Ginni Thomas

This story touches on some of the issues that we've discussed in class. Most prominently, is how a husband's business plays a role in his wife's career. Here we have the example of Ginni Thomas, who in the headline is described as Justice Thomas's wife. As if she is no one without him as a reference point. Rather, she is the founder and president of a group called Liberty Central, which is a tea party think tank/advocacy group. The article cites people who say that her affiliation with Justice Thomas has helped her group gain prominence, or at least "gets you to open the email, if nothing else." Apparently though, Mrs. Thomas has made an effort not to ride on her husband's coattails, having been described as "not wearing it on her sleeve." In an interview with The Washington Examiner, she said, "My favorite times are when people who have worked for me for over 10 years come to understand only later than I am the wife of Justice Thomas.”

And of course, no article about a prominent successful female could be complete without a cookie reference! “And, in the run-up to the House’s passage of the Democratic health care overhaul in March, in the weeks before Liberty Central’s roll-out, Thomas baked homemade cookies for tea party leaders organizing activists’ visits to congressional offices to lobby against the bill, said Debbie Dooley, a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots.”

I find this very interesting, because here we have a case of a high educated, obviously very intelligent woman who has held a number of impressive Washington jobs, and practically the only thing that can be said about her is who her husband is. And it would be one thing if she wanted that to be the case, but she quite clearly has gone so out of her way to make sure that it isn’t. It is very frustrating. Personally, I want to avoid the same thing. I saw my mother go through her whole life being “Jack’s wife”, and it drive her nuts. My husband is obviously not a Supreme Court Justice, but he is excelling in the field that I want to be in. I don’t want to work anywhere when our paths will cross for exactly this reason. I went to the same schools as he did, got better grades for the same degrees, and will have an extra Master’s on top, but I will undoubtedly be, Aaron’s wife. No way.