Shhhh. Don’t tell. But we just witnessed a historic moment…
What? Oh, you want to grin or applaud and not be hushed?
Consider this headline, commentary in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s nomination: “When Women Win, Everyone Wins.”
So what do you think?
I suppose this sentiment dovetails nicely with “Women’s rights are human rights,” though I can’t say I care for this pop culture favorite: “Happy wife, happy life.”
But first things first… The political glass ceiling, the glass ceiling for women in general, and this Times opinion piece on the subject by Nicholas Kristof.
Addtessing his own sex through a presumed stereotypical lens, Kristof writes:
Should men applaud that another barrier has fallen so that our world is more fair and equitable? Or should we fret that when women win, we lose — that soon we’ll have to give up grunting and football games for putting down toilet seats and talking about our “feelings”?
I confess… I know plenty of non-grunting, emotion-articulating, non pigskin-worshipping men that would be irked and offended by that gender generalization. But let’s continue.
Noting that many women were seen celebrating at last week’s Democratic National Convention, Kristof wonders if men are (secretly?) put off by this historic milestone.
Speaking purely anecdotally, I know my two Millennial sons think gender is a non-issue, but qualifications and experience are; the (very) non-neanderthal men I know — 50-somethings and 60-somethings — likewise.
However, I hang with an enlightened (and yes, rather liberal) crowd.
Kristof writes:
Democratic strategists also worry, rightly I think, that the giddy enthusiasm for gender progress may turn off men. Already, Donald Trump has a huge lead among white men with no college degree, and that’s the reason the overall polls are close.
But…
… a lesson of history is that when women advance, humanity advances.
Kristof wants to allay their concerns. You know, with facts.
He makes points about public health gains when women vote, and those gains help boys and men as well as girls and women. He tells us that women are more likely to report domestic abuse when communities hire more female police officers. And this means fewer related deaths.
And we’ve seen references to study data that reflect that mixed gender teams in business outperform single sex teams — male or female.
The following is of particular note to me, and I suspect to millions of others who have known the disorientation and worry of being laid off — an especially precarious situation when you find yourself over 50 and unemployed.
Scholars have also found that female-owned businesses (and companies abroad with more women on the boards) were less likely than male-owned businesses to lay off employees during the Great Recession. This hurt short-term profits but may have been worth it to sustain morale and retain talent…
There’s more…
Whatever your politics in this election, I urge you to read the article in its entirety.
You May Also Enjoy
like 🙂
WILL DO!
I agree wholeheartedly. Women bring new dimensions to our political discourse. There have been various strategies for approaching the glass ceiling. We have seen some Republican women emulating the testosterone driven politics of their party by trying to be more hawkish, more tax-cutting, more tough-on-crime, more tough-on-gays, tough-on-welfare, (and just about everything else) in order to rise in competition for nominations and office. I hope it is a mild and temporary deformity and will settle down and go away as women hold power at the highest level and begin to change the policy conversation.
One day maybe it will again be OK, even for Republican women, to sing Kumbaya and think of a diverse and inclusive politics as normal and good. But this new breed of politicians needs to make room for that white, male demographic in the list of “identities” they work for. If they do not, the older, less educated white males will gather around whoever offers them comfort and they will not require sophistication and good will of them — hence, Trump.
I hope to see HRC offering them an embrace that recognizes their real needs rather than simply ignoring them and leaving them to someone else who will look for those itches that are so much easier to scratch: nationalism, racism, sexism and anti-intellectualism. They may not vote for her in 2016 but now is the time to establish the groundwork for other campaigns and the pathway for taking back the congressional seats that will be required for the kind of change that that America needs.
I’m with her. But I want her to remember that these men who are hurting have real issues that need to be addressed. A better future will come along sooner if she “has their back” in real ways that will show the snake oil for what it is. Trump is a pretty easy target but she needs to do more than simply expose him. I am convinced that she will. She is smart enough to know it.
For at least the forty years of my adulthood, many, many people have been making the point, publicly and privately, that when women win, men win, too. It is so obvious a point that it should not even have to be made. But I appreciate, as always, what Mr. Kristhof has to say (and that he says it). Thank you for bringing his essay to the attention of your readers.
:
I highly recommend the documentary on Netflix called The Ascent of Woman. I just watched it and my eyes feel like they are opening.