WP, pg1: To Women, So Much More Than Just a Candidate

[DeepModem Mom]

To Women, So Much More Than Just a Candidate
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 4, 2008; A01

....Although women have been the dominant force in the Democratic race, making up nearly six in 10 voters in caucuses and primaries, things have not gone the way (NOW regional director Marion) Wagner and other feminist supporters of Clinton expected. The same campaign they once celebrated as a sign of tremendous progress, with its promise of the first female president in the nation's history, has instead reinforced their impressions of gender inequity.

Clinton goes into today's crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio with her candidacy on the line, and Wagner believes it is ignorance and bigotry that undermined it. As Wagner and other NOW executives toured Ohio last week, they repeated a resounding message: Clinton has been mistreated by an opponent who subtly demeans her, by a mainstream media that ridicules her, by voters too threatened to vote for a confident woman, by young women who no longer feel the urgency of the women's movement, by African American women for whom race is more important than gender....

***

During the NOW tour across Ohio, the makeup of each audience was almost exclusively white, middle-age women, many of whom had joined the organization in the late 1960s or 1970s. NOW's infrastructure has faded in Ohio, where only a handful of cities still maintain active chapters. Nationally, the organization maintains about 500,000 members, a number that has remained fairly steady since NOW was founded in 1966. As the organization's membership ages, leaders have lowered membership fees and started chapters at colleges in an effort to attract younger women....

The organization hoped to generate excitement by endorsing Clinton, marking only the second time NOW has publicly backed a presidential candidate. NOW leaders traveled to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to campaign. The same formula they employed in Ohio was one they had relied on for months: Bring in successful women from around the country and let them answer voters' questions.

When the Akron event ended, the women helped pack up trays of uneaten snacks and cookies in the lobby. (Ohio NOW president Diane) Dodge apologized to the other leaders for the paltry attendance. But she felt confident, she said, that their message would not go unheard for long. "There are people who say, 'Your battle is over. There's no more sexism anymore,'" she said. "Well, at the very least, maybe the whole experience of this campaign will wake those people up."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/03/AR2008030302990_pf.html

[Ned_Devine]

1. E-NOUGH!

"Clinton goes into today's crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio with her candidacy on the line, and Wagner believes it is ignorance and bigotry that undermined it."

This whole campaign ahs been rife with excuses as soon as she lost the "ineviatbility" factor. For me, it has nothing to do with her gender, just everything that she represents. She's everything that I can't stand about politics

[antigop]

2. BOOHOO! Hillary has been mistreated. Will she cry today? n/t

[saltpoint]

3. It makes sense to me that feminists of any age might be interested in

Sen. Clinton's chances for the Oval Office, but there is an underlying problem with their interest.

That is, Sen. Clinton is where she is in part -- that is to say IN PART -- because she is her husband's wife.

And the small audiences these folks are drawing is of interest to "new wave" feminists because it suggests that a structure, an organization, a vivid local grassroots effort has either been attempted and fallen short over the last few decades, or wasn't undertaken in the first place.

Don't know which it is, but it seems to me that it is as sexist to vote for someone on gender as against.

And where were these folks when Carol Moseley-Braun ran in 2004? There was a woman whose husband was not a public relations bonus for her Senate campaign in Illinois. Not much visible national support for her from the same people currently hawking the Clinton brand.

[antigop]

6. EXACTLY! Where were they? n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. good point about Moseley-Braun

She piqued my interest when she first announced, but I found her ideas and plans for running the country not as good as other candidates. I simply cannot vote for someone based solely upon gender or color. Ideas and issues are far more important.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. I don't think bigotry and ignorance were the main factors

though I am sure that there is some of both around. No, from what I have observed, her campaign was poorly managed and lacked the personal touch and organization of Obama. And she also has the Clinton legacy as a handicap. I've heard many folks who want someone other than a Bush or a Clinton to be President.

[antigop]

8. Also...she has a DLC leadership position. n/t

[antigop]

9. I would also add her sense of entitlement and being shoved down our throats n/t

[tabatha]

5. "Clinton has been mistreated by an opponent who subtly demeans her"

How, when?

[OhioBlue]

10. What a bunch of B.S.

As a woman, I'm not voting for Hillary because she is a poor candidate. She ran a poor race.

Her campaign tactics have become what I despise.

She voted for IWR and she became uber hawkish. She is selfish.

[Frances]

11. What people forget or are too young to know

is that feminists were always a small minority of women.

All women have benefitted from what the feminists achieved in terms of economic and educational opportunities, but only a small percentage of women fought for those gains.

I remember when my husband and I wanted to buy a house; only his salary could be considered when we applied for a mortgage.

When I got pregnant, I had to resign my teaching job as soon as I "showed." I could not return to teaching until my youngest child was two years old.

A friend applied to Harvard to get an advanced degree in English, but the English department had a quota for women: 2 (two) percent of those accepted could be women.

I will support Obama if he is the nominee, but I do think women should be careful about stereotyping Hillary.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Thank you for your nod to these women, feminists, who now are, it seems, part of our past.

All women owe them a debt of gratitude. I, too, support Obama, but cannot find it in my heart to villify the first woman ever to come within reach of the Presidency.

[Frances]

13. I appreciate your thoughtful post

The rights that we women currently enjoy could disappear; we need to be vigilant.

I agree that the men who returned from fighting in World War II deserved to get good jobs, but unfortunately, women lost the good factory jobs they had while the men were away.