In a Los Angeles Times column, feminist leader Gloria Steinem weighs in on the selection of Sarah Palin:

Here’s the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing — the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party — are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women — and to many men too — who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the “white-male-only” sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.


But here is even better news: It won’t work. This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.



Join the conversation

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Sem Forum September 17, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    I agree with Penelope Spurr Marshall, I would like to hear the debate it would be interesting. Why is that there now is a woman in politics that solve real problems and issues for both women and men get harassed to point that it is criminal, but biden gets a pass on everything.
    Palin, finally a voice of real change that this country wants and needs

    Reply
  • Penelope Spurr Marshall September 7, 2008 at 10:08 am

    A kind friend emailed me this excellent article by Gloria Steinem. I am so upset by the McCain/Palin combo and the concern that there may be enough dumb Americans out there not to recognize the lies and distortions they are putting out – “Change” indeed! – that it makes me almost physically sick. Thank God for smart, articulate women like Gloria Steinem who can not only think straight but write persuasively. I’d like to hear her debate Sarah Palin!

    Reply