My cousin Donna and I grew up in worlds about as far apart as you can imagine. I grew up in New York, Donna in Texas. As you can imagine, my liberal leanings don’t always sit well with her but she’s a good counterpoint for me. When she asked in an e-mail what I thought about Sarah Palin I told her I just couldn’t bring myself to blog about her because my mother always taught me, “If you can’t say anything nice…”. This was her response:
Now, now, now. You can’t ignore a fellow female who is just trying to walk that thin pink line…whether she is a Democrat OR, dare I say, a Republican! Let me see, governor of the largest state in the union for 2 years versus senator from Illinois for 2 years, but that senator is running for president not v.p. You know, this is going to be the first time in decades that we are going to have a president from the senate. Having 5 kids is a lot of work, but she has a husband. It may keep her more in-tuned to the plight of the average woman, and family for that matter. In other words I think you need to recognize her on your blog, good and bad, because that’s what it’s all about.
Donna’s right. And the fact is I am glad to see a woman on at least one of the tickets. But voting for a woman was never as important to me as having the right people in office. As I walked around my office saying during the democratic campaign, “Obama, Hillary, both are OK to me. Just no more old white men.” Then Jessica made a bumper sticker for me with this same phrase. Now I get lots of honks and thumbs up. The guys at the car wash and the valets tell me they particularly like it. I also got two flat tires and am still not sure if it’s related.
TAGS: Barack Obama, democrats, republicans, Sarah Palin
In Stop Sabotaging Your Career I define career derailment as any unexpected change in career momentum. Last week we witnessed how quickly a hard-earned career can derail with one thoughtless comment made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Harvard professor, and Barack Obama advisor, Samantha Power. You may recall that during an interview Ms. Power called Hillary Clinton a “monster.” It’s not the comment I focus on today, but the career and credibility that was damaged because of an off-the-cuff remark. And this is often how derailment happens. You spend years building your reputation and watch it go up in smoke in a moment. To avoid the same fate as Ms. Power follow my maxim: Never make a presentation that you haven’t prepared for — and every time you open your mouth it’s a presentation. In other words, think once, think twice, think three times before you speak — especially if it’s with the media. A book I recommend to clients is You Are the Message by Roger Ailes.
TAGS: Barack Obama, career derailment, Communication Skills, roger ailes, samantha power
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
All the polls suggested we were more ready for an African American president than a woman. The Ohio caucuses seem to affirm that. But is it really African American vs. Female? As I’ve been suggesting for over a year, Ms. Clinton’s strident communications are not what we want from our next President. After 7 years of testerone-filled rhetoric Mr. Obama is the more appealing choice. As I often write, we live in a society where we don’t like women who act like men, nor men who act like women. Mr. Obama finely straddles the line between the two and we can see that, at least in Iowa, people respond.
Dr. Lois Frankel
TAGS: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton
