How Feminists’ Eggs Came Home to Roost
August 31, 2010
by Amy Siskind
|The following op-ed by The New Agenda’s Amy Siskind is featured on the front page of The Huffington Post.
This has not been a good week for Democratic women.
First, a New York Times op-ed penned by two progressive feminists noting two disturbing trends: 1) Democratic Leaders have been bargaining away our reproductive rights, and 2) the Democratic Party is not seeking out nor encouraging strong women leaders . Then, a Los Angeles Times story descrying that hopes for the “Year of the Women” are fading. Given the projected seats losses by incumbent Democratic women, women’s representation in government will likely decrease in 2010 (for the first time since 1976).
Well, gosh golly gee. Let me gather up some faux shock and righteous indignation and say: “You mean the Democratic Party doesn’t care about women?“. There, that’s better.
Why are Democratic women moving backwards? Because we’ve promised our vote to one party on the basis of one issue. We have no bargaining power or leverage. The old idiom: Why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free?, has a DNC version: If we pay lip service to the eggs, we’ll get their vote for free!
To get women back on the path of advancement, we need a new strategy. It’s time for women leaders to voyage beyond womens studies and take a lesson from the economics department. When business as usual stops working, it’s time to restructure and reinvent.
The imperious assumption that reproductive rights is the litmus test for our vote is holding us back. United, women are a powerful voting block. Divided, we are essentially stalled. To move forward, women need to find common ground. Here’s some tips on getting there:
1. Reproductive Rights should not be our centerpiece issue
I am pro-choice and reproductive rights are important to me. But so are other issues. A singular focus on reproductive rights is defeatist, myopic and exclusionary. How about post menopausal women? Or lesbian women? Or women who are not sexually active? Should one issue that impacts a slice of women and girls be our holy grail?
If we truly want to give women control of their bodies, women need economic freedom. Women compose the majority of small business owners and employees. We raise the vast majority of children. In a year where uncertainty on taxes, healthcare costs and regulations has paused economic expansion, it is women who lose. Women who are not financially secure are more likely to stay in abusive relationships (with their children), get foreclosed on, lose credit and so on.
We need to reformulate and update our list of what constitutes: “women’s issue.”
2. Republican Women are not the enemy
So sure that Republican women don’t care about women’s issues? Think again!
Without the support of the four female Republican Senators, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would not have passed. The Republican women were also instrumental in passing Al Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment, working with Democratic women to co-sponsor Mammogram Coverage Amendment, and speaking out for the women of Afghanistan.
Our daily lives are improved by having women leaders from both parties. My colleague Patricia Garrison, a registered Democrat, recalls having a difficult delivery of her daughter fifteen years ago. Nonetheless, her insurance company instructed her check out the next day. Then a light bulb went off. Pat remembered that her governor, Christine Todd Whitman (R), had just signed a bill mandating insurers to cover a second night in the hospital. Pat readily acknowledges that if “Christine” was instead “Christopher”, from either party, Pat would have been shipped home 24 hours later.
3. Women’s Groups’ anti-women rhetoric sets us back
Women’s groups should declare a moratorium on attacking Republican women. As Anne Kornblut’s Notes from the Cracked Ceiling sadly documents, there is a large segment of women (and men) who will simply not vote for women because they presume we are not qualified. Feeding into this ignorance by demeaning women candidates only steepens the slope for all women candidates.
The video “Sarah Palin Doesn’t Speak for Me” is unbecoming and a stain on the legacy of the important organization that produced it. So are the insidious op-ed’s written by leaders of women’s organizations attacking Republican women running for office. If you run an organization whose goal is to get more women elected, then get women elected. Send us a video of Democratic women candidates who DO speak for you and tell us how we can support them. Meet with the DNC and demand more support and funding for women running.
But don’t shame our gender by telling us the best you can do is to demean other women – it’s not only high school, it’s junior high school. Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina are serious women who ran Fortune 500 companies (only 3% of F500 CEOs are women). Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez are minority women who made their own way to run as governors. These women are not “wingnuts” or any of the other verbal diarrhea being hurled their way. Even if we don’t vote for these women, we can acknowledge and respect them. If your organization REALLY needs to make it a fight on policy, then make a video attacking some of the Republican men running against Democratic women.
4. “A Palin of Our Own” is not the solution
It would be misguided to presume that the solution for the Democratic Party is to find our Sarah Palin. The internalized sexism in our party is too systemic . For example, the two progressive feminists who penned the ‘Palin of Our Own’ op-ed were unequivocally brutal towards Hillary Clinton, a woman in our party, publishing sexist articles like this. Why didn’t the women in our party speak out?
We can, however, learn from Sarah Palin. Palin unapologetically supports women in her party. Even at times incurring her party faithful’s wrath when her choices were not conservative enough.
