Nancy Pelosi Praying For Hillary Clinton To Run?

Cynthia Ruccia



So Nancy Pelosi is praying for Hillary to run for president? Please excuse me while I remove myself to go and upchuck my breakfast!!!

I know I haven't written for awhile. I just haven't had much to say that would add anything new to this conversation of the past 5 years. I've even considered closing down my blog activities. However, I know that that is just empty talk because the future most certainly holds fodder for me and you!!

I am soooooo very sorry that I feel miserable about the first female ever to be Speaker of the U.S.
House. In the beginning I was really proud of her and excited what her new position meant for women. However, when the events of the 2008 Democratic Presidential primary elections erupted, everything changed in that regard for many of us.

You see, Pelosi not only didn't support Hillary, another woman who could have been at the top for the first time, she actively undermined her candidacy. I know, I know-----the facts show that Pelosi remained "neutral" in the primary. That alone, for a woman who supposedly prides herself on doing all she can to promote women, was a weak and imo cowardly move. She should have been front and center for Hillary, protocol be damned. But then when she was in a position to put her finger on the scale, she tilted it toward Barack Obama, ending forever any pretense that she was nothing more than an opportunistic politician.

To me she is emblematic of a certain kind of Democrat, one who is sweeping the sexism of 2008 under the rug. She also is sweeping the slimy, shady practices under the rug of how the DNC disgraced itself (she was a superdelegate in a powerful position to speak up) in choosing the winner of that particular primary. The DNC did all of the things that it bitterly criticized the U.S. Supreme Court of doing in Bush V Gore. But I digress.

These types of Democrats never could completely rid their consciences of their hypocrisy in standing behind their party while it committed these heinous acts. They could never quite rid themselves of their nagging guilt that maybe those of us who protested against these practices had a very legitimate case and maybe were right and they were wrong. So what are they doing now? :Praying to God that Hillary will run for president!!!! Puhleeze------too little too late.

I know that many who read my blog are disgusted with Hillary and wouldn't support her in another run for president. And honestly, those who feel that way make my point. Maybe, even though she's supposedly at the top of the polls, maybe just maybe Hillary's moment has passed. It was soooooo thoughtless, shortsighted, and stupid to assume in 2008 that "we will elect Obama this time and Hillary next time." If I had $5 for every time someone mouthed that twisted line of reasoning to me in the form of a platitude in 2008 I'd be a bazillionaire. What garbage!!!! The reality is that who can ever assume what the future will hold? No one used that reasoning about Obama. All I ever heard is that the reason he ran is that his moment had arrived and he needed to take advantage of it. But the very same people who bought into this piece of rhetoric completely abandoned this logic when it came to Hillary.

A new poll came out this past week showing that at last Americans are ready to elect a woman president. We shall see. It is just as plausible that Hillary won't run as if she will. The female bench, contrary to popular opinion, is weak on the Democratic side. It is actually better on the Republican side. We'll see if those same people who are ready to elect a woman really mean what they say. I believe that there were alot of guilty consciences who responded to that poll. We'll see how far a guilty conscience will get you.......

Get Ready For The Sexism Fest

Cynthia Ruccia



Well like the title says, gird yourself and get ready for the sexism fest to pick up where it left off if Hillary Clinton decides to run for president again. I am under no illusions that anything has changed. If anything, our culture has become so crude that no boundary to sexism expressed exists anymore. If 2008 proved anything, it was that there is no shame in expressing sexism ------no shame in any way. And an HRC candidacy in 2016 will only illustrate that point once again. If anything, I expect that the sexism will be even WORSE this time around.

I don't mean to repeat all that Anita Finlay wrote yesterday in this splendid piece on the very same subject. She certainly wrote it better than  I could, but it bears repeating that we must prepare ourselves for the worst. In 2008 when the vile sexism started to run amok, we were frozen in place in disbelief. It seemed impossible that in our modern times in 2007--2008 that the expression of sexism would go unchallenged. But for all practical purposes, unchallenged it was. Worse, there are plenty of self described "feminist pro women supporters" who still have their heads in the sand that it ever happened at all.

