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| Does Barack Obama have a women problem? | Does Barack Obama have a women problem? |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Labor Secretary Hilda Solis's statement to colleagues upon her departure fell a little short of the engineered inoffensiveness that we can usually count on from such things. Yes, there is the pleasant and expected mix of soft-focus sentiment (she is humbled, she is proud, she will miss all of them) and jarring specifics ("2011 saw the fewest-ever mine fatalities"). But I stumbled (as perhaps did she) over her awkwardly redundant explication of her plans post-cabinet: | Labor Secretary Hilda Solis's statement to colleagues upon her departure fell a little short of the engineered inoffensiveness that we can usually count on from such things. Yes, there is the pleasant and expected mix of soft-focus sentiment (she is humbled, she is proud, she will miss all of them) and jarring specifics ("2011 saw the fewest-ever mine fatalities"). But I stumbled (as perhaps did she) over her awkwardly redundant explication of her plans post-cabinet: |
| "I have decided to begin a new future, and return to the people and places I love." | "I have decided to begin a new future, and return to the people and places I love." |
| Which poses the question: how did she feel about the Obama administration? | Which poses the question: how did she feel about the Obama administration? |
| Her resignation is bad timing, to be sure. The selection of John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton, the decision to pass over qualified female members of the department of defense and install Chuck Hagel ("aggressively male", you might say) instead: these actions have given fodder to a new slew of speculations about Obama's true intentions for true diversity. | Her resignation is bad timing, to be sure. The selection of John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton, the decision to pass over qualified female members of the department of defense and install Chuck Hagel ("aggressively male", you might say) instead: these actions have given fodder to a new slew of speculations about Obama's true intentions for true diversity. |
| Not to confuse Freudians too much, but sometimes, the absence of a cigar is just the absence of a cigar – and sometimes, it's hiding behind a senior adviser. The image that accompanied the New York Times story about the lack of women in high-level positions seemed blatant enough proof of the Oval Office as locker room. CNN investigative forensic experts uncovered Valerie Jarrett's leg (presumably, attached to the rest of her) behind the figure of Dan Pfeiffer. It's a lesson in the difficulty of assessing the administration's actions on this front, and the dangers that come with judging at civil rights as if they were a census. | Not to confuse Freudians too much, but sometimes, the absence of a cigar is just the absence of a cigar – and sometimes, it's hiding behind a senior adviser. The image that accompanied the New York Times story about the lack of women in high-level positions seemed blatant enough proof of the Oval Office as locker room. CNN investigative forensic experts uncovered Valerie Jarrett's leg (presumably, attached to the rest of her) behind the figure of Dan Pfeiffer. It's a lesson in the difficulty of assessing the administration's actions on this front, and the dangers that come with judging at civil rights as if they were a census. |
| Questions about the sincerity of the Obama team's commitment to gender equality have been hushed but constant since his primary battle with Clinton, when the very fact of her defeat was proof that a cracked glass ceiling was a ceiling nonetheless. The years following saw a reliable trickle of trend stories, each with one set of facts that could support the theory that the Obama was a feminist hero (there's a 50:50 male/female staff ratio in the White House; absent Bush appointees, only 49% of the 366 "decision makers" are men; and Secretary Clinton herself); and another set of data points that suggested he was simply treading civil rights water (no improvement over the Clinton administration in overall administration hiring) and lots of talk of a "feel" and a "sense" and even a " vibe" that Obama was really "Bro-bama". In the words of Tracy Sefl, a (Hillary) Clinton campaign adviser: | Questions about the sincerity of the Obama team's commitment to gender equality have been hushed but constant since his primary battle with Clinton, when the very fact of her defeat was proof that a cracked glass ceiling was a ceiling nonetheless. The years following saw a reliable trickle of trend stories, each with one set of facts that could support the theory that the Obama was a feminist hero (there's a 50:50 male/female staff ratio in the White House; absent Bush appointees, only 49% of the 366 "decision makers" are men; and Secretary Clinton herself); and another set of data points that suggested he was simply treading civil rights water (no improvement over the Clinton administration in overall administration hiring) and lots of talk of a "feel" and a "sense" and even a " vibe" that Obama was really "Bro-bama". In the words of Tracy Sefl, a (Hillary) Clinton campaign adviser: |
