girls and boys and pointing out problems with books liek Gossip Girl.
I always liked the Movie Mom reviewer that (used to be?) on yahoo because she seemed sensible.
Anyone want to collaborate on something like that?
I appreciate that we have women talking. We were content with the successes won and were not diligent concerning the future. I appreciate the sacrifices of Sarah and Hillary. They worked hard and gave much.
Another note, we can not forget. Most of us do not remember that in the 1970′s women could not have a credit card unless the husband consented. If a woman wanted to have her tubes ties, she had to have husband’s permission. Women have made great strides. But do our daughters know about them?
Women reject the term “feminism” because men and the media have trashed it and those who purport to practice it. It’s all about pleasing men and/or fearing male disapproval. They will do this with any word we choose so, I say, let’s embrace it proudly. There is a lot of valuable history attached to the feminist movement that should be touted not shoved aside (as Renee Wilkes notes above).
Speaking of optimism for women… I had no idea so many women have run for president. Take a look at this!
http://www.nwhm.org/president.html#
Yes – actually Hillary was the first woman to win a state primary, but many others have run.
In the 1964 election, Margaret Chase Smith from ME came in 2nd for the Republicans. While the others in the Republican race stepped out during the election, she stayed in through the RNC Convention to give a speech in which she noted she was the first woman to do so, but that hopefully the next woman would be accepting her party’s nomination -sigh.
FYI: In Canada
Do you know this group, Equal Voice?
Women named to cabinet after October 14th election:
“Lisa Raitt at Natural Resources, Leona Aglukkaq at Health, and Gail Shea at Fisheries are among 11 women named to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s inner circle Thursday. That’s up from seven in the previous cabinet.
“We are almost at critical mass in cabinet, which is significant,” said Francoise Gagnon, executive director of Equal Voice, a non-partisan group that promotes women in politics.
“Critical mass is 33 per cent and we are at 29 per cent. But what matters today is that women have been appointed to positions of influence in the cabinet.”
(…)
More women ran in the last federal campaign than ever before. Of 387 female candidates for all parties, 69 were elected. Women in the House of Commons will account for 22.4 per cent of representation, up just slightly from 2006.
While Equal Voice hails that progress, it notes that Canada sits 46th in world rankings according to the number of women in national legislatures.
Equal Voice
(Canada’s “The New Agenda”)
http://www.equalvoice.ca/
NPR had a great piece a few months ago about the first woman to run for President waaaaay back in the day.
I was thinking that down the road, perhaps this site could have an education center where people (adults and young girls, alike) could get a quick overview of the women’s movement in America. It needn’t be text heavy. It could just be bulleted points of the highlights and/or could be set up in timeline form.
That factoid about credit cards stunned me. I was in my 20′s in the ’70′s and had no idea.
Anyway, I think there’s a lot we can all learn. PLUS, to build a viable movement, you need to build a base, keep your base, and add to it. That means reaching out to girls and young women in creative ways to educate them and draw them into awareness and advocacy/activism.
Wow! That Equal Voice web site is great. Lots of fantastic idea The New Agenda can draw upon as they build their base, hone their vision, develop their web site, etc. Thanks for posting it. It looks like a great organization and their web site is nice.
Oh, here’s another rather sobering factoid about women:
We are more likely to die of a heart attack then men, due, in part to:
1. Medical community not being up to date on how women’s heart symptoms are different from mens, and,
2. Medical doctors less likely to take women’s reports of symptoms seriously (you know, we just complain and it’s nothing), and,
3. Women are less likely to seek help until things are quite progressed (stoic, oh it’s nothing, let me fix dinner for everyone instead…)
YIKES!
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