I want to see a woman president more than just about anything as far as women's advancement goes. It is at the very top of my feminism wish list. I ascribe, as I have often said, to former President of Chile Michelle Bachelet's sentiment that nothing did more for the women of her country than having a woman president----no law, no demonstration, no protest, nothing. (As a side note---it's looking like Bachelet, who stepped down from the presidency in 2010, is going to make another go of it!!).

At any rate, I tend to agree with Bachelet. A woman president would shatter a bunch of myths, belief systems, and cultural conditioning about women. It won't by any measure shatter all of it, but it would be a landmark event for all women regardless of political persuasion. That old saw that if you keep doing the same thing over and over you will keep getting what you've been getting over and over is true. And we may be finally ready to have that conversation started about what we need to do to break the logjam women are in,  illustrated even these last few weeks by the profusion of articles and discussion about why women's progess is frozen. At least people are waking up to the fact that women run little in this country. The head-in-the-sand thing has been one of the least attractive traits of the "pro-woman" crowd of late. I for one am happy to see that this conversation may have some staying power wherever it leads us.

I really hope Hillary Clinton runs and I will feel highly dramatically let down if she doesn't. Her whole life has been leading up to this moment of her being president. Why would she walk away from it NOW when all the winds are finally at her back? I do believe that once she regains herself after her pause to rest and reflect, she will come to the same conclusion, age be damned. It would be hard to resist it in the position she is in, a national icon of sorts, the most qualified women ever. It will be said that the inevitability factor existed last time around, but it is of an entirely different magnitude this time.

For the four million of us who left the Democratic Party as a result of the sexism in 2008, this will NOT be a repeat kind of sexism because the sexism will be ramped up in quarters where we've been hanging out. Get ready for the vicious sexism to come from the Republicans if HRC is the nominee. It will be really bad. The place where we anchored for a bit will become repugnant. Worse, we will FINALLY see the Democrats stand up against it, and for those of us in the 4 million, that too will be repugnant. Where the hell were they in 2008?

We will be in the unenviable position of looking not so enthusiastic because of the disorientation that the above events will inevitably produce within us. I can see it now as clear as day, being told over and over again "but I thought that this is what you wanted---if not, what was your protest all about?" as a reaction to my appearing lukewarm to an HRC candidacy.

Let me say this again, I want a woman president RIGHT NOW. Let it be Hillary. I understand that she has been tainted in the eyes of many by her association with Obama. That affiliation includes people's upset about the Benghazi debacle. I feel upset about those things too. I pulled out all of the stops and went all out eventually to work for HRC in 2008. I'm not sure I can see myself doing that again at this point. My principle hangup is that I will have to work side by side with the same people who heralded the age of Obama and swept the sexism under the rug. My second hang up is that I will have to side with people who still think that Obama is a god, and I don't have the tolerance to deal with that approach. It just infuriates me.

But once the sexism spew begins in earnest, I'm sure that that will bug me even more, and I will once again be called to do my part to fight it. But this time around, I'll be less Pollyanna-ish about it. It's coming, and it will be awful. And I guess I'm going to just have to steel myself.........

A Healthy Conversation

Cynthia Ruccia



It has been refreshing reading, hearing, and listening to the conversations sprouting up all over the place around the topic of why women aren't making it to the top. Although some of the explosion in the topic is due to Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In, it is also the result of people like us trumpeting this problem all of the time all over the place over the course of the past 5 years. It could be said that this conversation----the one we FINALLY seem to be having at long last hallelujah------is the direct result of the 2008 presidential election and the sexism circus surrounding Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. It was so painfully obvious in that election season that women still faced daunting obstacles reaching the pinnacle of power in proportion to our numbers. It was so painful, that conversation, that major forces worked hard to sweep it under the rug as if it never happened. Many thanks to the wonderful women who catalogued the offenses in film (there are two excellent films from that time in the right column on this blog), on paper (read Anita Finlay's book also referenced on the right), and on many blogs including this one. Read through Women Win Too's archives-----you will find alot of discussion and documentation of why women aren't making it to the top.

