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Some Are More Equal Than Others

By Patrick O'Hannigan on 3.18.09 @ 6:07AM

Thank heaven for the White House Council on Women and Girls.

With another in a series of executive orders, President Obama on March 11 created a "White House Council on Women and Girls."

Having been advised that female CEOs run only three percent of the Fortune 500 companies, and that women earn 78 cents for every dollar that men earn in comparable jobs (about which more later), the president wants some two dozen department heads to help remedy those deficiencies in the name of "fulfill[ing] the promise of democracy for all our people."

Before signing the Council creation document, President Obama described the new panel as having "a mission that dates back to our founding," and quoted former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to the effect that "responsibility for the advancement of women is not the job of any one agency; it's the job of all of them."

Some people love the initiative. Others question its usefulness, suggesting that ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Despite the grandiose rhetoric with which the president welcomed his latest creation into the fold, the new council is lower in the political pecking order than a blue-ribbon presidential commission staffed with marquee names like former HP CEO Carly Fiorina or current Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy would have been. If the Balrog of Bad Intentions comes calling, the council may not be strong enough to shout "You shall not pass!" without sounding like a hobbit holding a Russian dictionary and a badly-translated "reset" button.

The East Room was jammed for the signing ceremony. Interestingly, the guest list released by the White House revealed that professional advocates for abortion comprised the largest single group of attendees after politicians.

Pretty words about fairness for all could not obscure the fact that the president pitched most of his remarks to the pro-choice wing of "grievance feminism." As a result, representatives from influential contrarian groups like Feminists for Life, Concerned Women for America, and the Independent Women's Forum were nowhere to be found.

Outside the field of dreams where "Clueless Joe" Biden roams the baselines looking for a fly ball with which to try out his new glove, all of Washington now knows that only a fairy godmother and a pair of talking mice will get pro-life feminists to official functions of the Obama administration. William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal described the new environment as condescending to "any American woman deemed insufficiently progressive on the received wisdom." Although the White House council is supposed to improve the lot of all women, EMILY's List thumped Susan B. Anthony's.

If you're unfamiliar with those lobbying groups, the contrast in their names deserves scrutiny: Pro-life feminists find inspiration in the example of a real woman, while people who fundraise in the name of abortion rights identify themselves with a cynical acronym ("Early Money Is Like Yeast").

For President Obama, anti-abortion arguments are abstractions to which lip service must be paid for the sake of maintaining bipartisan appearances. Not surprisingly, the president and his inner circle treat pro-life views either as rebukes to be laughed off by underlings or as tools by which annoying conservatives keep trying to thwart political appointments and plans for universal health care.

Think back to Animal Farm and assume for the sake of argument that some women are more equal than others. George Orwell's unvarnished distillation of what happens when socialist theory meets socialist practice explains why pro-life women are rightly regarded as threats to the increasingly tattered myth that pro-abortion politicians actually advance the pro-life cause.

Having already moved to rescind a rule that allowed health care workers to opt out of abortion counseling if it violated their beliefs, and knowing that a lawyer with a history of defending pornographers would be confirmed to the number two post in the Justice Department, President Obama had no desire to draw renewed attention to questions about how those decisions or unprincipled leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services might impact the lives of American women and girls.

Fortunately, the president keeps his flunkies numbered for just such an occasion, and one or more of them had briefed the senior teleprompter on the "78 cents for women to every dollar earned by men" statistic.

That particular ratio has become a teddy bear for people whose definition of "comparable jobs" sometimes stretches enough to mix pilots with Pilates instructors. Other researchers do honest work, but fail to account for the impact of things like maternity leave and sex segregation by occupation. "Due diligence" in this administration does not necessarily involve looking into different points of view, else someone might also have noticed that while a pay gap between men and women does exist, several studies have pegged it at considerably less than 22 cents on the dollar.

Columnist Ilana Mercer was not at the ceremony, but asked the kind of economically-informed question that rarely percolates up through discussions of pay equity: If women with the same skills as men were getting only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, wouldn't men have long-since priced themselves out of the job market? The fact that men haven't done that might mean that different abilities and experiences are at work, Mercer guessed, "rather than a conspiracy to suppress women."

Mercer's glass slipper of a response to equity issues will not fit anyone in the Obama administration, but it still attracts more positive attention than Christina Hoff Summers' argument that boys rather than girls need help, thanks to a culture that derides men as oafs, and an educational system that considers masculinity the root of intolerance.

