Tuesday, February 12, 2008

If Hillary Was A Man

I really respect the women who were in the trenches during the feminist movement, even if today that is not always a popular word. Break it down into what it was really about - equality for women - which we still do not have - and if you're not for us, you're against us. I am realizing more and more that *I* am of much closer to that generation of women than not, and share at least a piece of their sense of history, of perspective, of pain, and of hope.

Here is a really good article written by "award-winning writer, feminist leader, political analyst, journalist, editor, and co-founder of the Women's Media Center, Robin Morgan::*
http://womensmediacenter.com/ex/020108.html
* description lifted off of her blog so I did not have to write my own before my first cup of coffee

If you don't like Hillary, you may not enjoy this article.
If you don't like women, you may not like this article.
If you really believe in equality for all, you may not like this article.

If you are on the more conservative side of the political fence, try ignoring the Hillary references, and read the article for the rest of its substance. Robin makes some really good comparisons between how our country is treating Hillary and Barack, and how it seems acceptable to act in women-hating ways, but not racist ones. It is a really interesting perspective. (I bring up this topic for that perspective, not as a political endorsement.)

I was talking with an old friend yesterday and this very topic came up - well, the issue of gender, not race. She is fairly high up the ladder for a HUGE corporation - high enough to see the crap that goes on, and where women get stuck, and how frequently it is because of other women. She says that women are terrible to each other - an oddity I've both witnessed and read about. She admits that she is harder on women than on men. Maybe because she expects more from women. Maybe because she knows how hard she's had to work. The reason may not matter as much as the fact that she's identified her behavior and is actively seeking to change it. How many of the rest of us are ready to face our own hipocracy?

1 comment:

Monogram Queen said...

I agree it's a shame women treat each other like crap but alot of times in the business world, they do.