One of the most refreshing parts of the current conversation is that it has transcended politics. Woo hoo!! FINALLY women and men are having this conversation without partisanship mucking everything up. The topic of why women aren't ascending to the top, as we have been stating for years, is a subject that cuts through party lines. Women of both parties are failing to make it to the top, and it has little to nothing to do with abortion and other such bogus themes. The common idea in just about everything I've read is that the real reasons we are failing to rise are tantamount to the REAL war on women------unfriendly workplaces, inability of women to toot their own horns, the list really goes on and on.

So this conversation is enjoined by women of all political persuasions and how wonderful to be having such a conversation!!!! How will we ever solve this problem if we don't join hands those of us who feel that women rising to the top in proportion to our numbers is important?

One sad piece of this conversation is the blowback from women who seem to be so consumed by envy that they can't appreciate the advice from those who HAVE arrived. The tomatoes thrown by those who say that the advice of a Sheryl Sandberg has little relevance to women who will never make it to the top is really shortsighted imo. It is hard to watch the bitchy whining about how she has money and can pay for everything the rest of us can't. Well really people------why shouldn't a woman at the top be paid like the men at the top? It would be wrong any other way. Fact is, when there are more women at the top, especially in numbers proportional to our actual numbers, life could get easier for ALL women in the workplace in substantive ways, a topic for a blog post all its own. We've got to cheer those women on who break through and make it to the top----bravo to them!!!! They won't all be great people who do great things, but it certainly will be better than an all male workplace----better for the men too. I say BRING THE WOMEN ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read a piece today about why women's gains in academia haven't translated into gains in the workplace by Garance Franke-Ruta. I'm not an academic---I'm a businesswoman. I don't so research, and it was really nice to read this piece from someone who has done that particular legwork. I remember being interviewed by this writer in 2008 or so when she worked at the Washington Post. She called me half an hour before her deadline, and the interview was memorable for the fact that she sounded weary, rude, and completely uninterested in the topic of sexism in the election and its consequences. I just assumed she was having a bad day and was writing about our protest against the sexism because  everyone else was. I certainly was unable to pique any interest whatsoever in the topic at hand, and in those days, my phone was ringing off the hook with interview requests. So I was shocked to see such an excellent and in-depth piece about why women aren't making it to the top in spite of their dominance in universities. It's a thought provoking read.....

We need for all of these women who are inclined to speak up to do just that. Every one of them is contributing to fleshing out the full picture as to why women have so completely stalled out. I'll continue to write and talk about all of it because that is my particular contribution. I am like that dog who grabs on to your pant leg and won't let go. I am loud, and if it is something I believe in, I won't stop until either the solution is found or I am six feet under. I've been fighting this thing for over 40 years, and we've made some progress. But there is much more to be done until the dream is realized, that dream of women leading with their own particular brand of leadership. Sure there are women whose style isn't likeable. But that doesn't mean women shouldn't be rising. If anything it is proof that MORE women should be rising.

At any rate, it is just really really gratifying to watch this conversation take place. Let's keep it going.....

The Hoopla Around Sheryl Sandberg's Book

Cynthia Ruccia



Ok----I haven't even READ the book. I meant to read it. I intended to download it into my kindle and stay up all night Monday to read it. And then I meant to write about it on Tuesday. Clearly none of that happened as I got too busy with other things.

However that hasn't stopped me from being inundated with comments about the book and reading much of what has been written about it both online and beyond. Sad to say, once more a woman has stuck her neck out and is paying the price for it. Now I don't mean to sound whiny about this. As Harry Truman famously said, if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. And he is correct.