Governor Sarah Palin, abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, and radio host Laura Ingraham all have a better shot at honorary membership on the White House Council for Women and Girls than Ilana Mercer and Christina Hoff Summers do. Yet while the Obama administration has little time for women like these, the rest of us are not similarly hobbled, and that is reason enough to be grateful.

topics:
Feminism

About the Author

Patrick O'Hannigan is a writer in North Carolina.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (29) | Leave a comment

Robert Rosencrans| 3.18.09 @ 8:40AM

After the government has spent 40 years implementing policies that affect the corporate sector of our economy, the real scandal is why the press does not point out how these "equality" policies have put companies out of business, or force them to pay higher and higher insurance rates to protect corporations from lawsuits , which eventually affects everyone. Eventually, corporate America will be no more, forced to hire women and minorities who do add to the bottom line, but are simply a forced expenditure.

Robert Rosencrans| 3.18.09 @ 8:41AM

That last line should have read, "who do NOT add to the bottom line."

Pia-Riitta Klein| 3.18.09 @ 9:26AM

Regarding the Orwellian echoes in the new "White House Council on Women and Girls": why would anybody be surprised? Elections have consequences, and a country generally gets the kind of administration and policies it deserves. Welcome to decline and fall, playing live all around us.

Tim Sheckels| 3.18.09 @ 1:14PM

I have often wondered how it is said that girls are the ones that are left behind in the classrooms and the workplace. Girls in school always impressed me as being much better at their studies than boys. It was always obvious to me that boys were at both ends of the scales of both intellegence and behavior problems, sometimes in both in the same boy. Those that had the intellegence, were often ignored, and sometimes drifted off into their own thoughts and world, since they didn't need help. Those that acted up, were removed from the classroom for many trips to the principal's office for discipline. The ones in the middle, mostly girls, were where the teacher's placed their efforts. That was back in the 60's and early 70's. I can only imagine the imbalance now, with the emasculation of America having progressed with "Boys should act more like girls mantra." No, boys should be boys, with all their warts, advantages and problems. Boys develop at a different rate and on a different course than girls. Boys see the world from a different point of view. I know, it took me over 50 years to finally figure "some" of it out. I'm still working on the rest.
"I took the one (road) less traveled, and it has made all the difference."

PolishKnight| 3.18.09 @ 1:41PM

The oft quoted 78 cents on a dollar statistic not only doesn't take into account women's personal choices that impact the bottom line on their own W-2, but also income transfers that women enjoy usually at the expense of men: so-called child-support (paid mostly to women without accountability for how the money is spent), alimony and welfare in addition to women still marrying up (when that is still possible, this is the main explanation for illegitimacy rates shooting up when women are unable to find breadwinning men).

Conservatives often talk the talk about family values but they rarely openly defend the primary component of the two parent family they laud: The working father. Why didn't GW Bush OPENLY criticize reverse racist affirmative action policies that strip men of their livelihoods that even career women demand from them? Or McCain criticize family court policies that reward divorce and illegitimacy with money and child custody for the mother and usurious financial obligations for men? It's amazing men even bother showing up to vote for republicans at all when they are little different than democrats when it comees to pandering for votes from misandric feminist groups.

As Peggy Noonan put it just after 9/11, the days of the old fashioned chivalrous working class men who went to The Knights of Columbus or became Free Masons and held open doors for women and helped them with their bags are largely at an end and this is largely due to women such as Peggy herself (by her own admission.) The main players in the big tent of democrat socialist special interests are a collection of the most misogynistic men around. Since the Democrats tossed white southerners under the bus when it suited them, maybe they'll do the same for feminists in the near future. If that happens, I'll consider going for them. Why not? It's not as if most mainstream Republicans seem to care until someone votes Democrat on the issue!

PS: I keep getting emails from Michael Steele asking for donations and I laugh and laugh.

ruth| 3.18.09 @ 1:54PM

I guess Obama's White House Council on Women and Girls doesn't pertain to aborted baby girls. They can't vote, so why should he care about them? They are of no use to him. Whatta guy.

Joseph| 3.18.09 @ 2:10PM

You people are pathetic.

Bummer| 3.18.09 @ 2:16PM

Well, at least we don't celebrate abortion like you liberals do--that's pathetic.

Marc Jeric| 3.18.09 @ 3:50PM

Why being surprised at what our Community Organizer-in Chief, Abu Hussein from Kenya is doing? It was all easily predicable. If corporations are so fixed on their bottom line - how come men have not priced themselves out of their jobs?

iowavette| 3.18.09 @ 4:16PM

Joey, do you have any idea how hypocritical it is for a liberal to objectify anyone or anything? An unexamined life...

