ALL WOMEN (and men): Don’t miss this video and Obama’s failures to include women and women’s issues in his administration

This is what happens when people vote “party first,” sell out our country, and ignore all the warning signs. Come ON. So, the Hillary voters, the traitors, who voted for Obama…don’t we think they get what they deserve? They SAW first hand what he did to Hillary. And Palin. How about Alice Palmer? Yet, what, they thought he was going to CHANGE magically into this big “feminist?” I said it in another thread…you reap what you VOTE.

Now the gay and lesbian community is angry too. Well, uh, what did they expect? The signs were there. I tried to tell my gay friends to watch his ACTIONS and not listen to his BS promises. Oh well.

Next it will be the liberal Jews who freak out. Some of them will sell Israel out, others will wonder how they could have ignored who and what Obama is. He’s a hater with empty promises.

Wonder how long it will take for those “ratings” to drop under 20%?

Did anyone ask Obama how he would manage such an important job and raising children all at the same time? No, of course not!

Good Job Susan..

PUMA RAWKS…!!

The trickle effect in full bloom will be a raging waterfall in the not so distant future.Wile it may be a long 4 years,it is all it will be !

Of course Obama cares about women did they not see and hear that this administration seems to have a burning desire to ensure that birth control is a top priority?

Women are having too many dam kids, so they are going to spend millions to ensure we know what birth control is all about, what more do these women want they voted for a man that is looking after them, he does not want us getting overweight and out of shape with child bearing, he does not want us to be financially unsecured with too many kids.

Obama just cares about women, and mother hood I really don’t see why they are all disappointed now.

I think the I told you so dance will keep us very busy for the next four years!

Note to Ms. Wolfe: The fact that Europe is doing creative things to bring women into the “new” economy is irrelevant. We don’t live in Europe; we live here. Hello?

And what, pray tell did women’s groups expect? They fostered and facilitated a campaign that was blatantly sexist from the get-go.

And, oh yes. Let’s raise the minimum wage so that women can remain in deadend jobs forever. Good plan!

Whine, whine, whine.

Psst. You could have had a womens’ rights advocate in the White House. Remember???

Elections matter.

I just waiting for the day when AA Americans will realize that Obama didn’t promise them anything and would deliver nothing. Here’s the MD (the largest AA neighborhoods) 4 high schools are closing down as of this winter there is no money to run the schools). Did you hear the Messiah say anything about it? Zero!

Or punished with children like his mother was.

Great article, Susan. I couldn’t help noticing in the videao a good part of the time that Naomi was talking they split the screen and showed Obama signing bills with about 12 men behind him watching. The screen showing him was much larger than Naomi’s. What a patriarchy of a society we have!

“Parity” is a ridiculous concept in this context. Call it what it is: “quotas.”

The bean-counting approach to “parity” leads to a focus away from choosing the best possible person for each job.

Look at commercial airline pilots. White men constitute 95 percent of all commercial airline pilots in the U.S. Women are about 3 percent.

Is this a state of sexist evil that must be challenged? Must we lobby for “parity” in the cockpits?

Or do we accept the fact that the people flying planes today are the ones who ought to be flying planes… and the ones who aren’t flying planes shouldn’t be flying planes?

The whole “gender parity” distraction illustrates the folly of liberalism and identity politics.

But women wanted to elect a caring man that models responsibility to their family. Specially AA women fell in love with electing a model in the White House so that their companions would have an icon to emulate.

I think it’s an excellent point to note how Europe can appoint so many women, but US is still too ignorant and sexist to do the same. Irrelevant? Hardly, it is a stark contrast of how far behind the US is. We are not only behind in the education of kids, we are also behind in promoting fairness and equality to women.

It is amazing to me how many people are led away like sheep just because of a slogan or a speech someone makes! No brains and no backbone either. Upset they voted for Obama? Isn’t that too bad.

