An Army of Women

There have been at least 100 occasions when a woman’s name has appeared on the ballot for either the American Presidential or Vice-Presidential nomination. This year, we have four women (Elaine Brown, Cynthia McKinney, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Kat Swift) who have thrown their names in the ring…maybe more, since I’m not particularly politically savvy. I find those numbers remarkable, since the first woman to run for President did so 48 years before women even had the right to vote, and she did it with an African-American nominee for Vice-President only 7 years after the American Civil War ended. Clearly, our country of pioneering, leading women has not been lacking for individuals to forge new and treacherous paths.

What are the hindrances to placing a woman in office? Is it because the powerful and wealthy Corporations which stand behind lobbying in Congress and backslapping in the White House have not endorsed a female candidate? Is it because the Media plays more written and spoken word to candidates who have aforementioned corporate sponsorship? Or is it because there have been so few qualified female candidates in the past 135+ years that Corporate America and the Media collectively have decided for the average Joe that we needn’t pay further attention to their feministic platforms?

I do hope it is the latter, and that over-feeding the political pipeline will serve to fill a need for qualified female candidates to sit in the seat of the Oval Office. At the same time, I fear holding my breath on that beat and urge that we shift the face of Corporate America to fill their boards’ seats with feminists who will back the qualified political candidates coming in down the pipeline. I also suggest that a campaign finance reform platform may be prudent, since only nine of the aforementioned women ran under one of our country’s two major political parties, while the rest struggled to acquire funding through seemingly insignificant, independent contributions. Simultaneously, we must continue to promote shifts in the media’s portrayal of women in our political culture. I enthusiastically anticipate the day when women’s involvement in the Political, Corporate, and Media processes will Change Everything for our country and our sisters worldwide…

Lets be fair. Why not also ask what is the fear of having a Black man in the White House? Jessica thoes corporations are backing Senator Clinton.

I also think the White House Project should look for candidates on the content of one’s character than gender.

The idea of a woman running for president may be more acceptable, however the idea of her being president, especially if she were to have a male vice-president, as would most likely be the case , is something that seems to set male egos twitching. A woman being above and having the say over so many men, is something more conservative countries have already seen, though some have paid with their lives.
We , in this country, do not really talk about gender the way it needs to be talked about.
I , also, don’t think there is enough done in our schools(some do better than others), to promote true equality, to promote the idea of female leadership. I ,recently, (in a very liberal setting) taught a creation mythology class, where female figures (Mother Earth), sometimes as warrior like creators, were the at the center.. I was saddened by the bristling reaction of the young male teenagers ( the females loved it ). It became more a discussion of what qualities, such as protection – seen by the boys as a ‘man’ thing- were truly female or male – or could they be both.. .These boys had plenty of strong mothers in their families as examples and yet…….no we have not broken the confining molds – yet

By the way, I am an Obama supporter. Please do not cast my support as sexist. Jodi, pardon me if I seem to be harsh. I think men should be the protectors of the family or that community. No that doesn’t mean women should play the dame in distress, but she should help as well. The problem for the past twenty or thirty years is that men have given up his duties to be the protectors.
I also think you are wrong in saying that schools are not doing enough in terms of gender and female leadership. Most of the teachers are female. Most of the class presidents and student councils are female.

Let me say this as well. I am an African-American male. From my point of view, I see this election as a Black vs, a white vs. a White femist. Black women have a history of supression greater than white women. There are many black women, according to some polls as 75%, are on the Obama bandwagon.
It angers me when feminist refer female Obama supporter as tratiors. As if Women should just vote for Hillary because she is a woman. Those female supporters are white females under 35 and black women. I do not why they the feminist are cursing their own legacy.

In response to the African American Male supporting BHO for the presidency.
Why are you here?

Justin, possibly the problem lies in the fact that you are viewing the election as a “Black vs. White a White feminist” issue.

If we continue to view things through a screen of race and gender nothing can shift.

So the question remains? Why are you here?

As an under 35 college educated women- I am not the demographic that the press kept saying were the ones voting for Senator Clinton. I am so proud that we had such a qualified women running for the highest office in the US. I am so very disappointed- no mad- at how the press has been treating her. Especially in the last few days when Senator Obama won the nomination. Everyone was saying she was not going to drop out, that it is all about her, that she would divide the party. Come on! She is a smart, smart women and would not divide the party or do anything to hurt her legacy. She has been involved in politics her whole life- she understands the process. I think the press is underestimating the process- she has just spent 16 months of her life 24-7 running this campaign. Running for President is grueling. She just needs some time to figure out how to end the campaign. It is not like you leave one day and just turn out the lights and go home. I believe the speech she gives on Saturday will be grateful, graceful and will support Senator Obama. The Press however, will see it through their lens of bias. It is so sad that in this day and age that we still have to deal with such outdated notions of sexism in the media. That is why the White House project is so important- to combat this notion!

Black women, Latinas and millions of others, men and women, supported Hillary Clinton because they saw her as the best qualified person running for President. A man I spoke to during my phone calling for Hillary (to Oregon) said he and his wife had already voted for her, and were headed to Corvallis to see Bill at a rally. The man went on to say that he is a Vietnam War veteran and views our involvement in Iraq as another Vietnam mess; therefore, he will NOT vote for McCain. And, he continued, he would not vote for Obama — not because he’s black, which the voter considered irrelevant, but because he’s inexperienced. This voter said, with the voice of military experience, that Hillary Clinton is “ready to lead from Day One” and would be an effective commander-in-chief. After Obama has more national level and international political experience, this Oregonian would vote for him, too. But for this primary, his (and his wife’s) support was going to Hillary. Not to minimize in any way the experience of African-Americans in this country for a few hundred years, I would like to point out that almost all women the world over have experienced some part of the spectrum of unjust and/or inhumane treatment, whether based on gender alone or also on “race” or ethnicity or religion, etc. in addition to gender. And this has gone on for thousands of years. This thread has gone off-point, in a way, because we the voters should not let ourselves be influenced by statisticians; you know, those people who keep track of the “first” this-or-that to achieve something. The “first” factors ought to be irrelevant. It is just downright silly, if not insulting, to suggest that the women (of any hue) who voted for Hillary Clinton did so “only” because she’s a woman.

Enjoyed your site very much! Thank you! Keep up a great work!

Nice work….love the site…very easy to move around in.