By Kathleen Parker

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

© 2008, Washington Post Writers Group

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WORK$MART: Pay Negotiation for Women (Two-Part Series)
Did you know that men are four times more likely to initiate salary negotiations than women? And that a worker stands to lose more than $500,000 by age 60 if she fails to negotiate her first salary?
The National Women's Law Center can help you learn the essential nuts and bolts of effective salary negotiation through our free two-part series of online workshops:
WORK$MART: Pay Negotiation for Women (Two-Part Series)
1:00 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2008, and 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008
Register Now:
During these workshops you will learn:
• How to benchmark the salary of your current job;
• How to determine whether or not you are paid fairly; and
• How to negotiate a raise or promotion.
These workshops will be moderated by Jocelyn Samuels, Vice President for Education and Employment at the National Women's Law Center. They were developed and will be led by Dr. Evelyn Murphy, President of The WAGE Project, Inc., a national grassroots activist organization dedicated to eliminating the gender wage gap. Dr. Murphy is a Ph. D. economist, former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, and author of Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men and What to Do About It.

This two-part webinar series is free to participants, but registration is required.
This webinar is part of the National Women's Law Center's Citi Education Series on Family Economic Security

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment. This woman is from Alaska for crying out loud. She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she is ready to be one heart beat away form the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now. Allow her to show her stuff. Allow her to face down those pesky reporters... Let her have a real news conference with real questions.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New Republic

Ladies' Man
by Fred Strebeigh
The backslapping, bloviating hero of women's rights.
Post Date Wednesday, September 24, 2008

In January 2000, when the Supreme Court assembled to hear oral arguments attacking a pivotal section of the Violence Against Women Act, Joseph Biden was front and center. VAWA legally protects women from domestic abuse and gender-based violence, and Biden has proclaimed it the "most important legislative accomplishment" of his Senate career. But, long before the law had reached a congressional vote, Chief Justice William Rehnquist had attacked the "Civil Rights for Women" section, with which Biden sought to define gender-motivated crimes as bias or hate crimes.

As Rehnquist prepared to open the morning's first argument, Biden did not sit somberly. Rather, the senator swiveled in his seat (conspicuous to most of us in the court's press section), smiling cheerily and talking with nearby allies, including numerous female attorneys who had helped him shape the bill. Although Biden had no official role, he sought to signal that--in what he described that day as a "titanic struggle"--neither he nor the women around him would go quietly in defeat.

These days, many women voters are more likely to perceive Biden as a spoiler than as a supporter. Since his selection last month as Barack Obama's running mate, Biden has been pitted against women, first taking the job that many Hillary Clinton supporters felt was her due, then facing off against another historic woman, Sarah Palin, who could become the first female vice president of the United States. With his 30-plus years in the Senate, Biden can sound like the member of a male-only club, an impression reinforced by old-boy gaffes--from joking that his wife's doctorate "is a problem" to referring to Palin as "good-looking."

But the irony of this assessment is that Biden has some of the best feminist bona fides around. The mostly untold story of Biden's fight to support the "Civil Rights For Women" section of VAWA provides a window into his work for women, its origins, and how the defense of women's rights fits into his political worldview. Women voters may yet find something to cheer: In fighting for the legislation, Biden showed he was willing to trust the guidance of women activists and women judges, and then to contend against fierce and mostly male resistance in Washington, particularly from the Supreme Court.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We're not that stupid. Sure it would be nice if the women of America believed that everyone with breasts and a vagina believed in equality. But it ain't so. Women have differing views -- just like men.

Some like beer; some like chardonnay. And some prefer AA. Some like automatic weapons; some don't. Some think every pregnancy is sanctified; some don't. Some think presidents should be qualified for office; some don't care.

But to take the struggle for equal rights that has gone on for two centuries and embody it in the person of Sarah Palin is not just misleading but abusive. Charging rape victims for rape kits is a travesty of equal rights. Insisting that government impose your own views of abortion on others is anti-equality. Cutting funding for black teenage mothers is anti-feminist and racist. Lying to the electorate about your record is insolent. Do you think we're too stupid or indolent to check?

We have checked. You are lying and so is she. But you must think that a big lie repeated over and over becomes the truth. And it seems that many Americans are with you on that.

