Women of the Year – The Grit To Persist
January 1, 2009
by Gretchen Glasscock
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I’m a big believer in proclaiming “Women of the Year,” because I believe in identifying positive role models who give us all something to aspire to.
It also helps to give us hope when some of our goals, such as electing a woman to the White House, seem at times to recede before us like those refracted heat waves that appear to form shapes and then vanish in the desert, leaving us wondering where is our palm-lined pool of shimmering water? Nothing but miles and miles of dry, hot desert when it comes to women’s presidential aspirations. But better to light a candle than curse the darkness, like those candles that were lit and carried in the past year by some of the following outstanding women:
The New York Daily News named their New Yorker of the Year saying: “Hillary Clinton proved a woman of resolve and class.”
We couldn’t agree more. And she did a lot more than that. She made it more feasible for a woman to run for President of the United States, and she upped the ante for contenders to 18 million votes. But Clinton’s skills as a campaigner, we predict, will be overshadowed by her skills as a serious decision maker and global negotiator. I, for one, am heartened and relieved that the second phone call which comes in at 3am will be to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
I don’t believe in “book-ending” Governor Sarah Palin with Clinton, but neither do I believe in ignoring her plucky candidacy. She was called on and she took up the challenge, energizing her party and becoming a celebrity in the process. Common wisdom has it that she made Tina Fey a bigger celebrity in the process as well with her Saturday Night caricatures of Palin. I don’t deny those caricatures were fun, of a type, but I will find them a lot funnier when we actually do have a woman in the White House.
I think we should give Queen Elizabeth of England some appreciation if, for nothing else, endurance. She fills that classic 
requirement: 50% of winning is “just showing up for the job”. Queen Elizabeth has shown up for over 50 years, if you only count the years since her coronation. (She also, for example, presided over public events and, during the war, trained as a driver and mechanic, and drove a military truck, making her the first, and so far only, female member of the Royal Family to actively serve in the armed forces.)
I met Benazir Bhutto in San Francisco in 2001. Although there was some controversy surrounding her, I always admired her and found her speaking inspiring. Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, having twice been Prime Minister of Pakistan (1988–1990; 1993–1996). She was Pakistan’s first and to date only female prime minister. She went into self-imposed exile in Dubai in 1998.
Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007, and was assassinated on 27 December 2007, after departing a PPP rally in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, two weeks before the scheduled Pakistani general election of 2008 where she was a leading opposition candidate. The following year she was named one of seven winners of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.
I think Bhutto provides another example of a woman persisting in her beliefs and showing up in the face of personal danger. Although she died a few days before 2008, it is now time to mark the anniversary of her violent death. I salute her and say farewell.
I know there are many, many more women who should be saluted and honored this year. I would nominate all the women who worked so hard for their candidates in 2008. I would nominate all the mothers and daughters and wives who worked to maintain their families and those who lost loved ones in national service in conflicts abroad. I would nominate all of us who have persevered, despite an unlevel playing field and personal challenges.
I suspect that might be all of us.
If you have women you think should be named women of the year, please do write and share with us who they are.
May I just say that I think Queen Elizabeth has done a lot more than “just shown up for the job”. Her job involves complete dedication and commitment, not to her private interests and affairs, but to public service. If she is self-effacing, that’s because she embodies an old-fashioned ideal of service that pre-dates celebrity culture and I hope will out live it: that one’s duty outweighs a personal hunger for attention so sadly encouraged and admired in these days of public displays of neurosis and disturbance with attendant demands for sympathy and support. Long may we have a monarch of this kind and no squalid personality contest as trendy celebrities of the moment compete for an elected presidency as our republicans desire.
Hillary all the way. Who else could it be for Woman of the Year?
She fought for her candidacy, she fought for us, and she established a political identity of her own. Not even Mr. Tinglepants can say anymore that she’s only where she is because she’s somebody’s wife.
Go Hillary! And what a great group of brilliant, strong women!
As usual, a number of the comments accompanying the article about Hillary being honored as New Yorker of the Year are misogynist, sexist, and nasty. So, yet another action plan:
You can go to: http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....ton_p.html and comment.
Thanks for this post. It is such a relief to find a Woman of the Year list without a “entertainer” or a celebrity on it.
ER – On my way there now. Thanks for keeping us informed!
