The Glass Ceiling Effect: Palin and Clinton

As always, I remind my readers who do not share my political views to realize that I'm not pushing anything on you...just sharing my own journey. And what a journey this year has been!

As I've explored the Palin 'story' with my friends and family (and oh my has it been heated!), I've realized how much I'm still trying to figure out and understand about women, choice, 'having it all', feminism, what we demand of men and fathers, the structural systems in place for women, how far we have or have not come since my mother's generation started the feminist movement, etc. I hope I'll be able to explore this topic more in-depth in a future blog entry, as I wonder how other women feel? For myself, this time has been one of intense personal reflection and I hope that my post reflects my continued effort to understand my own views on such topics. I will not, however, rescind my statement that Palin is unqualified!

Since my friends on both sides of the political fence and everywhere in between have been emailing me and calling me to ask what I think of this whole "Palin thing," I wrote some of my thoughts several days ago, but have been too afraid to post this entry. Since folks are still asking me what I think I decided I might as well put it out there as I see it, eh? Here goes.

I'm shaking in my boots quite honestly!

First, let me state that I have tremendous respect for John McCain. I think he is a great American public servant. He is someone who has been bipartisan and who has fought for what he believes in even when it was not in his or his Party's best interest. He has been through tremendous suffering, he has endured, he has owned up to his mistakes, and he has gone on to be an upstanding husband and father. He is a man of strong character, integrity and values.

I saw my friends' jaws dropping when I admitted earlier that I was seriously considering voting for John McCain over Barack Obama in this election. How could I do that?

This political season has left me strained and stressed. I place great value on the importance of voting and in the power of our vote. Our country is in shambles. Who we choose to lead this country post-Bush disaster is not something I take lightly. I'm terrified of where we will go.

I watched both of the conventions, but even before the Republican convention, John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin for his vice-presidential nominee had pretty much cemented my decision to vote for Barack Obama in this election. No, I'm still not "Obama-ized", but more on that later some other time, some other post.

How did the Palin pick make my decision?

Shouldn't I be excited that a woman is in a position to possibly be vice-president of the United States of America? Shouldn't I be excited that, no matter who wins the election, we as Americans have finally put either an African-American in charge of the presidency or a woman in the position of vice-president? And how come we never mention that McCain is a person with disabilities? That should matter too.

McCain disappointed me by choosing Palin as his running-mate.

Did he really think that Hillary supporters would be more likely to vote for him because he chose Palin as his running mate?

Palin was chosen as his running mate for no other reason than a political gimmick, a political ploy. She was chosen because she is a woman, not because she is a qualified woman.

Surely there are qualified Republican women he could have chosen?

When I talked to my Dad about McCain's pick of Palin as a VP, he said to me something that I have not been able to shake.

He said it was a classic case of the glass ceiling effect. We had a qualified woman for the job of president of the United States, and we passed her up for the job. (Whether you like Hillary or not, whether you agree with her views or not she was qualified.) Hillary was also passed up by Obama for the vice-presidency.

Instead, now we have a woman being put in this high position--that of potential vice president--simply because she is a woman, not because she is qualified.

Let's face it. McCain is not exactly the picture of health. He's already had four bouts of melanoma along with his many war injuries.

Palin has literally been placed in a position where, if McCain is elected president, she is a heartbeat away from the presidency. That is terrifying. Where is this woman's experience to run a country!?

I give Palin credit on some levels. Yes, she's a mother of five children and being a mother is one of, if not the hardest, job in the world. I don't know how mothers do it, especially with five children! I'm always in awe of mothers. But the views she brings on motherhood, families, and women's rights are not going to pull Hillary supporters like me. Nor is her role as a working mother and Governor of Alaska enough to make her qualified to be vice-president or president of the United States.

I can't, in good conscience, support a woman who supports abstinence-only education (don't even get the sex educator side of me started on this topic!), creationism, is anti-abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and the list goes on...

Palin is going to have a lot of explaining to do as to her beliefs in conservative family values, trying to raise five children (including one who is special needs and one who is pregnant), trying to be the next VP, promoting abstinence-only education and having a 17-year old pregnant daughter. It doesn't add up for those of us with more liberal views on women. I wonder if it adds up for conservative women? I would like to know your thoughts.

