Women rising … to the White House?
From staff reports
With the 2016 presidential election just weeks away, and with the possibility of a woman winning the nation’s highest office, the Glen Arbor Sun asked several of our regular contributors to share their thoughts on feminism, women’s achievements during their lifetimes, and the prospect of Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office. Despite nearly a century of gains, sexism and misogyny continue to rear their shameful heads, particularly in this presidential election.
For the future
By Mary Sharry
In just four years we’ll come to the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. There is just one more amendment awaiting ratification and that is the Equal Rights Amendment.
My mother felt justified in her fight to achieve pay equity for women teachers after she read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1963. My mother was on a union negotiating team trying to obtain equal pay for women. She was a single parent earning less money than a man in the same teaching position she held. I remember the night she came home in tears from a grueling bargaining session. The president of the school board had told her that he did not consider her to be the head of a household, she was a woman and only a man could be the head of a household. Imagine! I think Friedan’s book did give her a sense of empowerment and courage. I know that she returned to the bargaining table and helped to win parity for women’s wages in her school district.
From where I stand, this world is run by a few men who represent the worst of a patriarchy, a society dominated by mostly white male authority. This authority hasn’t seemed to get us very far. I think there are some men who feel threatened by the idea of women as independent thinkers and doers, much as I feel many white people have felt a sense of loss of some elusive power when we elected our first African-American president.
I’m voting for Hillary Clinton, not just because she is a woman, but from what I’ve studied of her background, her intellect and dynamic caring about justice and the human condition. I see her biggest opponent, Mr. Trump, as a shallow man whose background consisted of the life of a playboy who thrilled at material things and women who fit his definition of sexy.
My mother, my heroine, loved Hillary. She introduced me to her book, It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us, when it first came out in 1996. If you want to learn about Hillary Clinton and what shaped her into the presidential candidate she is today, I highly recommend a read of her book before the November election. Hillary Clinton’s book about raising children is a book about our nation, about life itself. She is understanding of the needs of others, something we’ve yet to hear from other candidates. There is a mothering quality in her. Perhaps our nation, even the world, needs that quality right now or we are doomed.
The “make America great again” mantra seems a nebulous concept, a nostalgia for perhaps the stability of a two-parent home. What if that home is unstable? What if it is not a two-parent home? Can a child still sense stability? My mother maintained a sense of her own self-worth in her underpaid teaching position and brought forth her own courage to create a change in some patriarchal thinking. She is my heroine. She was a feminist, an independent thinker. Of course, I’m voting for Hillary Clinton to be our next President. For myself! For my children! For the future!
Women of This Age
By Anne-Marie Oomen
For two plus years I have co-hosted a public access TV show originally titled “Women of a Certain Age,” with Susan McQuaid and Karen Anderson on channel 189 through UpNorth Media. We started by focusing on successful women of all walks of life who, quite honestly, looked a little more like us and a little less like the more perfect (and yes, much younger) women who populated commercial TV. We wanted to focus on women who had a mature stance in the world, who were quietly doing important, even life changing things. Perhaps my initial attitude was a bit snarky because, of course, we swiftly discovered women of all ages were doing innovative work with exceptional success. I stand corrected, but here’s the biggest, perhaps most obvious, discovery. In an age that is truly uncertain, still little is said to celebrate what women of all ages do to anchor, contribute to, and build vital systems in this unpredictable time. In this age where the only thing certain is uncertainty, an astonishing number of women were demonstrating fierce new skills that are reshaping uncertainty.
Through dozens of interviews, my cohosts and I were in the unique position to comprehend more fully this reshaping. We interviewed female construction workers, life-long yoga and wellness instructors, women in soil conservation, natural resources, horticulture, agriculture, and mechanics. We interviewed female bankers, business owners, master landscapers, chefs, artists, writers, poets, elder workers, farmers, goatherds, managers, cheesemakers, fundraisers. We found women involved in local giving circles and in international diplomacy. We interviewed same gender couples, spiritual leaders, Native American healers and leaders in equal rights. As the months passed, I felt myself changing from a woman who was proud of women in general to gaining awareness of how our region was changing specifically because of women’s contributions (both in the world and at home). Our interviews revealed women have fought the more insidious elements of sexism — which is alive and well no matter what we see on the surface, and entered all walks of life with tenacity and grace, usually while still running homes. We found ourselves coming into a greater appreciation of our capacity to stand on equal footing with any human being, not because of our sex but because of talent and tenacity. Thus, as my co-hosts and I became more thoughtful, we changed our TV title to “Women of an Uncertain Age,” focusing on the time and not our years. We shifted focus to highlight women of all ages doing successful work (as they have always done), but also groundbreaking fields women now shape.
I am tired of people who talk about a woman’s temperament or stamina as different from a man’s. What is confirmed is that we each have unique temperaments — and women are doing powerful things in our community and nationally with all kinds of temperaments, and often with immense, sometimes awe-inspiring stamina. What I know is that women of all ages and of a certain age are contributing positively to this uncertain age, perhaps especially in leadership and politics. I am not afraid of this uncertain age because I know, with women assuming more powerful and new roles, the vital elements that are often missing from current attitudes will be newly shaped: resilience, reason, and hope.
Beyond pantsuits
By Sarah Bearup-Neal
When I was a junior high student in the 1960s, there was some hubbub about whether or not to allow girl students to wear pants to school. One of the arguments against girls-in-pants — put forth by a cabal of male administrators — was that trousers would cause girls to be less focused in the classroom. Ironically, a half-century later, one of my four choices of presidential candidates is a woman in trousers. And contrary to those long-ago administrators’ concern that girls + pants = scholastic decline, Hillary Clinton, Our Lady of the Pantsuit, is the living embodiment of focus.
