Backslapped — We’re 75% Responsible
You’re right about the need for women leaders, Lois. Absolutely! And keep wearing that cap! Most women want a woman to be president someday and Hillary is as close as we’ll come for a very long time. Even if people don’t like her or prefer Obama, the attacks on her by the media are familiar to women. Young, nonthreatening women experience these less. But their day will come. As we’ve seen in the Democratic nomination process, it’s considered acceptable to berate women for what they wear, a hairstyle, their body size, body shape, and so on. I used to teach with Betty Friedan. She’d be up in arms right now with how far back women have been slapped by the current Democratic race. And what has Howard Dean had to say about it. Nothing! How about the other supposedly admirable Democrats? Quiet as church mice. Why? Because it’s working for them.
I’ve written in my books that we’re all at least 75% responsible for how people treat us. If we let ourselves be overlooked, patronized, dismissed, interrupted, and so on, we’re telling people it’s fine to keep doing so.
Is it fine for men to interrupt and talk over women, as Tim Russert and Brian Williams did repeatedly to Hillary Clinton the other night during the “debate”? In fact, research indicates that women are interrupted far more often. If women don’t decry such actions, we’ll all be seeing a lot more of them.
Barack Obama is an impressive man. But he is getting a free ride compared to Hillary Clinton. And many of us have seen that far too often to not recognize it. We won’t have enough women leaders until women as a group insist that we be criticized on substantive issues — the same ones used when judging men. When smirking and laughing together as Obama, Williams and Russert did when Hillary refused to be silenced wasn’t met with the same reactions when Barack went on and on, there’s a double standard. The longer that continues, the fewer women we’ll see in high places. Men will take these affronts as green lights to do the same at work. And of this I’m sure: Insults that come around and go unchallenged, come around again.
TAGS: Barack Obama, Betty Friedan, debate, Hillary Clinton, Tim Russert, women leaders
Kathleen - I agree. We should keep noticing when those in the news use their bully platform to engage in behavior that further compounds the confusion over very important issues.
And when behavior like that happens in our offices, we should notice that too then figure out how to support one another. Discussing ideas is what makes our country - and our companies - great.
Comment by Carol Frohlinger, JD — March 2, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
I agree also. I will give many people the benefit of the doubt that they do not realize that they are interrupting but unless we point out the issue, it will continue to happen. I applauded Hillary for commenting on the fact that she has been given the first question more often than not and, although she did not say this, harder questions. Tim Russett might not see it that way, but the viewers did. I also think the fact that she pressed Brian Williams to continue the health care debate also showed that she is not going to back down. We should all learn a lesson.
Comment by carolyn — March 2, 2008 @ 5:09 pm