Yesterday, on This Week, Nancy Pelosi arrogantly claimed she “cracked the marble ceiling,” well before Hillary Clinton put 18,000,000 cracks in the glass ceiling… She is deliberate in the delivery of her message so as to minimize the accomplishment of Hillary Clinton, and to make all other women feel inept in comparison, using it like a stick to keep the women masses down and certainly quiet. Honestly, does anyone here think Pelosi would get 18,000,000+ votes in a Democratic Primary? I think not. Does it serve women, as a leader, to harbor such contempt for her make-believe rival? Please someone, pat Nancy on her back, but please let her know that she WASTED two years, from 2006 on, doing nothing to change the trajectory of our failing economy, or prosecuting the unlawful policies of Bush/Cheney for strictly political reasons, for expediency, to not make it too difficult to elect Barack Obama as the next president, instead of looking to the immediate interests of the American people and taking direct action at a critical juncture. That is leadership we can do without, whether it is a woman’s or a man’s, and it gave her the indubitable distinction of the lowest approval rating of Congress.

Amen, CG. Well stated. Pelosi is a contemptible creature. She would never be elected to a national anything.

Can someone please explain how and why Nancy Pelosi has her job and how we can rid this country of her idiocy? Really, whose idea was it to give this lunatic so much power and how do we end her reign of terror?

She was elected to the US House of Representatives. And then her fellow Congresspersons elected her Speaker. Your comment doesn’t make any sense.

My comment is because clearly some people were asleep at the wheel. She is one of the biggest threats to this country ever, besides Obama. My question is who on earth wished this on America? Do you listen to her? Her agenda? Her HATE? She really makes NO sense as a politician whatsoever. That’s the question. Why?

Remember just like the Democrats Legislators in Georgia pick Maddox when he came in second it was party over principle. Rangel is a chairperson because the speaker chose her supporters over principle. Obama picked a Tax Cheat for Treasury it was his phony principles over what is right.

I just can’t stand this woman and don’t even understand how the most insanely left nut would tolerate her nonsense. She’s sooo wrong for this country. And, yes, we have seen that the Obama crowd is already fraught with fraud all over. I guess the thought of even one honest person in Washington is a thing of the distant past.

Please pardon my dust, I am talking about her winning a national election. She is very popular in her district in San Francisco and was elected there, repeatedly yes, and her compadres elected her Speaker several years ago — she has not run for national office — my point was, she is nothing compared to Hillary Clinton and with her 9% popularity in congress, she would certainly not have garnered 18,000,000 votes in a national primary.

Wow–just read the Wikipedia article on Naomi Wolf. Seems she’s a bit controversial. She accused famous Yale lit Prof. Harold Bloom of sexual harrassment 20 years after the fact. Now there’s a hot text for Literary Criticism Majors to deconstruct! She also had this to say in defense of veiled fashions in Muslim countries:

The West interprets veiling as repression of women and suppression of their sexuality. But when I travelled in Muslim countries and was invited to join a discussion in women-only settings within Muslim homes, I learned that Muslim attitudes toward women’s appearance and sexuality are not rooted in repression, but in a strong sense of public versus private, of what is due to God and what is due to one’s husband. It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling – toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home

There is much more of interest in the Wikipedia article. Now it seems she is lowering the bar for expectations regarding the O administration. She notes that “we’re wrong to think that any president . . . alone hass the power to wave a magic wand” to advance a progressive family agenda, and goes on to say:

What Obama is going to need . . . is for moms and dads to form a lobby to force Obama to be able to say to business interests, “Look, I have no choice . . .”

Yep, that’s what she says. Listen to it. Obama is going to need moms and dads to form a lobby to force Obama to do what’s right. Got it?!?!

Pardon my ignorance, but is there a chance of getting rid of her? If her constituents love her, which of course they do in that looney tunes district, then are we stuck with her for life? She’s really terrifying to me. My husband thinks she’s certifiable too. The only fun part is seeing the SNL skits about her.

We are not talking about flying planes or giving women jobs they are not qualified for and/or do not want. We are talking about qualified women getting an equal chance. They aren’t. If women are successful in other countries in Government, they can be here if men would quit acting like scared little rabbits.

I believe that one of the ways the feminist movement went astray for a while was by, in a sense, asking women to “act masculine.” It was a push to get women into male dominated fields. That was fine, because truly there are many women who are well-suited to those positions. There was even a push for a while in my field, teaching, to get more men involved because we knew that was the major way to raise our pay scales. But it didn’t allow for those women who truly do “women’s work” and like that work and do it well. It didn’t give that kind of work any status.