We should, as a starting point, expect that of our women leaders. And, perhaps of ourselves. Can we support the women in our party and give them the benefit of the doubt until we make some inroads towards gender balance? Because there is no “perfect” woman candidate. If Mother Teresa were running as a Democrat, we’d obsess over what her hair looked under the habit.
We don’t necessarily need to vote for women of the Republican Party if we disagree with their policies. But as my dearly deceased mother used to say: If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
Supporting women. Finding common ground. These notions will get women moving forward once again!
Good points. I am afraid I have the same reaction to the Democrats as I do to the Catholic church. I haven’t been to Catholic church in about 10 years due to their attitudes towards women and sexually abusive priests and I am also no longer voting for Democrats because of their attitudes and behavior towards women. Both are huge man made institutions which no longer meet my needs in fact they don’t come close. But I still have spiritual and political needs so I am going elsewhere.
Petty, catty, bitchy, whiny, naggy, etc.
When women’s orgs whose sole purpose is to support women in their party for higher office create attack ads at other women they reinforce the stereotypes that I listed above.
Republicans are going to be elected in many political positions from now until the end of time. This being the case, I would rather have a Pub female in office than a Pub or Dem male ANYTIME!
The harsh reality for NOW and Emily’s List is that their party doesn’t support them other than to scare tactic them into voting for Dem Males. There will always be an excuse why the DNC doesn’t put forth more women. Ask Rahm Emmanuel his viewpoints on women running for higher office. He will tell you that it is a losing battle and he will deter support of women in the Democratic Party. Until orgs like NOW and Emily’s List start removing their dependency from the male establishment of the DNC they will not move forward, and women in the Democratic Party will continue to move backward in numbers.
When instructing my children what to do if they got separated from me at the mall or other largely populated area, I told them to find a Mom. Find a woman to help them get the word out that they were lost. It is easier for them to identify a Mom than it is a police or security officer that is male.
If we are lost, find a woman to help us find our way.
Our government needs to help us find our way. We need to look for as many Moms to guide us back to safety. I find it easier to identify a woman who will help at this time than a man.
It would be misguided to presume that the solution for the Democratic Party is to find our Sarah Palin.
I think this may be the best line in a very good post. It’s been nagging at me every since I first saw that article mentioned that something was very off with it – and not the obvious – and that’s it.
Why in the world would the Dems need their own Palin, for god’s sake?!? That’s just so wrong on so many levels, it’s almost pathetic that they’d even say it. Out loud. In print. Whatever.
But seriously, isn’t that the first step figuring out the problem? Seems to me that automatically assuming they need a “Palin” is completely jumping the step of figuring out the real problem and over to what they perceive as a quick fix.
Are you entirely sure these people are teachable?
Wasn’t the Obama Girl the left’s answer to Sarah Palin?
Oh, sorry. O:-)
Janis! You almost made me spit out my drink onto my keyboard. Literally.
Wonderful piece Amy! You always make great points. I am a supporter of Emily’s list, but find it disturbing that they choose to attack other women who they disagree with, rather than holding the men who betrayed them accountable. Its like letting your boyfriend off the hook for cheating, while attacking the other women. He’s the one who betrayed you, why go after her?
Emily’s list is dedicated to getting pro-choice women elected. They sat back and watched the DNC rig the democratic primary against their pro-choice woman candidate and then watched the democratic party sell our reproductive rights down the river in the Obama healthcare scam. So why are they attacking Sarah Palin? She never claimed to agree with them, nor did she betray them. Its all so irrational and counter-productive. Its the democrats who they should be holding accountable.
That would mean having the spine and self-respect to stand up to a man and risk being uncute to boys, Kendall. They’ll never do it. Their idea of holding a Democrat accountable is finding a Democrat woman and shoving her off a cliff.
Right Janis. They are doing it to be one of the guys, and it doesn’t work. To men women are 1st Useful and 2nd a Joke.
Janis,
Do you really think it has to do with men thinking they are cute? Is this your way of making the point that they need male approval, cause these women are not teenage girls? They are women in their 40s, 50s, 60s. Hell, most of them are post menopausal. Being cute is no longer an option, nor should it be.
Another thing that is so hypocritical about the dem feminists is their attacks on the christian right for their misogyny, while embracing Islam and giving them a free pass on their misogyny, which is much worse in degree. I’m an atheiest too, so I’m not interested in a religious war or christian dominance. What concerns me is how the dems are embracing Islamic culture in the name of diversity at the expense of women and gay rights.
I’m tired of being called a racist or islamiphobe, because I am concerned about the introduction of Sharia law and other misogynystic islamic practices in north america. Its true, I don’t want islam to influence the dominent culture. MOST ISLAMIC CULTURES HATE WOMEN. So why would I want to embrace them. Thats like asking a black man to accept the KKK. Its mind boggling. I think too many left leaning feminists have boxed themselves in with all the political correctness to the point that they actually support misogyny.