But beyond the normal criticism of anything there remains about the criticism of Sandberg and her book more of the "Women Are Their Own Worst Enemy" syndrome mentioned in my last piece. I believe she is receiving the same blowback that Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and other women often receive who deign to stick their necks out, raise the standards, and simply get too uppity for people to deal with.

I work with all women and have for the past 30 years. I am the boss, not in the classical sense, but enough so that I can claim it. At any given time, my organization has had 150 women in it more or less. I have had experience working with women. And even though I haven't read Lean In, much of what I have read about the claims Sandberg makes about why women aren't rising to the top I agree with. The bottom line on that issue is that we are having to invent this new role for women, that of the boss and hopefully in large numbers, and we haven't figured it out yet.

Sandberg apparently puts out there that women don't always have the real expectation of success and therefore don't always know to do the right things to get there. We've lived in a world where the underlying theme is that men are hard wired to lead and women aren't. That fact alone is fact, not a whine about the patriarchy. And as such, if you are imbued with the worldwide cultural meme that women aren't cut out to lead, how in the world will we ever grow the idea after thousands of years of being taught otherwise? THAT is the dilemma women face and having worked with women for many years to encourage them to spread their wings, fly, and become all they are capable of being, I know a thing or two about the cultural conditioning and obstacles women face in getting there.

I was commenting to a friend this morning that the way women tear each other down is different from the way men do it. The men go after each other to establish who is going to be the top dog. In doing so, it becomes a tactical game so that at least the loser can admire the strategy that the winner used.

For women it is something else entirely. I repeat----there will always be criticism when one puts themselves out there-----always. It goes with the turf. Women are faced with a many edged sword. They can choose to play the man's game. Many times the women are oblivious to the man's game and they automatically lose by not playing. But add to that the crazy way women can't handle someone who raises the bar, and it becomes well nigh impossible for hardly anyone to thread that needle.

For women, we are often overcome with jealousy when someone else gets the golden ring. The behavior that this brings out is unique to each person, but we can't deny it exists. I have often believed that the knee jerk, visceral reactions from women are a result of having to share a very small pie and by being disempowered. The ways to deal with this state of affairs are passed down from generation to generation, and these coping strategies are the strategies of the powerless. It is hard to cheer someone on and honor their achievements when there is only one achievement to be had and she has it and you never will and it all seems so unfair. So we become our own worst enemy.

I have watched amazing women go down when they stick their neck out. The list starts with Hillary Clinton, continues on with Sarah Palin, Carly Fiorina, and you can add on your own favorites to this list. The blowback is now happening to Sheryl Sandberg. I honestly have enjoyed reading many of the criticisms of her book. And while some of it is perfectly legitimate, a good portion of it is mean and catty, the lamentations of the powerless. We are NOT so powerless ladies, not at all. We must find a way to encourage each other. "Praise people to success" as my mentor Mary Kay Ash put it. We've got so many obstacles facing us, why add on more? Can't wait to read Lean In!!!!!!!

Women Are Our Own Worst Enemy

Cynthia Ruccia



I've had it-----really had it. What is the problem that women can't support women-----at all???? I get that we can't support every single women. I have conceded the point that there are just some women that we can't get behind. But seriously----where does one draw the line? Do we support no women on principle? HUH???????

I have awakened this morning to the news that the California chapter of NOW is not endorsing the woman in the L.A. mayoral race. Read about it here. There is a perfectly wonderful woman, two in fact, who are running for mayor. The organization's statement said that the man had a better track record supporting women. This group also supported Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008.

I've been also reading this week about Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's decision to end working at home in her company and also about Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's new book Lean In about things we need to do to get more women to the top. Read more about Mayer here, here, and here, and Sandberg here and here.

I'm linking all of these things together because a trend emerges bright as day, a trend that has always been there. This trend is when women sharpen their knives to take down anyone who raises the bar and tries to get ahead. I have written several times about how we women often sabotage our own efforts to get to the top, and this week we have now seen this whole syndrome illustrated in neon. We need to do some deep soul searching and quickly to stop ourselves from this act of self immolation.

