TNA co-founder Nancy Hopkins speaks out on Sotomayor
May 26, 2009
by The New Agenda
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Co-founder Nancy Hopkins
Nancy Hopkins is an MIT biology professor – a leader in her field and one of The New Agenda co-founders. Last month Hopkins was awarded one of Women’s eNews 2009 21 Leaders for the 21st Century – a distinction shared with Lily Ledbetter. Hopkins knows what it’s like to be in a field dominated by men who are highly educated and smart, but often clueless about gender. Hopkins was in the audience when Larry Summers famously stated that girls are genetically inferior to men when it comes to math and science – a statement Hopkins’ life and career strongly refutes.
This morning, The New York Times reported Obama Chooses Sotomayor for Supreme Court Nominee. Nancy Hopkins wrote the following comment which was published as an Editor’s Selection:
Only when a woman is chosen do people raise the question of qualifications and excellence. Even in the case of this incredible woman.
If someone says “We need a judge from the mid west”, people reply, “good point”. If someone says “We need a judge with experience in this or that” – people reply, “good point”. Only when asked if they want a woman do people say – “Oh no, I’m only interested in excellence.” When a man is chosen no one raises this point! Obama goes out and chooses a woman whose credentials suggest she is practically a genius. Yet people are STILL going to say she was chosen because she is a woman and because of that she is not really good enough. THIS IS what discrimination looks like.
Go Sonia and Go widowed mother-of-Sonia. You deserve all of this success and more. This is the American dream come true. You make us proud to be Americans.
— Nancy, New York
Good point Nancy – and we say this – YOU GO GIRL!!!
Go Nancy Go!!!
Excellent point and well made. I continue to witness these types of things in a variety of venues. I hear the “is she qualified?” challenge something on the order of 10 fold the number of times I hear “is he qualified?” The other killer is the way so many of us Americans, both women and men, wait for a woman t finish making a valid point and then just turn away, apparently waiting for the right messenger to deliver the message.
[...] Sarah Palin because of the fact that she is a woman, not because of politics of political party. They are giving Sotomeyer the same treatment. That’s [...]
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