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Judy Smith - April 18, 2008
Sexual Politics
My, sexual politics seems to be all the thing this spring in power circles. That\'s not to say it isn\'t regularly with us, but the level and intensity seems elevated at the moment. Maybe that\'s because women are finally out in the center of the stage in ways they really haven\'t been, at least as I know history.
One of the theories about social change that I\'ve always remembered notes that old prejudices and stereotypes often lay beneath the surface until power actually does begin to shift. Then as the relationships start to change those prejudices and stereotypes leap into view-often totally unexamined mockery or derision, sometimes violent denial.
I remember those days in the late 60\'s on college campuses when women students began claiming space and power; there were too few women faculty to really rally with us. We got the usual “women can\'t do” arguments- “can\'t do science”, “can\'t play handball” in my case, which of course made me more determined than ever. Or the “women are too emotional to be heads of things”, or “women choose to stay home and have kids rather than compete in the career track”.
When these arguments didn\'t deter us, we got hostile remarks , even threats of violence, and sometimes more than threats. Then things calmed down-not that everything changed but now there are women\'s centers, larger numbers of women faculty and even a majority of women students and that changes the environment in many ways. The arguments had to get more subtle and sophisticated- not enough qualified women as opposed to women can\'t do the work.
Now some 40 years later these remarks have risen in volume again. This time the women they are directed at aren\'t just wanting equal uniforms or practice times, or access to faculty positions. Women are in positions of national power and the not so new version of the arguments are women don\'t have what it takes to be commander in chief, or they should be home ironing shirts instead of making decisions about the future of the country.
That one really struck me; some guy telling Hillary Clinton at a presidential campaign speech: “iron my shirts”. I remember my mom doing that; as I watched her I was really sure I would never do it. Obviously the guy who yelled it out thought it was something he should never have to do either.
Some other recent examples: the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero announces his new cabinet- 8 men; 9 women. After winning his second 4 year term Mr. Zapatero named women\'s issues as his priority, put women as head of Science and Innovation, Development, Housing, Sport, Environment, Public Administration and, yes, Defense. He also created a new Equality Ministry, to promote opportunities for women in Spain, address violence against women and combat “criminal machismo”. His term.
Of course what grabbed the most attention- I heard about it on the radio and in the newspapers-was the fact that the new Defense minister is 7 months pregnant and reviewed her troops wearing a maternity outfit that showed it. She is a law professor and the former minister of housing and is pledging to boost the number of women in Spain\'s armed forces that is part of NATO\'s engagement in Afghanistan.
All this was too much for the recently re-elected Italian Prime Minister, Bertulusconi, who chided Zapatero publically “for forming a government that is, in my opinion, too pink.” Bertulusconi only had 4 women out of 12 ministers in his new government.
Magdelena Alvarez, the Development minister, responded: “many of us women would refuse to work for a government that had Mr Bertulusconi as prime minister.” This really is an old exchange but in new territory.
Michelle Bachelet, the President of Chile, has also set up gender parity in her government. As she says: “I am a woman, a Socialist, separated and agnostic.” Gender was a large issue in Bachelet’s political campaign and, if anything, has loomed larger in her administration. According to a NYT reporter “It seemed to me, after only a few days in Chile, that the longer people had to complain about Bachelet, the likelier it was that the gender issue would come up.” Bachelet reports that “women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past — a past of sexism, of misogyny.” However it is increasingly common to hear Bachelet’s critics identify her with failings that men conventionally impute to women in politics — indecisiveness and the like.” Sounds familiar.
She decided to distribute emergency contraception pills to women of all income levels because poor women, and there are a lot of them in Chile, can not afford to leave the country to get abortions and so the death rate for illegal back alley varieties is high. Her government sent pills to be distributed in public clinics, but all this was too much for conservative male municipal leaders who have refused to distribute the pills, and a group of right wing legislators who sued to block her in the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal.
On April 4th the Constitutional Court declared the distribution of the emergency contraceptive pill in public health centers illegal. The ruling did not ban its sale in pharmacies and did not address other contraceptive measures.
“I deeply regret the ruling in a country that aspires to be in the big leagues, where people have equal opportunities for health, education and development,” Bachelet said. “This is a wound to the building of a more equal society.” She underlined that the decision affects the poorest women who cannot afford to buy the pill in pharmacies.
Of course it\'s not only the presence of women in national power positions that causes conservative prejudices and stereotypes to rise up but also the policies they put in place to address the needs of women. I find myself in sympathy with Susan B Anthony more and more as the years go by. She was a suffragist leader who worked all her life for the vote for women but didn\'t live to see it happen.
Last night as I was walking home after a community event with my sister. We were talking about whether we would see abortion treated as just a normal medical procedure, or a woman as president, in our lifetimes. In the late 60\'s we would have laughed at this conversation. We knew these things were coming because our movement would make them happen. Now we watch change happening for women in all parts of the world- we see the commitment to equality and opportunity in much of Europe and growing in Latin America and we wonder, given the misogyny in this election campaign, when we will have a return to that commitment here.
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Over the next two years the Montana Public Radio News Department will be presenting regular feature stories about issues of poverty in Montana. This project is made possible with a two-year, $78,500 grant from the Northwest Area Foundation. The funding will enable Montana Public Radio to add a half-time reporter to its staff for the duration of the project, as well as cover costs for field recording equipment and travel throughout western and central Montana. News Director Sally Mauk says, “I’m excited about the project and the opportunity to get our news staff out to many Montana communities to report on such an important and timely topic.”
The Northwest Area Foundation approached Montana Public Radio with this opportunity for funding coverage of poverty issues, after beginning successful projects with Minnesota Public Radio and Seattle’s KUOW last year. The Northwest Area Foundation’s mission is to help communities in an eight-state region (including Montana) reduce poverty. www.nwaf.org.
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