I can’t remember how often early in the feminist movement I used to have to defend my mother and my aunts who were “just housewives.” I grew up in a farming community, and people who didn’t understand that lifestyle didn’t know that in those communities men’s work and women’s work is considered as equally important. I grew up seeing my mother do her housework most of the time, but also going out to the fields and helping there alongside my dad. And I saw my Dad doing most of the farm work, but I was also used to seeing him step in and help my mother around the house. In fact, it was a joke in my family because he loved to bake, while my mom really didn’t, so he would tease her about how much better his peach pies were than hers.

Pelosi appears to me to be a person who has tried too hard to fit into the “old boys’” network–to act too much the way powerful men did in the old clubs. She appears to have a disdain for women who may be more “feminine.”

I see that a lot in the progressive movement, and thus, their hatred for a person like Palin, who was obviously “feminine” and whose husband was more than happy to play “first dude.” The same thing may apply to Hillary, the sneaking suspicion that–despite Bill’s peccadilloes–Hillary is truly Bill’s real love and that Bill would have been happy to be “First Genteleman.” Pelosi may be jealous of Hillary’s ability to get the adulation of many men without having to act just like them.

I have always thought that we must do more of a push to get traditional female positions more respect and more pay. Why, for instance, do social workers have such low pay? Why do sales clerks, administrative assistants, bank tellers, and on and on get no benefits really when it comes to family leave time and vacation time, etc.?

By the way, in today’s paper was an article about OUR STATE (Colorado) having the highest percentage of female elected officials. I truly believe that is because we in the West have that farm tradition that raises people up to respect both types of work: female and male. We also have someone pushing a law to allow people time off for school functions: teachers’ conferences, school performances, etc. Of course, the business community will fight it. But, get real. Employees on salary get that time off in various ways–e.g., like claiming they’re going somewhere else for a “meeting” or by saying they worked extra at night. Hourly wage earners can’t, and a large percentage of those are women.

Moms and Dads do have to get these disparities addressed, together.

I liked most the point in the article about attitudes in Europe the fact that men acknowledge that things won’t get done without a “women’s point of view.” Here the feminist movement has worked so hard to say there IS NOT A DIFFERENCE between men and women in ability that they haven’t been able to acknowledge that there are some differences.

(Now, I must also put in a disclaimer. I do know that in crazy fields like some of the radical feminist literary criticism, they’ve gone overboard the other way, almost claiming men and women to be different species.)

WE NEED BALANCE! WE NEED MORE RESPECT FOR WOMEN! WE NEED MORE WOMEN IN POWER!

That was odd, wasn’t it? My left eye was watching Naomi while my right eye watched O sitting down with all of these old guys standing around him. Didn’t see any old gals standing there. Then O signed something with his left hand (didn’t know he was left-handed), and all of the old guys applauded. Wolf was talking about how moms and dads have to lobby Mr. President if they really want to force him to do the right thing.

“We are talking about qualified women getting an equal chance. They aren’t.”

How do you know they aren’t? Because 50 percent of the Cabinet isn’t female?

That is a mindset the places gender considerations above all other qualifications. And it is purely political and anti-meritocratic.

Perhaps having that particular experience of not getting an equal chance, first hand qualifies, for us women, or is there some other standard to which we aren’t privy? Gender isn’t a consideration, it is a primary characteristic, and can be judged on first glance to disqualify.

she “cracked the marble ceiling,”

well, if she cracked the marble ceiling she quickly cemented it back up again.

Much like the mindset that placed race considerations above all other qualifications.

And the mindset of those who chose to chastize other’s decisions…..based on their race considerations above all other qualifications.

It is easy to dismiss people as racist…but sexist just doesn’t have the same teeth.

ani, nancy pelosi thinks she is MORE than hillary clinton or anyone else for that matter. take a look at her power grab in the house. i’d cheer and drink champaign if she lost her speakership. she is a pathetic piece of work and no friend to women. to hexx with her!

correction…”based on their ‘personal’ race considerations.”

Gee, a bigoted Obama supporter. Quel suprise.

For your info, oh ye of the “Hope (the only things that) Change (benefit me) persuasion, the majority of pilots are male because the majority of pilots come from the airforce.

It costs a crapload to get your pilots license and enough hours to be hired by a commercial airline, so women pilots are generally well-off.

