France Beats The U.S. at Parity

Cynthia Ruccia



This is what parity looks like!! The new Francois Hollande government in France has appointed a gender equal cabinet having appointed 17 women and 17 men to lead the various departments. Hollande kept a campaign promise (how unique is that!!!!) to boost France's pitiful ratings and overnight France went from having a 16% female cabinet to having a 50% male/female cabinet.
You can read all about it here. You could quibble that the appointments given the women were not the most important cabinet posts, but I'm not in a mood to quibble. In one fell swoop, parity was achieved, and hopefully France will continue down this path of parity. France ranks nominally better than the United States in female representation in government, France ranking 69 to the U.S.'s 78. Hopefully this move will be a real game changer for France.!!

I'd like to know how Hollande was persuaded to make gender parity a campaign issue. Back in 2008, many Hillary supporters attempted to appeal to the Obama campaign to make the same promise and were rebuffed at every turn. They were not only rebuffed and stonewalled, they were ridiculed as if to say that this idea of a gender equal cabinet was totally ridiculous.

I'd like to suggest that one of the presidential campaigns needs to make this kind of promise. If one of the campaigns decides to nominate a woman VP and to promise a gender equal cabinet, that party would instantly become the new "party of women." And make no mistake, whichever campaign made such a move would win. If you take away the loudmouths on either end of the ideological spectrum (maybe 30% of the electorate) who would instantly and vocally pooh-pooh this idea on sight, the vast majority of people in the middle would love an idea like this. At the very least, enough people would be attracted to such an idea to swing the election.

It must be remembered that the ideological extremes would hate this idea not because it is a bad idea, but because they perceive that it would threaten their power. And in a way they would be right------it would pull the rug out from under them. But if you look at it another way, what's wrong with jump-starting female equality? There are plenty of great and qualified women in both parties to more than fill an ENTIRE cabinet. We've covered the territory of greatly qualified women for VP on this blog. Anyone who thinks that this idea is just less important than other issues is either tone deaf or just plain ignorant about women and feminism or is an outright sexist. NOTHING is more inmportant than living up to the promises we make to our girls------that they can be whatever they want. As I always say, that idea is just a dream at this point.

Let's ask our presidential candidates to do more than pay lip service to get our votes. Let's ask them to one up the French---------zuts alors!!! We are the U.S. and we can do it!!! But we need to convince both campaigns that we want something solid for our votes. Not the game of fear tactics. We want to do better than the French. A woman VP and a gender equal cabinet. It's all so simple......

And a special thanks to EC who brought this whole thing to my attention today.

Hope And Change For Romney

Cynthia Ruccia

cross posted from The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-ruccia/2012-election-female-vice-president_b_1503942.html

How could news of President Obama's first significant lead of the 2012 campaign in the nation's dozen top battleground states bring hope and change to Mitt Romney? It is a lead based on women voters -- one of Obama's biggest soft spots. Romney has the potential to gain a key political advantage by selecting one of several standout Republican women who would make excellent vice presidential candidates and attract the "woman's vote," which, contrary to the myth perpetuated by Democrats, is increasingly up for grabs.

The list includes New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (vice chair of the Republican Conference), Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

2012 can be the year where we finally break the glass ceiling in our highest political offices by electing a ticket with a woman vice president.

For the Republicans who currently struggle with lagging poll numbers with women, a woman on the ticket would erase many of their difficulties. Not that women will always vote for women, but a woman on the ticket would energize voters and claim ground Democrats have taken advantage of for too long. Who knows, it may even force Obama to ask Hillary Clinton to join him on the ticket after showing such strong leadership as Secretary of State.

Reasons people give to not nominate a woman in 2012 are weak. The first reason always given is that women are simply not qualified. The lineup of women mentioned above have sterling qualifications. Any man with the same resumes would run and not be questioned.

The second reason is what I like to call the "Palin reason," as in "well we tried that in 2008 and it didn't work so we won't do that again." That reasoning is insulting bordering on sexist. We nominate many men to many things and many times things don't work out. Does that make us not nominate another man next time? It's truly an absurd argument. Also, an equal case can be credibly made that Sarah Palin helped the ticket more than she hurt it.

We have the opportunity to join our international friends who understand the kind of leadership that women can provide, representing 51 percent of the population after all. Currently the United States lags much of the world in female representation in government. The latest survey from the Inter-Parliamentary Union ranks our country #78, tied with Turkmenistan and behind Iraq (#38), Afghanistan (#33) and the home of machismo itself, Spain (#18).