I'm no psychologist, pop or otherwise. I've read theories as to why women are often our own worst enemies. Google "Why women are their own worst enemy" and you get 5.3+ million entries, many of them right on the mark identifying the problem better than I can. I am however, a results oriented person and I am very persistent and stubborn working toward goals I pursue. And I can tell you that this trait in women is seriously hurting us.

If one is really interested in breaking glass ceilings and getting women into power for real, there is simply no justification for not making a supreme effort to support as many women as possible. This knee jerk reaction to take women down, whatever its cause, is simply doing us in for two main reasons.

First of all, when the people in charge who make top management decisions, mostly men, see that we women can't agree on anything, it gives them less reason to pick women to lead. If also provides the perfect cover for NOT picking women CEO's.

But the second reason that ends up kicking us to the curb every single time is that the media LOVE a good cat fight. I am reminded in every media training I ever had being warned constantly about the fact that "the media is not your friend." It is soooooo true when it comes to women. As long as we women have the long knives out to punish any women who tries to get to the top, the media will caricature us forever. We play right into their own ugly, not so subliminal meme that women can't get their act together and so the glass ceilings shouldn't be broken until we do. And I might that the media doesn't have such a hot record for promoting its women either.

Well in that regard the meme is right!!!!We women don't have our act together-----not by a long shot. But I am of the opinion that we women can do better than we are doing and we can overcome some of our own deeply rooted hesitancy and even hostility towards supporting women who aspire to the top. We need to stop being jealous and resentful. Sure we can't support every woman, but we don't need to take down EVERY woman just because of our own insecurities. How in the world will women ever rise without some solidarity from our own ranks? This week showed me more clearly than ever that women haven't advanced in great numbers to the top because in the face of all other obstacles, and they too are considerable, we fail to do any of the work to help ourselves. Once we decide to empower ourselves to help one another, well, maybe things will stop being so frustrating and we will hear that wonderful sound of shattering glass----in spades.

What I Have Grown To Believe (Or Maybe Have Always Believed)

Cynthia Ruccia



(H/T myiq2xu at The Crawdad Hole for the photo)

This piece has been banging around in my head for awhile. I've not written much lately because frankly, everything has seemed stale. It might just be post election letdown or something. But it seems more like stasis-----nothing changing, the same old same old volleys back and forth with nothing of importance to me being addressed.

I read this piece yesterday in The New York Times about the fact that gender equality has stalled, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Was it going to be a rehash of the ubiquitous "war on women?" (more on that "war" later)? Or maybe someone with a bigger megaphone than I was actually going to address the real fact that women have stalled, are holding little power anywhere, and what we can do about it. The piece was given top billing in the opinion section, so I thought that we might be off to a good start on this topic. It was well written with lots of examples, anecdotal, historical, and research results, of how women have stalled. Ultimately, Stephanie Coontz, the author, came to the conclusion that the stalling out was because our workplace is so unfriendly to women and families. Point well taken and so true. She also hinted that what will change it wasn't going to be government intervention but a groundswell of support toward better conditions. I also agree. But I was quite disappointed that there was no mention of the fact that women still run maybe 3.6% of companies, and until there are more women at the top, these issues stand little chance of being resolved. Why? Because only people who have the actual power to change things can make these changes. Perhaps there is a little of the chicken and egg effect here as well. But it was refreshing to see that at least the author didn't drone on and on about getting some kind of bill passed to remedy things. That solution is DOA.

So back to my premise, what is it I've grown to believe politically? I've had almost 5 years now where my relationship with a political party has been severed, and I've had all of this time to deprogram myself and really observe what the two parties are up to. Unlike some, I actually read daily both the left and the right wing press. I watch both of their stations and listen to both on the radio and internet, although sometimes it is hard to do. I think that people who don't pay attention to both sides risk having their minds taken over by storylines, memes, and such and can easily slide into becoming automatons of one side so that they won't have to think for themselves. It is a lazy way to be IMHO. And it is dangerous IMHO. We humans are wont to fall into that pattern and historically it never comes to a good end.