And how many well-off men are commercial pilots, pray tell? Oh, must be because they shouldn’t be flying planes.

oh ye of the “Hope (the only things that) Change (benefit me) persuasion

love it…

Honestly an employment interview should be done either by paper or by a means where you have no access to the sex, age or race of a person: the interviewer should only have the applicants qualifications, education and experience in hand to make the decision to hire. Perhaps never getting to see the person and the interview is done by keyboard response, so no voice can be heard either.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s home district includes San Francisco .

Star-Kist Tuna’s headquarters are in San Francisco , Pelosi’s home district.
Star-Kist is owned by Del Monte Foods and is a major contributor to Pelosi.

Star-Kist is the major employer in ” American Samoa” employing 75% of the Samoan work force. Paul Pelosi, Nancy ’s husband, owns $17 million dollars of Star-Kist stock. In January, 2007 when the minimum wage was increased from $5.15 to $7.25, Pelosi had American Samoa exempted from the increase so Del Monte would not have to pay the higher wage.

This would make Del Monte products less expensive than that of its competitors. Last week when the huge bailout bill was passed, Pelosi added an earmark to the final bill adding $33 million dollars for an “economic development credit in American Samoa “Pelosi has called the Bush Administration “CORRUPT” and many other things !!!

? How do you spell “HYPOCRISY” ? SHE’S SHAMELESS

Great comment.

Women in the U.S. will not get more respect until we start respecting ourselves.

Women in other countries, even ones we consider third-world or “backward” have a sense of themselves that women here rarely possess. They seem to be able to transcend the cultural limits put upon them when given the chance, not be burdened or shaped by them.

Look at poor Hillary, so brilliant and talented and still in a way wanting to be the “good girl” and a team player, when she could do anything she wanted.

She must know we can’t change things from within the system; we have to change the system.

I received this as an email from snoops.com

Sorry Susan I couldn’t watch it all the way through

Naomi (middle name SANCTIMONY) Wolfffffe has always BUGGED me with her attitude in ALL things.

The CNN chick is another BOT 4 Bambi. I just can’t watch 2 grown professional women chatter mostly in defense of the ONE.

It’s nauseating. Sorry can’t do it. But I get the idea.

Can’t wait for the show tonight!

ok now THAT is the real crux of it right Lark?

“PUNISHED WITH A CHILD” (I heard him say it myself)

I mean I’m not even a therapist and I picked up on that one! He’s got so much guilt and feels yet so abandoned and perhaps even like he punished his MOM by ……… oh I can’t even go there.

It’s just so pitiful and sad. I’m so sad for him and for what he must have to listen to in his head. Seriously.
It had to make some huge impressions that we can only imagine but it’s scary it will play out nationally now.

I hope there are some good THERAPISTS hanging out around the white house (in general) lol for all the LOONIES in the Senate and HOUSE!

argh

oops, make that “surprise”.

Yesterday, on This Week, Nancy Pelosi arrogantly claimed she “cracked the marble ceiling,”

That ugly tramp needs to be “cracked” in the head with an empty beer bottle.

Pelosi will ALWAYS be many steps behind women trailblazers like Hillary Clinton. She puts the “p” in pathetic.

Moments after reading this — seriously — Emily’s list called. I listened and when the caller asked me if they could count on my support, I said that considering that Emily’s list had been silent when Senator Clinton had been viciously attacked by the supporters of her male opponent, they could not count on my support. Never had women had a more effective advocate. She thanked me and hung up. Reaping and sowing. Sowing and reaping.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17877.html

And it begins again….

Gillibrand’s nickname is “Tracy Flick” and notice how she is criticized for traits that Obama is praised for.

What a model?? a fucking rapper-Z??? or better a stupid making-jokes-about-girlz-bernieI’ve-died? They should prefer a WOMAN model, I think so

Its OK ladies Obama’s Presidential Commission on Women will fix it all up, just you wait. Mr. Ms Magazine is on it.

I guess I’m in the minority on this. I’m an old man, and I really liked the Tracy Flick character in the film Election. I would have happily voted for her, and I would have been proud to have her as a friend. She didn’t take any crap off of anybody, and she worked hard. She also learned from her mistakes. Yes, she had faults, but I liked her a lot more than the other characters in that film.