You are so good at the bold-faced lie that you even seem to believe it yourself. When Barbara Walters and Joy Behar accused you of lying on "The View," you claimed you weren't.

I guess your handlers have decided that after eight years of Cheney-Bush saying one thing and doing another, truth no longer has any meaning. Say it often enough and we'll believe anything -- like the good commercial-watchers we are. So, prep Sarah to sound like Hillary -- and we'll be fooled.

It remains to be seen how many will.

But one thing is clear. You have reached a new low in your regard for the public. You have blown your credibility. Usually politicians wait to be elected to do that.

It's fascinating to watch you and your party try to co-opt the idea of change, the idea of equal rights after eight years of being in total control and trashing the country for women, for workers, for taxpayers and for anyone who earns dollars.

Do you really think we're that stupid? Apparently you do.

Tax cuts for the rich have produced trickle-down unemployment. You want to try that again? We don't. The private sector has not policed itself. Failing banks and mortgage companies prove that. The deficit has swelled. Insurance rates for health care have swelled. Women are joining the ranks of the poor faster than ever.

Play it again, John?

As Sarah Palin said, lying about her lust for earmarks, "Thanks but no thanks."

Sincerely,
Erica Jong

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congrats to all of you for your measured reasoning in voting for Obama.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Overview of the number of people searching "Sexy Sarah Palin" and other Sarah Palin related search terms. I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe, because she's a woman.

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 10, 2008 -- As of September 10, 2008 Sarah Palin is beating out the search term keywords porn and sex. In addition, "sarah palin nude," "sarah palin pictures" and "sarah palin bikini" are in the top 1000 searches.

Recently Cindy McCain remarked on ABC's Good Morning America that she "absolutely" believes sexism is behind critical coverage of her husband's vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. "I think it's insulting," McCain told Sawyer. "I think it's outlandish. And for whatever reason, the media has decided to treat her differently, because, I believe, because she's a woman."

Questions regarding sexism being a factor in this campaign have become a real concern to women voters, and need to be addressed openly and honestly. In an effort to advance this conversation PoliticalSalon.com pulled data from a trusted source used to track daily search engine user behavior.

1.sarah palin
2.sarah palin nude
3.sarah palin pictures
4.sarah palin photos
5.sarah palin pics
6.sarah palin bikini
7.sarah palin speech
8.sarah palin naked
9.sarah palin vogue
10.sarah palin miss alaska

- upon further investigation we found:

"sarah palin swimsuit"
"sexy sarah palin"
"sarah palin milf"
"sarah palin topless"
"sarah palin porn"
"sarah palin sex tape"

The top search terms for Joe Biden are as follows:

1.joe biden
2.joe biden biography
3.senator joe biden
4.joe biden on gay issues
5.joe biden's voting record
6.joe biden plagiarism
7.who is joe biden
8.joe biden speech
9.joe biden wife
10.joe biden net worth

Also:
"joe biden hair plugs"

We're guessing it's no surprise nobody wants to see Joe Biden naked, or even in a swimsuit.

Source: PRWeb

My take: Yes, sexism is alive and well. Governor Palin seems to appeal to people's base instincts. Why no search on her voting record or views on important issues? She's running for one of the highest offices in the United States along with a guy who is the oldest candidate for President and people want to know what she looks like in a bikini. Ergo...if she looks good, we can vote for her? Is there a worldwide beauty contest coming up? Will she stand the Iraninans down in her birthday suit?

Wake up people. This is REALITY. The future of this country and the world are at stake in this election.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have seen Les Miserables three times, all in London, so maybe this stirs me more than most!
Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Eve Ensler, the American playwright, performer, feminist and activist best known for "The Vagina Monologues", wrote the following about Sarah Palin

Drill, Drill, Drill I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Eve Ensler
September 5, 2008

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As we turn our attention back to the Presidential campaign, to the choice we will make in November, let September 11, 2008 remind us of what we require from our leaders and from our government: competence. Our choice isn't about language or personality or how well we relate to a politician. This day reminds us that our choice in November is about the competence of the government we will elect.

Rachel Maddow, September 11, 2008

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the National Women's Law Center:

A rule proposed by the Bush Administration would gut a program that helps women-owned small businesses compete on a level playing field for federal contracts. We've been advised that the rule may soon become final.

The program in question, the Women’s Procurement Program, aims to ensure that at least 5 percent of federal contracting dollars are awarded to women-owned small businesses. The Administration's proposed rule would limit the industries in which the contracting goal could be applied, and would require that each federal agency find that it has engaged in discrimination before using the flexibility granted by the program.

In late December 2007, the Small Business Administration issued a proposed rule that would dramatically undermine the Women's Procurement Program — a Congressionally mandated and bipartisan program to help women-owned small businesses compete on a level playing field for Federal contracts. The Center and its coalition partners filed comments opposing the proposed rule, but we have now been advised that the Administration intends to issue a final rule shortly that mirrors the deeply problematic proposed rule.

There is substantial evidence that women and minority owned businesses have been subject to discrimination in numerous ways, including in lending, in access to capital, and in basic access to contracting opportunities. In response to this evidence, Congress in 2000 passed a law to address this discrimination, setting a goal that 5% of federal contracting dollars be awarded to women-owned small businesses. That goal has never been met: although women-owned small businesses comprise 30% of all small businesses, in 2006, for example, they received only 3.4% of federal contracts.

Despite the continuing barriers faced by women-owned businesses, the SBA's proposed rule would virtually nullify the goals of the Women's Procurement Program by drastically limiting the number of industries in which the contracting goal could be applied and by requiring that each federal agency find that it has itself engaged in discrimination before using the flexibility granted by the Program. The proposed rule seriously misstates the applicable legal standards, and imposes unnecessary and inappropriate barriers that virtually ensure that the Women's Procurement Program will never be used.

We're tracking the developments on this issue, and we'll keep you informed about next steps.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 9:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I hope everyone will read this first-class piece written by Andrew Sullivan

read it here

Update: sorry, wrong link (although it makes a point, too) Here's the correct one.
GillIian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What are you doing to ensure the outcome you want from this election? I'm registering as many voters as I can between now and the deadline. And then I am going out of state to wherever I can be helpful to ensure that I will be able to say on November 5th, I did all that I could do to win this thing for Barack (and the future of this country).

Not everyone is as lucky as I in terms of the amount of time they can devote to the cause, but everyone can do something.

Put a bumper sticker on your car. My friend Wendy had someone beep at her and give her the thumbs up. She rolled down the window, told them to pull over, and got them to sign up as a volunteer for the Obama campaign.

At restaurants, we always ask if everyone is registered. Yesterday, we had a stack of completed voter registration cards which began a very productive discussion with a waitress. She told us that she was a democrat and she wanted to vote for Obama, but she heard he wanted to decommission the military. I have no clue where she got that from, a random email or mixing up his effort to decommission old nuclear weapons in rogue states, but within 5 seconds we had her back on track and feeling good about her vote for Obama. She came back later to give us her information and tell us she wanted to volunteer for the campaign.

Wear a button, start a conversation. Last night we walked into a local restaurant and one of the waiters ran up to say hi to me. He remembered me from last week when I watched the Sara Palin acceptance speech in the restaurant. Ok, I was a little loud! We sat at the bar and started to talk to a guy sitting next to us. From my vantage point, he looked like a McCain supporter, but I was completely wrong. He was visiting from Missouri, a big Barack fan, and we had a wonderful conversation, even pulling in an undecided bartender.

So, it only takes a second to put an Obama button on in the morning. And you have a whole day to hold wonderful conversations with some really interesting people.

Do your part.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spent all day trying to figure out how to stop this (supposed) rush by white women to Governor Palin. As the evidence mounted, it was hard to figure out which piece to use. It was hard to figure out how the posts were mounting.. were they being written by Republican operatives? Blogs like:

I have been a democrat all my life, a feminist, and now I am voting for McCain and Palin.

Of all of the things I’ve learned about Sarah Palin in the last week and a half, this has got to be the most disturbing. While Sarah Palin was serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city charged victims of sexual assault between $300 and $1200 for their own rape kits. A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The kit is performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed. It is usually humiliating and uncomfortable for the victim–imagine enduring that and then paying $1200 just so that the criminal who assaulted you might be caught.

And don't get me started on the issues of choice, polar bear endangerment, climate change, the plane that didn't really get sold on Ebay, the chef that still cooks for the family but is supposedly fired, the bridge she was for before she was against, troopergate and the attempt by the Republicans to get the democratic leader who was investigating fired, and the person who could be president almost immediately that got a passport last year and made one trip outside the United States and will now hold sway on foreign policy and the war on terror......and on and on and on......get real white women. You are embarassing us who marched before you with your America Idol criteria.