I hope Women of the Year can extend beyond those who serve in government. I also hope it can embody the everyday woman who struggles and survives the slings and arrows of the challenges of life without enough money, living in povery, raising children on her own, working a low paying job, working a job and not receiving the promotions she deserves, all the women who working in female-oriented “helping professions” such as teacher who are underpaid and who give so much and receive so little recognition in return, and on and on…..
I cannot think of anyone more worthy of this award!! And I also believe she should be Woman of the Year!! Hillary, as all of us are, a work in progress. She has grown with us and her grace and class has grown with her! With all that she has encountered and endured, she has made us aware of the misogny in this country and the false belief that “women are second class citizens”
Hillary has fought the fight, battled and humiliated by her own”party’, and brought new voters to the voting booths than shall we dare say, BO?
So many battles to be won, so many hurts to be undone, and still this woman with all her flaws stands tall and with dignity,and continues to serve, and continues to lead by example!
Congratulations Hillary, you are my heroine, my mentor!!
As a sub category, I like stories of everyday women who fight back and win, especially crime victims. Women in the media are frequently portrayed as victims, as always powerless. After a while all this powerless seeps into your subconcious. We need to remember that women are not powerless and that they often fight back and win, whether they’re fighting against crime or public policy.
Anyway, a hat tip to Harmony Bates in Ca who managed to fight off a car jacker, relieving him of his gun and stabbing him with a pair of scissors. Another hat tip to the 57 yr old woman in Missouri that closed the case on her rapist with a shotgun when he decided to return to her home. And a hat tip to the thousands of domestic violence victims who get away and thankfully never make it on the nightly news.
Of course I don’t condone, support, or revel in violence, but my heart sings everytime a woman takes matters into her own hands and manages to win a round. It makes me angry that the media doesn’t tell their stories but I guess that’s because keeping women in constant fear and implying they’re always defenseless sells more papers.
And of course, every woman fights back in her own way, in her own situation. Even when we lose a round, most of manage to get back up and fight back in other ways. These are the stories of survivors that we need to tell.
yttik
Loved your post. And, if I may add to it or perhaps piggy back onto thte ideas expressed in your last paragraph: Just to say to all of those women who could not fight back, or did fight and lost, or who should not even try due to risk factors, no one should be in such a position in the first place and every woman in a situation of violence confronts it in the best way she can. The flip side of survivor’s heroic tales is that women who did not or could not fight back, or did not “win”, feel somehow less for it, as if they did something wrong, made a misjudgement, were not strong enough, etc.
yttik posts on this topic at womensspace.org/phpbb2/
I love this post and also Yttik’s response. Yes, to Hillary, yes to the woman in CA who fought off her attacker.
It’s BULLSHIT that the media denounces fighting back. As noted on TN Guerilla Women, I fought back NAKED on the streets of Boston after my dress was torn off and my attackers fled.
This is war. Be willing to die. Be willing to kill. And we will win.
Harkening back to Thia’s lovely piece about Laura Bush, I’m just giving everyone a heads up that there is a piece about First Lady Bush at American Thinker today (sadly, it’s not Thia’s piece). Unfortunately, the author has created the very dichotomy that TNA is working hard to chip away at regarding old notions of liberals and conservatives, and in so doing, the author has diminished Clinton en route to praising Bush. This is a great opportunity for all of us to descend upon that site and do a bit of educating. In short: Why must one woman fall in order for another to rise? Here’s the link for anyone interested in posting. (No need to register at that site. Posts are moderated, but most go through rather quickly. I don’t think they allow anyone to embed a link in their post.)
http://www.americanthinker.com.....nolia.html
Right on Zee!!!!!
Oh Zee. How terrible and wonderful your rage, because it’s time, yes, women’s rage is a fine thing isn’t it? Can I go to TGW and read your story?
On New Year’s Eve I posted a political wish list on my blog, which included a wish that even though I knew Sean Hannity was slated to go it alone (with Colmes leaving the show), either Kirsten Powers or Susan Estrich would provide great counterpoint to Sean’s conservative views. A person who checks in with my blog fairly regularly commented that Geraldine Ferraro would also be great in the slot.
I wholeheartedly agree, and it reminded me of the Women of the Year post here–Geraldine Ferraro also deserves a mention in this category. Ferraro speaks her mind without fear of political consequence like nobody else. In fact, the word “fearless” sums her up perfectly, and in today’s climate of political pandering and party lockstep, our country needs more pols like her. Many more.
KayJL,
Ferraro guest hosted with Hannity at least once and she was great. I really hope they replace Colmes at some point because that was what I liked about the show, you got both sides of every argument!
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