Ms. Wolfe is not my favorite person.

Maybe I will mail her a hijab so that she can appreciate the joys of going through life in a large sack.

If I can get her to veil her face as well maybe nobody will notice if I glue her lips shut?

True…very true.

There is something very creepy about the teacher going to such lengths against a student. And most here could probably share some equally cringe worthy stories about creepy teachers.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the reference to Tracy Flick is meant to be kind in this case.

with her head.now thay splains a lot….

that’s an excellent point. Why do they need to know ANYTHING about a person’s physical characteristics except that they are able to perform the job wo limitations? But without face to face interviews an employer would have no way of evaluating someone’s attitude and demeanor.

How do I know they aren’t? First of all, I am a woman so I have first hand experience and knowledge. Second, over half of the population is women but over half of prominent positions in the public and private sector are not women. It’s sexist plain and simple.

Ms. Pelosi actually had the medium (Marble) correct. What she has incorrect is the direction in which she cracked the marble

Ms. Pelosi did not crack the marble ceiling, but rather the marble floor; in that during her time as Speaker she was able to garner Congress lower approval ratings than the record low Bush Administration approval numbers.

Now that is something to really be proud of!

That’s sexism. you DIFFERENCE the world depending on the sex. Countries where women are worst? USA, France and Italy. All country of the difference. In Sweden doesn’t exist “feminism” of the difference.

What the hell is wrong with these women that could not SEE the rampant sexism coming from the One and his campaign/followers? No wonder it is so hard for women to gain true parity – the patriarchy has so poisoned their minds they are oblivious when sexism and misogyny stares them in the face!!

They are disappointed? I am incredibly disappointed in these bamboozled/hoodwinked women!

That’s the fallacy I tried to point out in the first place, wodiej. Over half of the population is women… but only 3 percent of the commercial airline pilots are women. Is that sexist plain and simple?

The focus on numerical outcomes is the road to quota-style affirmative action… and it is anti-meritocratic.

And poor, poor Naomi Wolf – she will be the long-suffering apologist for her Obama-Messiah. How sad she looks – yes, the “number of women” is not important, keep telling yourself that. After all, you don’t need to be included to be included, right??? Oh you poor dear.

UBM,
Just an observation bro,
You seem to love to fight the good women on this blog.
I on the other hand embrace and support their causes and understand that it’s going to take more sacrifice from us guys to make it happen.
I’m glad that you pointed out the problems in Air traffic control which is a crappy job that has long hours and pays only 75K
Women are smarter than to pursue such a stressful job.
Why not focus on how women are excelling in the sciences and medicine and help encourage them in these areas long dominated by men.

Most of the criticisms of Tracy Flick would be the kinds of resentments people would bring against any successful woman who dares to compete and prevail against men: too aggressive, not feminine enough, a bitch, ruthless, a ball-breaker, a nutcracker; the kinds of things in fact people said about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. What I see is an intelligent bundle of energy who will get things done.

Seattle, I’m fortunate enough to have worked in daily journalism. I’ve had women bosses since the ’80s. It’s all good.

But it simply does not make sense that because women constitute half the population, they should hold half of all elective offices, or half of all executive positions, or half of anything, as a matter of social justice.

Because the population ratio itself has nothing to do with qualifications, or temperament for certain jobs, or even the will to pursue certain jobs.

Also, who’s talking about air traffic controllers? I’m talking about pilots… the people who fly the planes. But since you brought up the stressful nature of the job of air traffic controller, and you say “Women are smarter than to pursue such a stressful job”… then why are you surprised that no woman has yet had the most stressful job in America, that of president?

Being a corporate CEO is quite stressful as well. By your logic, it’s not sexism that explains the number of female CEOs in corporate America… it’s women’s distaste for stressful occupations.

My point is that gender-obsessed bean-counting is not an effective measure of whether a state affairs is just or unjust.

^ meant to say “state of affairs.”

Let me make my self clear..
I’m not a bean counter type of guy either.In fact I have been the victim of discrimination myself.
Back when I graduated from college I was denied a job in Planning here in Seattle because as someone rudely told me that I was not the right gender or skin color.
I walked away from that experience started a company and the rest is history.
I was only reminded of what happened to me this past year in the treatment of Hillary by the media and the fawning over Obama who clearly didn’t have the prerequisite experience.
Today I like to enable women as I have had great success promoting them within my company.
Women are the opposite sex and it takes men that are willing to give up their old boy intimidating networks to change that fact.

