[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVHA0K4jw6U[/youtube]
Sarah Palin Biography
Sarah Palin Republican Convention Part I
-She is a member of Feminists for Life and pro-abstinence education
-She counts herself as a “hockey working mom”
-She speaks her mind, goes moose hunting, was an athlete AND a beauty queen, runner up Miss Alaska
-The first woman Vice Presidential Republican candidate
-The mother of a soldier
A step forward for the US of America, for women in the USA?
– Jacqui
Being a pro life advocate i dont know how feminist she could be as i find that stance takes choices away from women and doesnt allow them full control over their own bodies simply because of someone elses moral judgements, dont particularly care for sending your son off to an unjust war either, or any war for that matter as i dont find anything feminist about supporting US troops constantly invading other nation states because they want their oil.. but at least she didnt have to take on the persona of a man to get into the position she’s in and she managed to get into a position of power while still being ‘feminine’.. hmmmm
Amelia, let’s watch her interview with ABC this week and see if she says ANYTHING about policy.
Take a look at the Black page (aka Joanne Black) in the latest Listener – she is quite uneasy about a woman with 5 kids, one who’s pregnant at 17 and one a downs syndrome baby being a VP candidate. In her view this is taking “work/life balance” to the extreme and in favour of work over family.
I tend to agree with US commentators that having a woman on the Republican ticket moves us beyond the Hilary Clinton – generic model of the “American woman politician” and diversifies the category of women politicians – making us focus less on the “women” bit or the gender politics and more on the “politics/policy” issues.
Whether we like it or not many American women embrace the neoconservative, moral high ground in politics. Women in their early 30s are the fastest growing constituency of evangelical churches in the States. If we want to understand the power of religion in American politics, we would do well to start by understanding women in our own generation adn their struggles in America, so called “land of the free”. – Jacqui
One of the glaring issues for me is that Palin is being seen as an ‘every woman’ in much media commentary or somehow typical of middle America when this is so far from the truth, given the diversity of contemporary US and the long history of race and socio-economic divides, as well as a gendered one. I read the following two pieces of brief commentary in a Women’s e-News email and I find that they speak well to concerns about the lack of reflection given to Palin’s relative white privilege, rather than simply her gender.
Anita.
Commentary
Two Views on Sarah Palin and Women of Color
By Mason and Abramovitz
WeNews commentators
Gender identity politics won’t work for women of color when it comes to the appeal of Sarah Palin, says C. Nicole Mason. And Mimi Abramovitz finds a racial double standard when it comes to teen pregnancy and recent welfare politics.
Editor’s Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women’s eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)–
Issues Matter to Women of Color–C. Nicole Mason
When the John McCain campaign announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as its pick for vice president, women and the Democrats began to seriously worry about how she might influence the outcome of the election.
Would women who felt betrayed by the alleged snub of Sen. Hillary Clinton flock to her? Would women vote for her just because she is a woman?
At the time, it seemed like a brilliant strategy. Brava McCain, I thought to myself as I listened to my friends and the media pundits try to figure out how to handle this political hot potato. Was Palin the new everywoman; the selfless mother trying to juggle a career, hockey practice, the demands of a large family and the opportunity of a lifetime? Is shattering the glass ceiling, as the GOP is framing it, more important than a person’s position on the issues?
As an African American woman, I was confused by these questions and the false choice now being presented to me: Vote gender or vote issues. In both instances, I’ve decided Palin loses out.
Yes, Palin is a woman, but not the kind of woman I can easily identify with, nor can many other African American or Latina women. We are not hockey moms, and when our unmarried teen daughters get pregnant society and others often do not see it as a blessing. Rather, we are viewed as perpetuating negative pathologies.
So, when I turned on the television and saw Palin speak about herself as the average working mom and woman trying to juggle it all, I couldn’t relate. In her, I didn’t see myself, my mother, my sister or even my next-door neighbor.
On the issues, she might as well be George W. Bush as I can not tell the difference between the two. Although Palin has not spoken publicly about her positions on immigration, affirmative action, job and housing discrimination, school re-segregation, police-minority community relations and racial disparities in the criminal justice system, we know where her party stands on these important issues.