It’s worth mentioning that there is another woman who is also focused on being the next president of the United States. I haven’t, however, gotten a fix on Jill Stein’s wardrobe, which is a good thing. Unlike the junior high school administrators who ruled my life, I am of the belief that clothes do not make the woman. Or, the man. What makes a person, especially a person who wishes to be elected president of the United States, is far more complex. For more than a year, the public has been subjected to a near-constant barrage of ludicrous talk — about women’s weight, about marital infidelity, innuendo about penis size, all manner of racist and xenophobic assertions, and unhinged plans to round up the usual suspects, spoken mostly by a well-dressed guy with a penchant for superlative adjectives. The Republican candidate’s unfocused fever dreams have sucked the air out of the room, and have exhaled a miasma of rotting beliefs that have turned the process of electing a new president into an insane clown circus.
Having been recently asked how I feel about having a woman presidential candidate, my only answer is, “Of course, I’m delighted.” The idea, and the reality, takes me back to my junior high school self, who does a little shimmy dance that finally, finally, the really smart girl — the one with thick glasses, with the first-rate mind capable of being able to juggle and understand subtle complexities, and a commensurate emotional intelligence — is on top of the ballot. Gender is no guarantee of quality governance. To whit: a failed vice-presidential candidate best known for her tortured sentence construction and oh-snap! bumper sticker intellect. I was never with her. Ever. Here’s the thing: Substance gets me. Every time. One pant leg at a time.
A rising tide
By Peachy Rentenbach
As I watch Hillary Clinton’s run for the Presidency, I think back on what she and I and other women of our generation have been through in attaining equal treatment in life. Hillary is almost one year older than I am. We experienced the women’s movement in the 1970s and early 1980s. And while I am only one of the many millions of women who will vote for her in the election, I look back on my life and what she and others have done to create opportunities for women in the leadership life of this country.
I always thought I could do anything. 1980, I had a job as membership director of the Michigan Restaurant Association, which put me in touch with restaurant owners across the state. As a young professional woman I learned how our business worked, how personal relationships affected business, how women were perceived in terms of their ability to do jobs previously held by men. It was tough training that sharpened my skills and taught me to fight for what I wanted or needed to do. Like any woman in business, I encountered the occasional insult or assumption because of my sex. I was fortunate to have a female mentor for whom I worked. I came out of that job experience stronger and wiser. I eventually served as executive vice president of the association, a leadership position through which I was able to train others — men and women — in the restaurant business. I left in 1987 to run my own restaurant.
That was La Becasse in Burdickville, which my husband, John, and I owned and operated from 1987 to 2005 when we sold it to its current owner. Being a business owner brought new challenges: keeping sales up, meeting payroll, treating employees well, welcoming dining guests with sensitivity to their expectations, becoming part of the community. I loved doing it and was successful at it. But after 18 years of hard work, we decided to sell and seek new challenges.
By 2012 I thought about taking what I knew from business and giving back and applying it to the business of county government. I was elected and began serving as County Commissioner in January of 2013. Some professional practices were indeed applicable in county government — listening to constituent concerns, collaborating and compromising with my colleagues on the commission, considering laws under which we operate. I grew in the job. Our county commission reflects an affirmation of how far the country has come in equalizing opportunities for everyone to hold civic offices. Hillary Clinton has come far, all women in the country have come far. Perhaps, women like myself are a part of what makes her run for President possible.
Inspiring the next generation
By Stephanie Purifoy
Everyone in the country and a lot of people overseas are glued to this current Presidential election. Every news platform is littered with new polls, new stats, new stories about two people, one of whom will soon sit in the oval office. People seem unusually obsessed with this election and this could be because of the two candidates. One is Donald Trump, real estate tycoon and billionaire. The other is Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and wife of former President Bill Clinton. Both of these candidates have sparked mountains of controversy and have inspired numerous emotions from people all over the world. The debate that took place on Sept. 26 increased the amount of controversy surrounding the candidates but one thing is a fact. This is the closest a woman has come to the Presidency and she might be sitting in the Oval Office by the end of January.
Women have long been overlooked in the workplace. In fact, it wasn’t until 1889 that the country had its first female CEO and it wasn’t until 1972 that a Fortune 500 Company was run by a woman. To this day women still earn less than men in the same jobs. Progress has been made but there is still work to be done. The road has been equally hard for women in politics. The first female senator was elected in 1922. Women have slowly been working their up the corporate and political ladder but there is one position that has yet to be filled by a female: President of the United States. With the Presidential election in full swing and Clinton and Trump practically neck and neck, many think that glass ceiling is about to be broken.
I personally have grown up in a world of strong women. All of the women in my life are independent and are thriving in their particular profession. I never had the notion that a woman could somehow be less competent than a man until I was old enough to get a full view of the world. It’s a place where women aren’t always equal to men. But this is changing; women are coming into their own in this world. While this has caused controversy and discord, it is creating a world that has a little more equality than the years past. Having a woman sit in the oval office would prove that the world is shifting towards this equality. It would prove that women aren’t as looked over as they were fifty years ago. As a woman, this emboldens me to continue to break the glass ceilings that have held us in. It gives me confidence to know that a woman has gotten as far in the world as Hillary Clinton — she is a mother and a grandmother, was a Senator, a First Lady and the Secretary of State.
Having a woman in the Oval Office would not only inspire me but it would also inspire millions of other women. It could create a new wave of powerful women in the workplace and that is an exciting prospect. Women provide new perspectives and have ideas that deserve to be heard.