How about race-obsessed bean-counting? That work for ya?

An Obama supporter calling for a meritocracy. Excuse me while I dry my eyes, that gave me a good laugh.

I think gearing the stimulus plan to benefit men and women is a fair point and hopefully this is fought for in Congress.

I think the numbers game (as far as who is in the cabinet) is a straw man. Obama already has more women in his cabinet in his six days in office (7) than either GWB (6) and Bill Clinton (3) had in eight years.

Obama has more women on his national security team (Clinton; Rice; Napalitano) than either Bush (Condi) or Clinton (Reno; Albright).

Should there be more women in the cabinet? Could he do better? I hope so and think he will.

But the most important thing in this time of crisis is we have the people in place who are most qualified. I think trying to have a quota-based cabinet, especially at the top levels would be a mistake.

Looking at Obama’s cabinet, I’m not sure who I’d swap out, man or woman. It’s really an A-1 team.

You’re not alone. I made it to “How beautiful is my wife?”. Then lunged for the stop button. I think I pulled something.

Obviously not.

Wolf has been under Obama’s spell for a long time. She is an Obot first, Democrat second, and feminist third. In fact, she’s not really much of a feminist at all if she thinks Obama is a “feminist” with a “women-friendly policy vision,” which is what she claimed in an awful, rambling piece she posted on Huffpo during the primaries to rationalize why she didn’t vote for Hillary. From what I can glean, Hillary wasn’t tough enough to “face down evil” and Obama was the only one who “consistently acted like a true American.” I kid you not. Clearly, Wolf is suffering from some kind of mental illness. CNN really needs to stop giving her airtime and presenting her as someone who speaks for women.

What also needs to be addressed is what has become accepted “public policy” of the out and out misogynist treatment of women; if one is honest it is only obvious there is not a balanced “platform” of equal footing for women. This has become acceptable and even relegated to humor, on the belittling, and faux character assassination of females, particularly in politics. What else can explain Senator Clinton being bashed and savaged during the primaries, ridiculed for her lack of foreign policy experience(if I remember right, being First Lady was not considered enough); yet now out of those same banshee mouths come kudos and praise for the very position of SOS, as Senator Clinton, being the most experienced and best person for the job. These are the double standards that drive the thinking person insane. We, who supported Senator Clinton knew she was qualified, to be our President, we did not need a man to legitimize her abilities by appointing her, to gain “experience”. Don’t get me wrong, I love, love, love the fact she is SOS; but we the people, would have been far better served by a President Hillary Clinton. The schizophrenic thinking of the DNC, and frankly other candidates and pundits who made it their mantra to chant this lack of ability by Senator Clinton, are now, out in the open, naked and babbling, and drooling on themselves, as the fools they have been all along. The message I would like to see understood is, we, women do not need to pass the “good old Boy” test, nor need a man’s stamp of approval to be capable and intelligent and willing to provide a better way to serve our country from the office of the President, as the President.

This comment is inappropriate, regardless of how pathetic Pelosi is. “Ugly tramp” is sexist and threatening violence against women isn’t funny. When we denigrate one woman in this way we denigrate all women.

What’s not to like? I could never understand why we were supposed to sympathize with the Matthew Broderick character. He was vile.

there is nothing more infuriating that hearing an Obot, so-called “feminist” apologizing for and excusing the muslim treatment of girls and women.

on the one hand, it’s scary; i mean, would she justify these kind of restrictions on women if they were to occur in the US? at the same time, it’s almost a kind of reverse racism; we know full well that if some white, american christian group were to treat women the same way, people like ms. wolfe would go absolutely ballistic; but those poor brown people, well, they don’t know any better.

that reminds me of the time (in the 80′s? don’t remember exactly when) when the end of apartheid occurred in South Africa, and there was some big ceremony on the transfer of power, on which the media remarked much about the “historic” nature of, and so on, and i remember seeing pictures of the event, and surprise, surprise, there wasn’t a woman to be seen any where among the top leaders on either side. the media didn’t make much mention of *that.*

it’s pretty rich to hear UBM talk about “qualifications,” and not putting physical characteristic above everything else. heh.