| "Obama has a certain jocular familiarity with the men that he doesn't have with the women." | "Obama has a certain jocular familiarity with the men that he doesn't have with the women." |
| Discussion over the Obama administration's make-up is both forced and delicate: critics of how the administration has yet to achieve true gender parity are painfully aware that things could be much, much worse. But does that make the situation, as it stands, OK? | Discussion over the Obama administration's make-up is both forced and delicate: critics of how the administration has yet to achieve true gender parity are painfully aware that things could be much, much worse. But does that make the situation, as it stands, OK? |
| Certainly, policy matters more than anatomy, as does cultural sensitivity. I picked Obama over Mitt Romney, I'd pick Mitt Romney over Michele Bachmann if you put a gun to my head … but the ways progressives explain to ourselves the absence of genuine difference at the highest levels of government forces us into metaphor. | Certainly, policy matters more than anatomy, as does cultural sensitivity. I picked Obama over Mitt Romney, I'd pick Mitt Romney over Michele Bachmann if you put a gun to my head … but the ways progressives explain to ourselves the absence of genuine difference at the highest levels of government forces us into metaphor. |
| It meant something, if not progress exactly, that African Americans so fully embraced Bill Clinton, but people forget that when Toni Morrison called him "the first black president", she wasn't even talking about his ideology and identification, but about her perception of him as having suffered a form of bigotry: | It meant something, if not progress exactly, that African Americans so fully embraced Bill Clinton, but people forget that when Toni Morrison called him "the first black president", she wasn't even talking about his ideology and identification, but about her perception of him as having suffered a form of bigotry: |
| "I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race." | "I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race." |
| Andrew Sullivan dubbing Obama the "first gay president" was even more of a stretch – his record on gay rights is full of stutters and slips – but that was a rhetorical twist at least linked to real changes in real people's lives. | Andrew Sullivan dubbing Obama the "first gay president" was even more of a stretch – his record on gay rights is full of stutters and slips – but that was a rhetorical twist at least linked to real changes in real people's lives. |
| Gender, though, is a less fluid category than either race or sexuality. Sex is binary. Hillary Clinton jokes aside, the "first female president" will not be a man (though to judge by Jack Lew's signature, the next secretary of the US treasury may be a 12-year-old girl.) | |
| Any story about diversity in the upper echelons of anything invariably contains a hands-throwing-up gesture at the "pipeline problem". But at some point in time and given a certain level of power, that can no longer be an excuse. | Any story about diversity in the upper echelons of anything invariably contains a hands-throwing-up gesture at the "pipeline problem". But at some point in time and given a certain level of power, that can no longer be an excuse. |
| It's the nature of systems not to change; that's what makes them systems. If you're still looking in the pipeline for people to promote, you've already accepted the way things have always been done. Expand your tunnel vision: take risks, promote individuals with atypical resumes, or even those whose experience may fall a little short of standard (like one not-even-a-full-term senator I could name). | It's the nature of systems not to change; that's what makes them systems. If you're still looking in the pipeline for people to promote, you've already accepted the way things have always been done. Expand your tunnel vision: take risks, promote individuals with atypical resumes, or even those whose experience may fall a little short of standard (like one not-even-a-full-term senator I could name). |
| The powers of the president of the United States have expanded in modern times to wage war without congressional oversight, sign off on the torture of prisoners, and direct the assassination of American citizens. Women fought for Obama's election, and won it for him. Surely, he can make a few battlefield promotions. | The powers of the president of the United States have expanded in modern times to wage war without congressional oversight, sign off on the torture of prisoners, and direct the assassination of American citizens. Women fought for Obama's election, and won it for him. Surely, he can make a few battlefield promotions. |
| • Editor's note: the sentence 'Gender is binary' was amended at 3pm on 10 January to 'Sex is binary', as gender is not strictly binary |
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