So first of all, I REFUSE to demonize either side because of what they are. I strive to accept that we are all Americans who love our country and want a great America. Yes I am a bit of a Pollyanna, but I have grown over the 60 years of my life so far to realize that most people are good. Yes there are the glaring exceptions, and they are out there daily, but they are definitely in the minority. I believe that we should strive to treat people like the best of people and not the worst of people.

Secondly, when it comes to all things fiscal, I am right of center. I have always been a fiscal right of center person. Heck---I even voted for Ross Perot when he ran. I don't believe in heavy deficit spending over a long period of time. Both parties are guilty as charged on this one. One talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. The other party, IMHO is swimming in dangerous waters right now denying that our fiscal house is in perilous shape. Professionally, I am a businesswoman who has run her own business most of my life. My first businesses I had I started in 10th grade, and although there have been a few instances of my working for someone else (I sold advertising for our local newspaper between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college), I always ran a business of my own on the side at those times. I know what it is to be the boss, meet a payroll, and create work for myself and others. IMHO you can spin theories about numbers any way you want but it doesn't change the immutable facts of profits, losses, and making money and making money work for you. One party thinks I'm a doofus for thinking such things and the other party tries to gain my loyalty by saying it is for people like me, but I get the distinct impression that much of that is just boilerplate to win my vote and not necessarily for real.

When it comes to the social issues of the day, I veer to the left of center, but not too far to the left. While I support abortion rights and gay rights, they aren't my major issues. It doesn't mean that I don't support them, it just means I have bigger fish to fry at this time.  When it comes to the environment, I am completely flummoxed!!!!! I am dead center on this one. While like every denizen of this planet I want clean air and water (DUH!!!!), it needs to be accomplished IMHO by working WITH business to achieve these ends, not against business. I get sick and tired of the environmentalists demonizing business all of the time. And while business can be greedy and shortsighted, they are not all that way. The two groups need to work together and not at cross purposes. There is a fine line in this argument, and the tipping point is reached all too soon with the current mindset.

But in the end, neither party is addressing what is important to me. I want to see women take their rightful place at the table running 50% of everything. One party talks the talk but does little, and the other party is seriously screwed up, IMHO when it comes to their women, but not in the way that the other side uses to demonize them. The biggest enemy of women today is the Democratic Party storyline of the "war on women." The second biggest enemy of women today is the failure of the Republican Party to take advantage of the fabulous women on their side who have been successful in a major way.

Let's start with the Democratic "war on women" line. It is an almost complete crock of bull. It is a piece of propoganda that is being used on women WITH THEIR OWN COMPLIANCE to keep them successfully corralled in the Democratic camp. I have written about this time and time again. Feel free to go into this blog's archives if you haven't read any of these pieces. This "war on women" is being used to keep women compliant without anything to show for it. It is being used as a tool to keep people feeling that they are on the "cool" side. It is dangerous because that party is doing NOTHING to help women achieve their place at the table. The Democrats have a sorry recent history of using sexism to win and they have gotten away with it because of the ridiculous scare tactics they have used to keep women on the reservation and not thinking for themselves. It is disgusting.

The Republican problem is no less exasperating. I can't for the life of me figure out why the R's aren't using some of their most potent weapons, their fabulous women, to counter the "war on women" theme. NO ONE speaks more eloquently about why the Republican Party is good for women than the Republican Conference Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest ranking Republican woman in the U.S. House. No one touches people's hearts with this message more than Mayor Mia Love and New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Of the two people at the top of a recent poll of who we want to see as our future president, one of them is Secretary of State Condi Rice. Where is she? We hardly hear enough from her as well. All we are seeing from the Republicans at the moment is trying to fix things with Hispanics by putting Senator Marco Rubio front and center. Now don't get me wrong---I really like Rubio. He always inspires me. I even bought a Rubio water bottle recently!! hahahahahahahaha. HOWEVER, where are the women? The Republicans lost the women vote and they IMHO should have done much better and could have done so had they done a better job of highlighting their women. But they aren't doing it. My friend tells me that it is because they are still in shock over the beating they took over Sarah Palin. If that is the case, shame on them. They've had men lose too, but that doesn't stop them from nominating and highlighting other men. I mean really-----it's just pathetic. If the Republicans refuse to use what great resources they have in the female department, they deserve to lose women's votes.