One wonders where all this indoctrination will take the country. Metrosexuals will certainly not be mentally, emotionally nor probably physically capable of defending themselves much less the country.

Most boomer women I know, even the dims, resent the way men are treated, caucasion men specifically, who actually opened the door for all of us. We wonder where women have been for at least the last 2,000 years. We've been codependents and enablers, that's where we've been. Complaining now and blaming everything on Western European men is grossly inaccurate and not productive. Taking it out on the country's male children is beyond criminal.

My associates and I have followed the course of hard work and education to get where we are. Do guys make our lives miserable from time to time? You better believe it but no more than they make each other's. In fact the worst two bosses I've had in a long career were women. And, I've had two female supervisors. In the meantime, I make three times my husband's salary. I like it. He likes it. I don't expect or even want a professional husband, just a partner. Do I expect him to work. Of course. Especially looking down the pike at the inflation psunami that's sure to postpone my retirement for some time to come.

jacksmith| 3.18.09 @ 5:45PM

Finally, the time has arrived to fix Americas Healthcare crisis, and Americas healthcare knightmare. Hundreds of thousands of you are killed needlessly every year by your healthcare delivery system in a rush to profit. And because of a rush to profit Hundreds of thousands more of you are needlessly dying from treatable illness that people in other developed and civilized countries don't DIE! from. Rich, middle class, and poor alike. Insured, and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies.

Additionally, thousands more of you are driven into financial ruin, and bankruptcy just because you, or one of your loved ones got sick or injured. And all of this is happening at a time when America spends twice as much of it's GDP (Gross Domestic Productivity) on health care than any other country in the developed world. Individual Americans spend about ten times as much on health care as any other people in the developed world. This is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. AND IT MUST END!

But before we can truly fix this healthcare crisis and disgrace, everyone needs to clearly understand what the problem is. And everyone needs to clearly understand the real enormity of the problem. The problem is that HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY IN AMERICA IS SEVERELY CORRUPTED AND COMPROMISED BY GREED! AND THE PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MOTIVE. And it is corrupted, and compromised IN EVERY ASPECT, AND EVERY PLACE OF HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY. Unfortunately for all Americans, compromised healthcare ALWAYS results in needless suffering, injury, disability, and or death. Which is exactly what is happening now in America in shocking numbers.

Health care is NOT! a private for profit business. Healthcare is an essential public service. Like police, and fire. And healthcare is also a human right! PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN OXYMORON, AND AN IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL PERVERSION OF HEALTHCARE AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

So how do we fix this healthcare disgrace? I believe the fix for Americas healthcare disaster is essentially the same thing that every other developed country in the World has essentially done. "NOT FOR PROFIT, TAX PAYER SUPPORTED, SINGLE PAYER, AUTOMATIC, FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL. Essentially HR676 (enhanced, and expanded medicare for all). Just like every other CIVILIZED! country in the developed World has. There is no other way to truly fix and reform our current disastrous healthcare delivery system.

All Universal health care systems work best when everyone participates. But I know that the healthcare lobby, and some politicians will try and undermine "Not For Profit, Tax payer supported, Single payer, Automatic, Free Universal Healthcare for all" by falsely claiming that it will limit your choice, and require you to participate.

So, I propose that everyone be included in the national plan unless they choose to opt out. If you opt out and need medical care the national plan will insure your provider that they will be reimbursed under the rules for members in the national plan. But those who opted out, and their insurer will be responsible for the FULL! cost to the national plan for providing your care if you or your private insurer fails to reimburse the provider or the national plan in a timely manor to at least the standards of the national plan.

Including reporting you to credit agencies, withholding of taxes, leans, and garnishment of wages for unpaid medical bills. Just like you have now under private for profit healthcare, and private for profit health insurance.

Further, people who opted out will be required to provide proof of financial responsibility for future illness or be required to participate in the national plan. And everyone with children will be required to participate in the national plan. Or provide proof of insurance coverage on each child to the standards of the national plan. It will be against the law to report anyone in the national plan to a credit agency for unpaid medical bills.

Frankly, only a dope would want to opt out of the national plan and opt to keep our current disastrous private for profit medical, and insurance plans. But they will be free to choose. The most important thing is that the vast majority of Americans that want the protection, benefits, and higher quality of a universal national plan have that choice.

You see, one of the most important aspects of a universal healthcare system is easy access, and patient protection. This is accomplished by having a single payer without a conflict of interest in patient care. And by having a payer who has the power to enforce minimum standards of excellence in healthcare delivery for everyone in the plan. This is much of what Medicare does now for senors. "Aeger Primo" (The patient first). Unfortunately in our healthcare system the patient comes last. We are just a peace of meat to them. Cash cows to be slaughtered for profit.