What I do know, however, is that she is socially conservative and her stated views and opinions–from supporting the war in Iraq to her views on comprehensive sex education for our country’s youth–run counter to many of my deeply held values and beliefs, not to mention those of my community.
Black women, Latina black women and Latinas account for 79 percent of all reported HIV infections among 13- to 19-year-old women and 75 percent of HIV infections among 20- to 24-year-old women in the United States. We are also nearly twice as likely to be poor than white women. In short, race and class profoundly affect how African American women and Latinas understand gender and our place in society.
When I talk to my friends, many of whom are women of color, about Palin, gender is hardly the point of consideration for them; it is her positions on abortion, comprehensive sex education, the war, affirmative action and immigration that matter most to them. If Oprah Winfrey were running for vice president and had Sarah Palin’s views, she wouldn’t get my vote either.
Perhaps the McCain camp isn’t talking to African American and Latina women when they say Palin is the average American mom and woman. If they are, they have a lot of explaining to do.
–C. Nicole Mason, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University and senior research fellow at the National Council for Research on Women.
Palin’s Double Standards on Pregnancy–Mimi Abramovitz
The religious right was known for condemning teen pregnancy on moral grounds. But they have flip-flopped, now that the 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential hopeful Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska is with child. Palin is accepted, supported and praised.
I agree that when kids get into trouble families need our support, but I sense a racial doubled standard.
I was more than stunned when I saw a female Republican delegate on TV wearing a button that said: “I Support Unwed Mothers.” These same political forces showed no such accepting attitude when they championed punitive welfare “reform” policies that penalize women for having children before marriage. While most mothers on public assistance have been white, the public wrongly assumed most were women of color; conservatives used vicious attacks on “welfare queens” to win votes.
Republicans demand abstinence-only programs that prevent schools from teaching about contraception, abortion and safe sex. They cut services for pregnant teens. And Palin wants a constitutional amendment to criminalize abortion, including cases of rape or incest. Yet she told the press, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby.” But it is a decision she would take away from others.
Some think that Palin’s daughter got a pass on unwed teen pregnancy because her family is white, affluent and on the right side of the political spectrum.
–Mimi Abramovitz, Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor at Hunter College School of Social Work, is author of “Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy From Colonial Times to the Present,” “Under Attack, Fighting Back: Women and Welfare in the United States” and co-author of “Taxes Are a Woman’s Issue, Reframing the Debate.”
Women’s eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at editors@womensenews.org.
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The NZ Herald ran an article (not sure of the original source) that compared Palin to Clinton and emerged with the notion that female politicians need no longer be associated with Hillary-isms. That is, not all female politicians are the same. If adding Palin to the ticket has managed to accomplish this, then yipee! I would argue that’s a step in the right direction. What’s a little upsetting however is her apparent lack of governmental/political experience. Should a person (male or female) with such limited experience be that close to being the next Vice President of the US?
remember that george bush didnt leave texas until he becamse a senator (I beleive) and this is a fact more inclined to show his ineptitude rather than his inexperience. as a woman sarah palin will probably have to fight the label of “inexperience” throughout her entire career, while the male politicians around her manage to escape this particular accusation. When put into perspective, it is not suprising that a woman who married and had five children very young has only just started her serious political career, and usually this type of “independence” is endorsed by popular culture media (“women’s” magazines, tv shows targeted towards 40plus women). i find her political ideals repellent, as i do those of John McCain, but the media is not so fascinated by his personal life. in fact i dont recall any facts about him except that his wife is very rich and blonde (which may be revealing also in the double standards applied to palin. i know nothing of the appearance of her husband).
i am glad that no longer will all female politicians in america be compared to HIllary Clinton, a woman who married well and cleverly. Although i dislike palins political opinions (which should be the focus, but isnt) i can easily see why she views herself as a feminist, although the definition she obviously adheres to is the same one i use when i describe myself as a feminist.
i crucially missed out the word “not” in that last sentence. the definition she adheres to is NOT the same one i use when i describe myself as a feminist.
-Palin opposes same-sex marriage
-Palin has stated that abortion should be banned in nearly all cases, except if the life of the mother is endangered, including in cases of rape and incest.
-Feminism means to stand up for human rights; it means to stand up for for equality and the freedoms of people and Sarah is right wing, anti-choice and has no recording of representing women’s interests