So the graphic above pretty much sums it up for me. I am very happy to be an observer of the follies on both sides. And I will continue to fight for women getting to the top whenever I can. I will vote for women of either party whenever I can. But I'm not going to be the slave of either party. Nor will I demonize one party at the total expense of the other. Those days are finished for me. I'm happier being a proud Independent and just do the thinking for myself. Order me up one from column A and one from column B.......

Feel Free To Distribute Far and Wide

That Pesky Glass Ceiling

Cynthia Ruccia



It is time to stop tiptoeing around the fact that women don't run much in the United States. It is a fact that I am going to illustrate shortly. People like to pooh pooh the notion because some progress HAS been made for women in the past 40 years. Yes, women are a larger part of the workforce than ever, women have better college graduation rates than men, women are populating the professions in ever greater numbers and in some cases exceeding the percentage of men. Why even just this week, women have been given the right to fight alongside men in combat.

All of this is well and good, but for the most part, women's advances have almost completely side stepped the advances that lead to the very top. This fact of life is largely unknown, and when the statistics are revealed, people are visibly shocked.

Part of this conversation revolves around three things. First of all, there is the false notion that women will simply EVOLVE to the top. If that is the case, the pace is so glacially slow that maybe in 200-300 years women will evolve to hold power positions in proportion to their numbers, and I'm not being facetious or sarcastic.

Secondly, there is the debate about whether it really matters if women run things. I truly hate this debate because it seems obvious to many of us that having women at the top in 50% of the positions of power would mean that women will be part of the big decisions that are made that shape our society. Admittedly we have no idea what that might look like here in the U.S., but heck, I'd love to see it for myself. Just because it has never happened before doesn't mean that it shouldn't happen. Our constitution promises equality, and this is an equality that is an ideal worth striving for. I also hate this argument because it gives misogynists everywhere cover for their prejudices. Women are just as capable as men in running things, and our country is less for keeping women out of the halls of power.

Third, and I have preached this idea since 2008 when I had my rude awakening with the sexism fest of the elections that year. Feminism, that much maligned word whose goals most people line up with but won't admit to publicly, as a political force spent all of its political capital fighting a fight that will likely go on for as long as the 237 year fight about larger versus smaller government. Nothing wrong with the fight on abortion. It is a worthy fight with excellent points on both sides. But it is a fight with no end, and to pin the future of women on a never-ending fight to the expense of all other objectives is ludicrous. The second wave of feminism had as its goal seeing women hold positions of power in proportion to their numbers, and that goal was abandoned. And like anything neglected, the growth is stunted.

So here we are in 2013, and THESE are the statistics painting the TRUE picture of where women are in our society:


Of the 100 largest cities in the United States, only 12% have women mayors:

• Houston
• Fort Worth
• Baltimore
• Las Vegas
• Fresno
• Raleigh
• Oakland
• Stockton
• Chula Vista
• Glendale
• North Las Vegas
• Irving, TX

FIVE States have never elected a woman to the U.S. House of Representatives:

• Delaware
• Iowa
• Vermont
• North Dakota
• Mississippi

TWENTY SIX States Have Never Elected a Woman to the U.S. Senate:
Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia,  West Virginia, Wyoming


ONLY 24% OF ALL STATE LEGISLATORS IN THE U.S. ARE FEMALE:
20.3% of all state Senate seats are held by women
25.3% of all state House seats are held by women


