Obama's New Council on Women and Girls Is Another Hollow Gesture
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
He's talking the talk but it remains to be seen whether he will walk the walk. President Obama, whose inner circle of advisers is reported to be predominately white and 25 percent female, announced the creation of a White House Council on Women & Girls today by executive fiat. Why are some women leaders left with the feeling that this Council will be more talk than walk?
Take this, for example, from Politico:
The new council does not have Cabinet rank, however. In fact, it is not even a permanent office with staff devoted full-time to women's issues. However, one signatory to the December letter said yesterday she was satisfied with Obama's action, at least so far.
Hmmmm. I know the bean-counters out there will accuse President Obama of not appointing enough women to Cabinet-level posts and accuse me of tallying too many numbers as well.
But let's talk about gut reactions for a moment. My gut reaction to watching President Obama make his announcement today is he's more talk than walk when it comes to most advancements for women or for other so-called minority groups. Why? His main pursuit seems to be political expediency, making everyone love him and not taking controversial stands (because he might alienate someone.)
Yes, he's a vast improvement over President Bush who abolished the White House Women's Office and stopped releasing figures about the numbers of women and persons of color he appointed to cabinet and sub-cabinet posts. But why does that feel like it's just not enough? Stay tuned, I'll try to figure it out and tell you. In the meantime, I'd love your thoughts.
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Reader Comments
In agreement
I also believe that President Obama is a lot of talk and very little action. And the actions he does take leave me feeling like there's some hidden agenda. Women's rights are a name-dropping tool in this case, but then, I don't see a lot of political leaders stepping up to the plate on this issue. I'm tired of appeasement and would love to see someone who actually believes in bringing equality to the table...for real.
I Agree With You, Bonnie
I also think Obama's Council on Women and Girls is a hollow gesture. Obama constantly uses sexist language, he has never made a sacrifice for Michelle's career, he has never taken much initiative on women's rights legislation, he has never publicly honored the feminist movement, and so on. As a political leader, Obama is not in Michele Bachelet and Jose Luis Zapatero's league when it comes to women's rights.
Bonnie, you're one of the few mainstream feminist commentators who has voiced reservations about the Council on Women and Girls. Groups like NOW and AAUW seem thrilled with it, which I find quite disturbing. NOW and AAUW obviously need to wotk with the Obama administration, but they also need to be a critical voice. The feminist movement, like all social justice groups, has to play realpolitik, but it also needs to stay true to its prophetic vision and speak truth to power.
One thing for certain: If Obama trivializes women's rights, it will hurt his chances in 2012.
Give Obama time and more time
We wondered all along how Michelle braved the chilling temperatures of the past few months in short-sleeved dresses. Reconciling being surrounded by four women at home probably makes a man mesmerised to the realities of prevailing social sexual imbalances and let's face it, nature has programmed the sexes to respond to certain situations in logically inexplicable and strange ways. But be that as it may, women's issues are best integrated into mainstream political considerations and decision-making overtly, intentionally and pragmatically in the manner the Norwegians have endeavoured to do statutorily if mankind can ever hope to trump over inequalities of opportunities and achieve a certain level of equality between the sexes. If the purpose of enactments is to ensure positive action backed by sanctions, it goes without saying that the same procedure will be the only most effective way to ensure that well drafted statutes designed to address gender inequalities based on missed chances takes account of the natural conditions which inescapably influence the lack of progress in proportionately accelerating the improvement of gender imbalances. But both women and men need to take cognisance of their own individually internalised negative values which hinder genuine self-criticism so that the path is kept open all the time for recognising behaviour which facilitate and nurture the perennial circle of sexual discrimination. Obama cannot be expected to rectify millennium-old human maladies with the 'magical click of the thumb' overnight but given his exemplary and unprecedented agility in taking command of the most pressing issues affecting the common good not only of the American society but of the world which is currently copying his every move (a world which is looking up to him from every nook and cranny of its corners literally), we own him that space of time necessary to tackle an area of humanity that has been classified as 'private' for time immemorial and which will always be met with deeply held subjective notions as diverse as the world itself is. Let's wait and see what will have happened by this time next year at least. There is a lot of work to be done by everyone everywhere all the times and, by the way, did he not wisely ask for everyone's assistance in doing it?
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