People I know are talking about this column by Gloria Steinem. I’d like to know your thoughts about Steinem’s piece in the New York Times and about the role that gender is playing in the current presidential election. Please provide a thoughtful response, and you’ll receive extra credit in return. (Just to be clear, you should respond to the “this column” link and not the “Gloria Steinem” link, which will take you a Wikipedia entry.)
The Woman Question
January 9th, 2008 | extra credit |
6 comments ↓
Steinem brings up an interesting point in comparing sexism to racism. Both were and still are (sometimes) described as human “nature,” and the country at least tries to make a point of attempting equality between the sexes, but the fact of the matter is that it will take more than a few decades for the males of this country to get over themselves. Even those (men) who enslaved African Americans still preferred for their former slaves to receive the right to vote before their white wives. With this truth, I can only think of one thing. Personally, I do not believe the country-let alone the world-is ready for a female president. As I stated in class (something I can’t quite explain clearly), even if the country was ready for a woman president, I don’t believe that Clinton, with her family’s background, is the strongest candidate. Steinem states that she supports Hillary Clinton. I find it interesting that Steinem is willing to support a female even after she has already explicitly brought to light the views of the majority of American males, if not females as well; going back to the suffragist movement, we see that black males won the right to vote before any females did. Because of this, I believe that the country would more readily elect a black male to the presidency before any female. My support doesn’t lie with any one candidate at this time, and as a female I’m not trying to be sexist against my own sex, but I truly do believe that the US is not ready for a female leader. And Steinem shouldn’t have mentioned black males being allowed to vote before white females, because it is a blatant contradiction to her support of Clinton.
Gloria Steinem very accurately states my feelings on the issue of female presidency. I think it is high time that a woman became president, but I think we need to question our reasons for electing Hillary Clinton if we do because we need to elect a woman for her own merit- not because we think it is the right thing to do. She voices a compelling argument about what we needed to do if we are going to elect Hillary Clinton because of who she is instead of what gender she is- we need to think about our country and the stereotypes we put on men and women. She includes Obama in her argument because she (and I do too) feels that race needs to be tackled with gender issues- neither one will disappear until the other one does. I think a step in this direction could occur if we elected Clinton or Obama for solely their political achievements, took notice of their characters, but did not focus on their skin color or gender. I am not naive to believe that these things will not weigh in on the elections, but we need to be reasonable enough to see past the outside. As Steinem says at the end of her article- we simply need to elect some one for their past actions.
I think gender is going to play a huge part in the 2008 election, even though I agree with Steinmen in that it should be overlooked and a person’s ability and experinece ought to be what matter. The truth is feminists and those who support feminist causes will want to see a woman in power. I as a young woman think it would be good to have someone from OUR sex in power, but do I really want Hillary Clinton to be the first person to represent us, no. On the other hand I do not want someone with hardly any political experience either. I think if Steinmen is basing her vote on her belief of Hillary’s courage and talent, and thus thinks HIllary is the most able candidate, then by all means she should cast her vote for Clinton. As Steinmen says herself: “This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees.” This is a similar argument to Romney, I believe voters should not disregard him based on his religion. Well, I agree with Steinman in that simply because a candidate is a female is not a reason she should be elected.
This article was very interesting to me. Steinem is talking about the election in that two of the front runners are both from a minority group; blacks and women. All of the previous Presidents have been white males and now the world is ready for a change. Steinem says that in her opinion women are even more stereotyped than black men because men see women as their mothers and this makes them see them as nurturing and not capable of running their country. I agree with this point, I think that Obama, a black male, would be President over Hillary, a white female. Our country is not ready to have a women lead it. Men are not comfortable with this idea and though women have made a lot of strides in feminist rights, men still see them at times as subordinate and not as strong as men. White men would rather see a black man be President than a white women because they can identify with the man more and they see them as similar to themselves in most ways. Steinem is discussing the interesting point of why women are seen as subordinate, which is a very good question considering it is now 2008 and we still have not had our first woman President.
Gloria Steinem makes valid points on the issue of racism and sexism. However, I do not think that our country is ready for a female president, like Hilary Clinton. I believe that a black male will become president before a woman because blacks won the right to vote before women did. Also men are more likely to associate to a black man’s masculinity. But like she said, their election can only be possible if their followers unite and not divide. I also believe in what Steinem says about choosing the candidate not just because they are a different race or a female, but that they are well qualified for the job. This point is why I disagree with Clinton trying to pull the gender card. I know that people will be biased with their votes and that gender and race will affect the election but I am optimistic that soon people will be ready and willing to look beyond these differences.
In Gloria Steinem’s article she provides a interesting analysis of the coming up election, especially of the two potential democratic candidates, Obama and Clinton. This election is unique because there is both a woman candidate and an African American candidate competing in the election. Steinem points out how women are still placed below African Americans. African Americans have come a long way in gaining respect in the political world, however the same can not be said for women. This seems to be a re-occurring theme in history. Prior to the Civil war the issue of woman’s rights was placed behind the issue of rights for African Americans. I am not saying that was wrong, I just believe that they both deserved their rights equally and just as the blacks were considered more insignificant than whites, women were and still are considered insignificant to men. I think Clinton’s campaign and success in New Hampshire has made progress for the role of women in American politics, and I only hope that women can continue to play a large role in politics and gain more respect in the political world.
Leave a Comment