ONLY 10% OF U.S. GOVERNORS ARE WOMEN:

• Arizona
• Oklahoma
• New Hampshire
• New Mexico
• South Carolina

FACTS

• THE U.S. RANKS #77 IN THE WORLD FOR FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN GOVERNMENT
• 20% of the U.S. SENATE ARE WOMEN
• 18% OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ARE WOMEN
• WOMEN HOLD 4.2% OF CEO POSITIONS IN THE FORTUNE 1000
• THE U.S. HAS NEVER HAD A FEMALE PRESIDENT
• THE U.S. HAS NEVER HAD A FEMALE VICE PRESIDENT
• WOMEN STILL MAKE ONLY 77 CENTS TO THE MAN’S DOLLAR

OHIO STATISTICS (my state):

• Ohio has never has a female U.S. Senator.
• Ohio has never had a female governor.
• Ohio’s female representation to the U.S. House is 16.67%.
• Ohio has eight female state senators. (24%)
• Ohio has 23 female state representatives. (23%)
• Ohio ranks #27 out of the 50 states for female representation in government.
• Ohio has only had 11 female U.S. Representatives in its entire history.

SOURCES:
Forbes Magazine, Inter-Parliamentary Union, National Committee on Pay Equity, Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, Catalyst. See links on the right panel of this page.


In addition to these stats, my friend the amazing Anita Finlay sent this info:

The Fourth Estate offered up a study logging in 51,000 quotes from print and tv media in 2012 election coverage. Even in articles about women’s health coverage, men were quoted over women 5 to 1. In foreign policy and the economy, the numbers were 4 to 1 and 3 to 1. Male columnists outnumber females 2 to 1.

Men still control the narrative daily. In 2008/2010, women got 3 times as much coverage on their physical appearance as their male counterparts. Men got 68% more paragraphs written on the issues versus women.  Automatically, this indicates that women are fluffy and to be taken less seriously.

In 2010 midterms, pollsters Kellyanne Conway and Celinda Lake discovered that women fared better when they fought back against sexist attacks. Staying silent or “above the fray” was devastating to the hopes of women candidates at the polls.

You can read more on these ideas from Anita here.

In the end, people need to made aware of these statistics. They override party affiliation. They override conventional wisdom, and only by facing the truth can we ever hope to rise above our current reality. I think we have a golden opportunity at hand RIGHT NOW when there is talk of a possible woman president in 2016 to open people's eyes to the truth. I go back to what Michele Bachelet, former president of Chile, said, and that is that nothing did more for the advancement of women in her country than having a female president. Nothing. Not laws, not anything else.

We need to stop waiting for someone else to make this happen for us and start being proactive. Share these stats with everyone you know and watch their disbelief!!

Binders Full of Pro-Women-At-The-Top Articles???

Cynthia Ruccia



Have we had enough of this stupid joke already? Apparently not!! Regardless, we are suddenly in the last few days being innundated with articles complaining that President Obama is appointing only men to the top positions in his second term. We have this one in the New York Times, another one in the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, One News, and this terrific one from Foreign Affairs which says that Obama needs "hormone therapy." From whence comes this embarrassment of riches?

Lots of people like myself have been complaining for YEARS that the president isn't gender friendly. We've complained that his cabinet was no more gender friendly than President George W. Bush, and never reached the high bar that the Clinton Administration did in appointing the most female cabinet members ever. We've written about it over and over again----check out the archives of this blog for starters.

Another "Should Have Been?"

Cynthia Ruccia



Tell me that the Democrats aren't running their own War on Women-----------I won't believe you. According to The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, Foreign Policy, NBC News, New York Magazine, and scores of other sources, our president is poised to nominate Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense next week. The picture above is of Michele Flournoy who was said to be in the running for this spot. Why is it that people keep making excuses for these Democrats who like to think that they look like they're promoting gender equality by floating a woman's name for a post but ultimately appointing/nominating the male?