So this is IT! my fellow Americans, My fellow human beings, My fellow World Citizens. And my fellow Cyber Warriors. :-) The time has come. D day. H hour. HEALTHCARE REFORM THIS YEAR! Let no one stand in our way. Contact your representative and tell them you want "Not For Profit, Tax Payer Supported, Single Payer, Automatic, Free Universal healthcare for all. And tell them you want that choice now. Tell them you want President Obama's budget passed without delay. President Obama's budget is brilliant. And exactly what is needed now.

President Obama, and his allies will need all the support you can give them. The healthcare lobby will try to take out his people if they can, like they did with Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer. And they will try to neutralize President Obama's popularity, and political power. Or they will try to take him down someway. Don't stand for it. If they attack him. Go after them ten times harder and remove them from office. We had an election. And you the people chose President Obama's leadership, and change agenda. Let no one in government disrespect the will of the American people and remain in office.

To President Obama, his Cabinet, the Congress of the United States, and the Supreme Court. I have noticed for some time a disturbing tendency for key members of your bodies to come down with illness, or medical problems at critical legislative times. This may just be coincidence. But I can tell you that there are a million subtle ways to medically injure someone just by doing nothing when something needs to be done. Or by doing things to someone when nothing needs to be done except to give them reassurance. I know for a fact that there are those that would have no qualms about hurting any of you to preserve our current disgraceful medical status quo.

So, I recommend as a matter of national security that you enlist the help of a friendly power to regularly review, and oversee the medical care you receive from your local regular healthcare providers. Briton, France and many other countries have excellent medical providers. As well as Canada. Briton, and Canada may be less of a language barrier for Americans.

Let's get this healthcare reform done now my fellow Americans. This year. Take no prisoners.

God Bless All Of You

Jack Smith — Working Class :-)

http://jacksmithworkingclass.blogspot.com/
(http://jacksmithworkingclass.blogspot.com/)

Siegfried Xanten| 3.18.09 @ 6:06PM

Good article, but there is nothing new here. This is typical double standard, actually triple standard feminism in which women get the best of all worlds, getting to make rules for men, then ignore those rules themselves.

A woman, depending on her needs of the moment can say:

1.That she is equal to men
2. Or that she is genetically superior to men
3. Or that she is weaker than men (and so needs special privileges and protections like this "council")

To see how wrong this is to anyone who believes in equality, imagine the reaction if the government formed a council for men or "white people". Just like some people accepted the system in which blacks & whites had unequal rights under the law, so today many accept our system in which men are second-class citizens under the law.

"Each generation, while condemning the prejudice of its parents, is blind to its own bigotry."

MT| 3.18.09 @ 6:19PM

Go to hell, jacksmith. You are a lying traitorous bastard.

jr| 3.18.09 @ 7:34PM

Here is some gasoline onto the fire: Was the public school system better run and did it produce better students before it was overrun with females? Some of my better teachers were female but the males ran the system and of course, it predates political correctness.

Angel| 3.18.09 @ 7:57PM

jr, I'm a woman--but you're lucky because I'm a Conservative woman, and I do think the feminization of our society has screwed things up. I had to fight for my son in school, because they definitely have an agenda. Throw that gasoline all over the place; we need truth now!

mike| 3.19.09 @ 1:07AM

so because pro life organizations wre not there they were secluded? give me a break. of course men don't price themselves out of the job market- unlike, say, immigrant labor in which jobs are absorbed because the jobs can be done at cheaper rates, women are not a suppressed group in terms of being able to complain, fightback etc, but they still are targets of discrimination- so employers do not higher them en masse. oh and gee, i never even thought the merits of focus sitting still and working hard were girl methods of learning. please you people are sad- no wonder so many children are messed up the whole boys will be boys mantra hasn't failed even in this day and age.

PolishKnight| 3.19.09 @ 11:15AM

iowavett, with all (very due) respect, you sound very sensible and likable but that begs the question: where are all the boomer career women who divorced their husbands cruelly, cheered on reverse discrimination in the workplace for their personal benefit even as they carefully married up, and screamed sexual harassment at the drop of a hat if a man dared to say she looked pretty that day? A majority of these women voted Democrat even if they were married to conservative husbands paying the bills!

In order for women's equality to work, living up to equality rather than just making a goodie grab has to become the norm rather than the exception.

