Would The Real Feminist Please Stand Up
September 5, 2008 by Tracee Sioux
Filed under Parenting
The nomination of Sarah Palin begs the question – just who is the real feminist in this election?
Barack Obama who talked a lot about how proud he was of Hillary Clinton, but didn’t consider her or another woman for the office of Vice President?
Or John McCain who actually nominated Sarah Palin, a woman, for Vice President?
Before you answer, read Obama’s for Equal Pay, Yet Pays Female Staffers Less than Males that says while Barack Obama has a lot to SAY about equal pay and employee benefits for women, John McCain actually employs more females on his campaign staff and pays them more.
As I said in a previous article – vocal Democratic women raised the fair market value of Republican women in this election.
Image Source: http://gov.state.ak.us/official_portraits.php
Well, McCain choosing a female VP doesn’t make him feminist or pro-feminist any more than Sarah Palin being a woman makes her a feminist. She’s clearly not. And no matter how many women McCain employs or how much he pays them, he still opposed the Ledbetter Act. He’s also still anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-abstinence only education, doesn’t care about affordable birth control for women, and so on.
Maybe, but is Obama really a feminist either? If he pays his female employees less and employs a disproportionate number of men instead of women and didn’t dare appoint a woman VP?
Maybe he’s just saying what we want to hear?
Well, technically the article that you linked talks about average pay and about salaries within certain salary ranges. It doesn’t claim or prove that Obama is paying women less than men for the same jobs. And even if Obama isn’t a feminist, that doesn’t make McCain one just because he has more female employees. We’ll take a “non-feminist” candidate who supports the Ledbetter Act (and choice and other feminist issues) over one who doesn’t.
Also, the fact that McCain “dared” to appoint a female VP means a lot less if you believe that it was little more than an act of pandering, which reflects no real commitment at all to the issues that many woman care about.
Good points.
Except I’m not sure what I believe about McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin – except that anything can happen!
I do believe that the “fair market value” of women has just gone up. Hopefully irrevocably.
I wonder how many of McCain’s female staffers won beauty pagents…..
are you implying pretty women can’t be smart or political?
I, personally, take exception to that.