Enacting Change

In her book, Pearls, Politics, and Power, Madeleine Kunin includes the following quote from Hillary Clinton, "'You don't have to run for office to make a contribution in politics.' That would be my first point, because not everybody wants to run for office, but there are so many ways that women can influence the political process and the policies that affect their lives." (pg. 169). I find it interesting that Kunin includes this quote in her book because after reading her book I did not get the impression that this is a statement that she would agree with. Instead, Kunin seems to imply that women can enact change only through elected office. In several places in the book she uses the issue of breast cancer as an example. She writes, "Making a donation for breast cancer research is good, but obtaining funding of millions of dollars for research in the federal budget is so much better." (pg. xi). I completely disagree with Kunin. I believe that change actually happens much more often outside government before change happens inside government. For example, in my opinion, the Susan G. Komen Foundation has done a lot more for breast cancer research and breast cancer awareness than any elected official male or female has ever done. This is not the only instance of greater change happening outside of government. Both the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Movement started outside of government and were not led by elected officials. Furthermore, I think we should also examine the number of women that work in politics outside of elected and appointed positions. How many women work as staffers on the Hill or in federal agencies? While these womens' voices may not be heard publicly they are certainly heard by their bosses who are making the decisions. Kunin never even mentions these women. While I think Kunin makes some valid points and I agree that we should work to get more women elected, I do not think we can simply discredit all of the work that women outside of elected and appointed positions do to enact change.

Skeletons in the Closet?

After our discussion in class on Thursday night about women leaders having fewer"skeletons in their closet"- I began thinking about where I had read about that idea before...

I realized that following a Capitol Historical Society breakfast, the issue caught some media attention. The link above (in the title) covers a conversation between female congressional leaders- and whether or not they have the time to actually maintain an affair.

While the article is only anecdotal- I thought that it was worth sharing, as it mirrored the conversation we had in class.

Thoughts on this?

Women Pearls and Politics

I'm putting this one up early as I'll be away next week and not able to access email and such. So I read "Women, Pearls and Politics" ahead so I could have some idea, good book, I thought it was interesting in there how she talked about Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and how Gov. Granholm talks about how she makes it all work and that she has a very supportive husband. I think a supportive spouse is essential for any and all of these very high profile/high success/power career people who have such demanding jobs. So I guess that "behind every great man there's a great woman" goes the other way too. I actually don't see how someone could hold such a position without that kind of support. I find Sarah Palin says the same things about Alaska's (former) "First Dude" Todd in that he is incredibly supportive and how it all works. I guess with the changing roles here in society or at least reading this book we hear more about the supporting husbands like these gentleman. However, you never heard much about Margaret Thatcher's husband, but it must've been the same thing from what I know of that period of history.

Why are there so few female leaders in the U.S. in comparison to other countries?

Although the U.S. is admired for its enduring constitution and individual freedoms, we lag behind many other countries in terms of the number of female political leaders and heads of state.  This seems counter-intuitive but is true none-the-less.  What is it about American culture that contributes to there being so few women political leaders?  Does the fact that women earn significantly less money on the whole when compared to men have any bearing on the dearth of female politicians?

Any posts? Are we online?

Hello class,

Just logged in and signed up not sure if this is working right or not or if there just isn't anything posted yet. So I'll just say hello and check in later.

All The Best,

Jonathan