Before I hired a person for a senior job in my company, I interviewed them extensively and i checked their references. How come she refuses to give press access? Wise up...

This is your country, your children's future...be more discriminating...act like this is important.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen.com

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I came home yesterday, from registering voters - my complete focus these days. Pierre told me that he had been catching up on his email and that my daughter, Tara Parrillo, had submitted a blog. "That nice," I said. "No" he said. "You need to read it." So read it I did and it was very special:

Tonight I sat and watched Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention with tears streaming down my face. They were tears of hope for what is possible. I never thought that I would be blessed enough to be even tangentially a part of such an historic and life-changing time in political history. I think what made me most emotional tonight is that I was thinking about my mom standing on the floor of the Democratic National Convention as a delegate from Texas watching Obama give his historical speech. I could not be more proud of someone as I am of my mom at this moment. I think back to a celebration over 30 years ago when my older brother and I stood cheering in the audience at Mount Vernon waiving our little American flags as my mom was sworn in as an American citizen. I know serving as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention has always been a dream of hers and, anyone who knows my mom, knows she dreams big. Mom, with so much hard work you are living one of your dreams. Savor this moment. You worked hard for it and deserve it. I am one of your biggest fans. I am so proud of you. I love you more than you will ever know!

Tara Parrillo
August 28, 2008

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 29, 2008

Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential Pick

Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.

Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.

Finally, as the chair of NOW's Political Action Committee, I am frequently asked whether NOW supports women candidates just because they are women. This gives me an opportunity to once again answer that question with an emphatic 'No.' We recognize the importance of having women's rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports women's rights.

Gllian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Huffington Post a post by Jaime Lee Curtis

The scariest thing I hear about the Palin nomination was that she would appeal to voters because they would be able to relate to her and she to them. I get that. There are many places where relatability is key. I am a recovering addict alcoholic and finding another group that relates to my struggles is/was key to my sobriety. When I am at school I find myself grouping with others whose kids share the same issues, interests. People tell me all the time that the More magazine article where I showed what my real body looked like in comparison to the air brushed images most women are fed, was important and made me relatable. That too is great. The problem is I may be relatable and share some of your experiences and concerns but you don't want me as president of United States. Relatability gets you nothing in a complex financial crisis. Relatability doesn't help you understand the Gordian knot of trouble in the Middle East. Relatability doesn't help you untangle the obscenity which is our health care and insurance system and relatability doesn't train the hundreds of thousands of new teachers and repair and rebuild the smashed infrastructure and schools where they work. I couldn't hold my own for one minute in a debate on any issue with someone like a Barack Obama or Joseph Biden and neither can Sarah Palin. When the call comes at 3AM I want a mind who was at the top of their class, who has gravitas and a real intellect. I want a leader who is a scholar who can hold the history of civilization in his head and will read and learn from the past as he charts the future. Real debates, where issues are explored, are the only way, prior to an election, to get the two candidates and their running mates to share their ideas and plans for the myriad contingencies they will/might face. This isn't a test. We don't get a re-do. This is the hardest time this generation has ever faced and people are all scared about the economy, our health care and mostly our children's futures. That is what millions of Americans and I can relate to.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You made a choice to have a baby whom you knew would be born with Down's syndrome. Good for you and good for this country that you are allowed to make choices. And too bad that you don't believe that everyone should get to make their own choice about such matters. But when you made that choice, didn't you imagine that you might have to make some changes in your life, give up a little ambition, take things a little slower, to give the time and attention that this new child would require? Did you honestly believe that you could take off on the campaign trail and work every hour of every day and do right by this new baby?

And when you said yes to the invitation to become a vice presidential candidate, knowing that your 17-year old daughter was pregnant, didn't it occur to you that you would embarrass your own daughter before the whole country? Most mothers I know would never have done such a thing. We would have supported our daughter in HER choice, we would have tried hard not to impose OUR choice, but we would have ALWAYS taken a back seat to protect our beloved child.

I don't think I am the only one who is thinking this. See this article in the New York Times.

Update: And here's another along the same lines.

Gillian Parrillo
SacWomen

Posted by Gillian Parrillo at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)