Now let's be honest with each other: When you said you didn't want or expect a professional husband, were you being totally truthful? Even if you're happy with your husband now, would you have kicked him out the door if he was a well paid professional who earned 3 times more than you did? By the same token, many men wouldn't mind a professional woman either if they didn't often come with so much baggage.

Flower| 3.19.09 @ 12:22PM

I just wish we'd stop being so damn mean to each other. It's disgusting. We ALL are responsible for the sorry state of male/female relationships. Just try being kinder--to everybody!!

PolishKnight| 3.19.09 @ 1:39PM

Flower, I hate to break it to you (I'm sincere about that, I found it to be a shock, myself) but the Real World isn't nice. I wish it were. Living up to personal responsibilities and having a family often requires people to do and say mean things to get things done. It's not a pretty world involving things such as coal mining, working with dirty things, and putting stuff together in grimy factories to bring home the bacon to the family in an environment that is pleasant and comfortable and good to raise children in.

The same place that Betty Friedan referred to as a comfortable concentration camp.

I love America and it's a great place to live but sometimes we are obsessed with getting as much "stuff" as we can at the expense of everything else. I agree with you, it is nice to be nice to the nice. But sadly, many people don't have that priority.

Flower| 3.19.09 @ 4:10PM

I reject your premise that we have to be mean--and your Betty Friedan quote (ugh!). Haven't you ever heard that honey works better than vinegar? How about the Golden Rule? Incivility is at the root of violence, and I'm concerned our country is lurching in that direction. Liberals are mean--I don't want to be like them.

PolishKnight| 3.20.09 @ 11:30AM

Flower, I have heard of that expression and it's worth keeping in mind. But at the same time, conservatism is also about saying difficult, but necessary, truths even if that means offending people.

The golden rule is flawed in that what someone likes, or needs, may not be the same as what someone else desires. Liberals would love to see the government run everything so they don't see anything wrong with forcing others to live in the same world. Do you see the problem with that? If I like something, why not cram it down everyone else's throats? Liberals claim to be the most caring people in the world and many of them are experts at avoiding saying unPC, "rude" things. Does that make them "nice?"

I'm not saying we should be rude just for the sake of being rude . I am saying it helps to be provocative and to say things that get people to think. Friedan's concentration camp saying was memoriable. We have to give her credit for that. It had a major impact on society.

For the record, I love ketchup (vinegar and tomato and sugar) and not a big fan of honey.

Fragrant Flower| 3.20.09 @ 4:21PM

I'm not a liberal--you haven't offended me. I just wish there was more kindness in our country. You sound like you've been hurt--haven't we all? I've given my pain to God and I feel more free and lighter than I have in years. So, Mr. Polish Knight; God bless you, have a wonderful day, and remember that our time on this earth is brief--try to make yours as sweet as possible!

Flower| 3.20.09 @ 4:22PM

Friedan was a big pro-abort--sorry, I give her no credit.

Michele San Pietro| 3.21.09 @ 4:34AM

Liberals are the most uncaring people in the world. They may only care about their wallet, and they sure don't give half of what they earn to the poor.

wanumba| 3.22.09 @ 9:48PM

Gads. What do American women need? A Judeo-Christian religion that gave women the incredible honor of meeting the risen Savior FIRST, and then having the Savior rebuke the men for not believing the women, rebukes them numerous times! and from this religious basis developed a system of natural law that , amongst other wonderful dignities to all humanity, gave women rights equal to men. Go find any other religion in the world today that respects women so much . Go ahead, try. It's in a league of its own and it's shocking how few "progressive" women understand that. Go out and visit some other countries and see how the majority of women in the world live their lives - many as chattle, most purchased for marriage, scores and scores of cultures formed by religions that teach women have no souls, and thus no hope. See how abysmally widows and their orphans are treated in other societies, the weakest of society. These women would give their right arms to live in America - America without any "Women's Council" or such government-intrusive-nonsense. It's stunning how well American women live compared to their "sisters" elsewhere and STILL they complain. Where's that statue of that pioneer woman when you need it? The woman standing bravely against the elements, her children clutching her skirts as she clutches her gun, sternly facing an unknown frontier, no malls, no Starbucks, no grocery stores, no housing contractors, with bears and cougars, harsh weather, farming by hand. Hard-working hubby and her were IT, the protectors and nurturers of their families, and they were the people who ALSO built towns from scratch, libraries, schools, stores, roads, everything. Are these female whingers who "need government to help them" really the decendents of generations of these incredibly courageous and steely women? Phooey!!

Angel| 3.26.09 @ 9:36PM

No, women like ME are the true descendents of our courageous pioneer sisters! There are plenty of us out here, too.

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