Do you really think it has to do with men thinking they are cute? Is this your way of making the point that they need male approval, cause these women are not teenage girls? They are women in their 40s, 50s, 60s. Hell, most of them are post menopausal. Being cute is no longer an option, nor should it be.
It is for Traister, Holmes, Marcotte, and the rest of that cadre. I think it is for Wolf, too — which is humiliating considering as she’s my age and should know better, but some women start acting weird when the crow’s feet start showing up. Third-wavers and younger are definitely too wrapped up in worrying about what “boys” think, along with a number of older women who should know better. They absolutely need male approval.
I saw the way women like them behaved during the primaries, when they would only raise their voices and toss their hair and loudly proclaim that they weren’t going to vote for Hillary as long as some guy someplace could overhear them. I pretty much ended a friendship when one woman unloaded the standard “I’m not voting for a woman just because she’s a woman!” by replying, “Who is it you’re trying to prove that to?” It was 100% craving for male approval. If they really cared so deeply about choice, they’d have been behind Clinton 100% — who else had such an incredibly stellar track record on it? No one can TOUCH Hillary’s choice-related cred.
They only care about choice when they can use it to sabotage another woman. They NEVER care about it enough to support a woman, and they are happy to jettison it when the time comes to vote for the anti-choice chump with the D after his name because … well, we don’t know why exactly, but apparently the Earth will rotate backwards if we don’t.
Every point listed here appeals to women who are rational and interested in an open dialogue about empowering women. It seems women on the far left are engaged in sabotaging feminism with their narrow, dogmatic, clique-ish and, ultimately, infantile attitudes.
While I’ve had very nice Muslim students in some ESL classes, I am 100% with Kendall in her criticism of Islam and its egregious gender apartheid. Looks like the “Palin of our own” is living in France, but I don’t see any women on the far left who exhibit the courage of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy:
http://wtpotus.wordpress.com/
It’s absolutely male approval. To women, that’s where the resources come from, subconsciously. So most of the time, when you offer a hungry person a meal today or 100 dollars next month; most people will choose the meal today.
Amy as always right on the money…but why do you continue with the Huffpo crowd, they always seem to disrespect you and your views once they are posted…I do not think it possible to evangelize to them, they have been brainwashed and don’t want to see the light.
On another note, as a new TNA member I encourage all posters here to do likewise
Kiuku, I just can’t compare it to food, though — so often, these are well-off white collar women with family money who are pulling this crap. It’s the ones who have lived much closer to the curb who seem to have more backbone.
Exactly, an end to uterine politics. Neither major political party has any respect for women-the Republican party does not think that women have the moral or intellectual smarts to make deicisions about their own bodies and how these decisions could impact their families. Because as we all know women are flighty and cannot be trusted to make decisions so we need to have some disinterested third party act on our behalf so that we make the right decision. As for the Democratic party (which I left because of the way Clinton was treated), you are exactly right Amy. They believe if they distract us with the reproductive issues, we will be grateful for crumbs from the table and not ask for legitimate power. Because if someone with a vagina has power, the world will stop spinning on its axis. When the Democratic party was knifing Clinton in the back, all I could think of was the abolistionists and the sufferagettes-and women were told that if it came down to black men getting the vote or women getting the vote, the women would have to step aside. And now with so few women in cabinet and subcabinet positions and the backlash against women we have what Alice Paul called an aristocracy of sex. This administration would be diverse if the majority of the country was male.
As far as Sarah Palin goes, although I completely disagree with her politics, I admire the fact that she did things on her own terms. I am not sure if I am correct on this, but I have noticed that Palin and Clinton do not seem to criticize in the press. I am sure that the press is disappointed with this because they were hoping for some sort of a mud wrestling match.
“so often, these are well-off white collar women with family money who are pulling this crap.”
Exactly. They have the privilege to be blind. They never had to do anything on their own (but they sure feel like they did) and it’s like spitting in the face of women who know the system.
Sexism for them is an existential question that ends in “I don’t think so”
AnneE,
Great remarks. I too felt like I was reliving History when the Dems knifed Hillary. And it drives me crazy that our children are not tought that history, so it was allowed to repeat itself.
I was amazed by how easily many democrat women were manipulated by the single issue of abortion rights and how that was all they could talk about during the presidential election. Many of these women were ones who would never even have an abortion or need one but yet they seemed to think it was the be all and end all of their rights as an American. It is safe to assume that women on the left have been duped with this issue and the democrat party is taking their votes for granted even without really fully supporting their right to an abortion. There are dishonest political leaders on both sides of this issue. Bush never really came through for his pro-life voters, even left them literally out in the cold at the rally he failed to attend. Obama has also failed his pro-choice voters miserably. So my advice for voters republican or democrat is find another issue that is more relavant to your personal freedom and well being. And of course, practise safe sex. It makes the issue of abortion much less of an issue.
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