Johnny Smithfield – apologist. You will get better at it . that was a C-.

UBM, as far as pilots go, the gender numbers could very well be a factor of both qualifications *and* sexism; it is not either/or. i suspect that not as many women take up flying as men (we won’t go into the reasons right now) and fewer will become qualified to be airline pilots. that doesn’t mean that the women who are in aviation *aren’t* subject to sexism.

i worked in the mining industry for a while, which has very few women (outside of secretary type positions), and i can tell you that yes, not very many women go into mining in the first place, but there is a horrendous amount of negative attitudes toward women (women who are outside of “their place,” anyway) in this industry. this would tend to limit the advance of women in the field, and convince many of them to leave it all together.

btw, the journalism field in no way shape or form compares to the “macho-man” type of occupations where sexism is much more blatant. i think the macho attitude certainly applies when it comes to a woman aspiring to hold the ultimate “man’s job,” i.e. the presidency.

quotas aside, the treatment of hillary and sarah palin during the past election was disgraceful, while obama got the red capet rolled out for him from before the primaries even began. this is undeniable.

i think that you fall into a trap by describing certain women as “acting masculine” and others as being “feminine.” once you accept that thinking then you are allowing society to define what women “should” or “should not” do. that is exactly what we need to get out of. each woman (and man) should decide for her/himself what they want to in life.

however you make the good point the “women’s work” should be valued equally with “man’s work.” the reason that it is not valued equally is because women themselves are not valued equally with men. it will probably be a long time before that changes significantly in this country.

correct; american women are taught that it’s more important to be liked than respected.

“That is a mindset the places gender considerations above all other qualifications. And it is purely political and anti-meritocratic.”

Is it your contention there aren’t a sufficient number of women in this country whose qualifications merit appointment to his cabinet in the face of the five countries Susan mentioned above which have/had heads of their government? Wouldn’t this imply American women are inferior to women in other countries or the other countries elect inferior heads of state? If you assume we are equal in intelligence and ability, what is the reason for the inequality in employment? And, why are successful women so often referred to in a derogatory way? For example, the statement in the media claiming Hillary Clinton attained her position out of pity related to her husband’s infidelity. Another example is the treatment of Anita Hill during the confirmation of Justice Clarence Thomas. Statistically, if all things are equal, fifty percent of the population should be represented by close to that number. The same logic can be applied to any segment of the population which is why Affirmative Action was a necessary component of laws forbidding discrimination. The real problem, UBM, is a lack of desire by the “old boys club” to recognize the discrimination since the status quo is in their own interest. Sexual harassment and sexism is endemic in our society and refusing to recognize it doesn’t make it go away.It is especially prevalent in the Black community and some fundamentalist evangelical groups. Obama is a grown man (at least in age), but the music he likes and his sexist attacks on Hillary are proof of of his lack of respect for women.

Pelosi was elected speaker solely on her ability to raise money. Her first test as speaker was a failure. She supported John Murtha as Majority Whip and the House voted for Steny Hoyer. She doesn’t have to lose her seat in SF in order to be replaced if she loses her ability to raise money or the other reps finally get sick of her.

Naomi Wolf does NOT speak for me–she is a sell out.

I was very disappointed in my fellow Hillary supporters. All the talk from both sides has become so empty. As the ONE would say “Just Words” It certainly should be no surprise to anyone with half a brain at what he will continue to do. An opportunist is an opportunist. Nothing has changed about our thoughts of him.
So yes, the I told you so dance could last four years.

I like your style. Very insightful. Thanks

“btw, the journalism field in no way shape or form compares to the “macho-man” type of occupations where sexism is much more blatant.”

I beg to differ, NoBama. Up through the 1960s, hard news reporting was definitely considered a man’s occupation. And big-city newsrooms were a macho preserve. It wasn’t unusual for manly reporters and editors to keep a flask of liquor stashed in their desk drawers.

I think it’s more helpful to look at how the culture as a whole is evolving… and not get hung up on the presidency.

After all, Speaker of the House is one of the most powerful political positions in the United States… but Nancy Pelosi gets trashed here like nobody’s business.