I struggle with even mentioning the fact that she has five children as an issue. Would we question it if a man with five young children was running for president? We've never been in that position before. We've never put a president or vice-president in office with so many young children. I will make a note here that Michelle Obama discouraged her husband from running for president because she did not want that life for their young children. He chose career ambitions, in my opinion, over family, and to be fair I want to call him on that if I'm going to call Palin on what may also be perceived as choosing career over family. I think Obama could have waited until his girls were older, gotten more experience himself, and been more ready to be president. He champions himself as a present father, but how many days has he been home since he joined the Illinois state senate, the U.S. Senate, and started running for President? Compare this, for instance, to Joe Biden who after the death of his wife almost decided not to be sworn in as a Senator. How many nights was he home with his young children?

It should be each family's choice, not ours to judge, but in the end would this election season strike such a raw nerve if the issues of race and gender were not underneath the surface, sometimes the elephant in the room that everyone is thinking, but no one is going to mention?

But back to Palin. She's running on a platform of conservative family values. So, how does that part fit in? As vice-president she could be asked to serve, in a crisis situation, extremely long days and will likely work very long days on a regular basis.

I wish I could say that I believe women can have it all. But even someone like Elizabeth Vargas left her job as anchor of the ABC Evening News because she felt that she was short-changing her two children by working 12-hour days. She has the money and resources to have cooks, nannies, housekeepers, whatever. But she ultimately said, and has continued to say, that women have to redefine 'having it all.' For her, having it all meant giving up the anchor spot (historic in that she was a woman and is Latino) to do 20/20 instead, and spending more time with her children. She admitted that she hoped someday maybe she could go back to having a larger career, but she couldn't do it while raising two young children. Every woman is different in what they feel they can do and how well they can do it. Most of my friends feel overwhelmed most of the time--whether they are stay-at-home moms or also working outside the home. Can Palin do it all, and play all of her potential roles well? And uphold her belief in conservative family values?

This is where things get complicated--because a more liberal viewpoint would say that she can choose career first if the support systems are in place for someone else (i.e. her husband) to be the primary nurturer and caregiver of the children. We'd also be asking society to step up to the plate to make it easier for working women with children to do both jobs well.

My bottom line, my question aimed specifically at Sarah Palin, is this: How can you walk your talk? It's this part that I don't 'get' about Palin. My question is not how can you be a mother and be the vice-president. That is not my issue here. (Can you tell I'm afraid those who don't know me well enough are going to take this post the wrong way completely?!)

Oh, and did I mention that she's unqualified for the job she's been nominated for?


I got a piece of flair on Facebook the other day that pretty much summed up the whole Palin mess: "Yes girls, McCain thinks we're that stupid." Or as the Jon Stewart show said, but a little more bluntly, Palin is Hillary's complete ideological opposite but somehow McCain thinks we are going to vote for his ticket now simply because Palin's our 'gynecological twin'? I do love my friend who asked: "Who vetted her? FEMA?"

Whether you agree with Palin's ideological views or not (I obviously do not), it's scary to think of this woman being placed in a position of such power.

I want women to break the glass ceiling. I want them to be able to be mothers and to have careers. I want them to have equal opportunities. But I want them to earn those opportunities. I want them to be there because they are qualified to be there. Not because they are being used as a political ploy. I don't want to be insulted that way.

Sorry Palin and sorry McCain but both of you just showed us that the glass ceiling effect is still there and we still have a long ways to go. I thank Hillary for putting 18 million qualified cracks in the glass ceiling. And I'll pass up Palin as the one to crack that ceiling completely, because I'd rather wait for someone who earned the right to break the glass ceiling. Who knows, maybe someday Hillary will ultimately crack that toughest glass ceiling? :)

This continues to be quite the political year! Let me tell you how much fun it's going to be living in a battleground state for the next two months...ugh! At least Palin makes the VP debates 'Must-see TV' as my friend puts it!

Emily

P.S. A few new folks are reading my blog...and I'm afraid I may just have lost at least half of those folks by choosing to write a political blog first. I hope you'll stick around and see that most of my blogs are not just politics! This was the topic freshest on my mind.