We only need to look at the effectiveness of Senators Olympia Snowe, Barbara Mikulski, Kirsten Gillibrand and Lisa Murkowski -- a bipartisan group of leaders who created a "zone of civility" and cooperation to actually get something done on behalf of the American people. This is what America can look forward to with more women in political leadership positions. This is what should finally convince political operatives that the knee jerk demeaning of women has jumped the shark and lost its value. It is a dog that just won't hunt this year.

We have an opportunity to really make history in 2012. Both parties need to step up to the plate and nominate a woman VP. We tell our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, etc., that they can be anything they want to be. But with the U.S. ranking #78 in the world in female representation in government and with most glass ceilings remaining unbroken, we aren't really telling them the truth. Putting one of these excellent women on the ticket would change all of that. Let's be bold in 2012 and finish what we started in 2008.

Enough With The Palin Effect

Cynthia Ruccia



Could there be anything more sexist than not putting a woman on the ticket as VP because it didn't work out with Sarah Palin? Everywhere you turn right now, all the talk is about who will be the Republican VP candidate on the ticket with Mitt Romney. And this talk is inflammatory in its sexism. And like alot of sexism, it is overt and covert. The sexism is obvious much of the time, but it is also insidiously implied, always a more disturbing trend.

First of all, the history of Sarah Palin on the national scene in many ways has been one big smear job. The people who opposed her were so desperate to cancel out her positives that they did one of the biggest hit jobs in political history on her. For some that statement is a piece of drama queen hyperbole. To those folks I say baloney!! To hide behind that form of reasoning exposes one to being a hypersexist. Why? Much of the smearing of Palin was 100% sexist. The 2008 election unleashed the latent sexism that permeates our culture.  And it also showed that people could shamelessly use sexism as a tool to defeat a female contender for president/vp and somehow that was ok.

The much deeper meaning is that these sexist tools are used all of the time in all ways in just about every aspect of our culture. We all know the drill------women don't make as much as men, women hold few political offices in proportion to their numbers, even fewer top positions in the private sector, domestic violence runs rampant, and women are still mostly relegated to sex symbol status, their brains being of minor importance. Women are still ridiculed as stupid, less or not qualified for much, bitchy if they show any spunk, and are honored for keeping their mouths shut unless being asked to insert something in them for the pleasure of males. The job of raising children is still considered a lesser profession and is relegated to women who receive no respect whatsoever for doing this job. Sigh. Welcome to a woman's world!!

God forbid a woman should aspire to rise to the top. She will be ridiculed, taunted, misrepresented. She will of course be made to look stupid because people think women ARE stupid, all evidence to the contrary ignored. It is a subliminal and not-so-subliminal response to the specter of female power. I know all of this is depressing to read, but 2008 shined a bright light on how much more progress needs to be made for women to be able to correctly say that we can be or do anything. At this point, that statement is aspirational and mythical. And sadly, nothing could be further from the truth to say that we can be anything. We can DREAM of being anything we want to be, but the empirical proof of such a statement really doesn't exist.

Which brings me back to the Palin effect. There seems to be a reluctance to take any of the female VP talk seriously because of what happened to Palin. Everywhere you turn, if a female name is mentioned, the conversation almost always comes back to what happened to Palin. It is the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the room. And the mere mention of the Palin effect seems to put a chill on any hope of a female VP. The Palin effect alone appears to be the reason why we shouldn't have a female on the ticket.

Many of the problems that Palin encountered can be overcome. Actually ALL of the problems Palin encountered can be overcome. Although it will take alot of courage for the Romney campaign to nominate a woman, I think that the positives far outweigh the negatives.

First of all, in 2012 there will be no mystery or surprise if the other side uses sexism to attack a female VP candidate. The BEST way to handle that is to turn it around and shame the other side for using that sexism as a tool. The McCain campaign did that a little, but not much. The sexism MUST be attacked head on over and over and over and over again whack-a-mole style. I think that the Romney campaign could change history on that score (attacking and shaming the sexists) and level the playing field for all women going forward. Again although that would require courage, the political points (and actual points needed to win) gained by such an act would be the real game changer Romney needs to win.

Secondly, (although this also fits neatly into the above point----but MUST be emphasized) there will have to be CONSTANT vigilance not to fall into the "that woman is not experienced" category. NO ONE was less experienced than our current president when he ran having had little to no executive experience, but a narrative was spun that he WAS and he won. Most of the women mentioned for VP have had much more experience that President Obama, and that experience needs to be honored for what it is------experience. When that experience comes wrapped in a female package it never seems to resonate enough. The Romney campaign can easily turn that negative around as well.

It IS encouraging that Romney has chosen a woman to head up his VP selection committee, and it is also encouraging that he chose a female running mate when he ran for governor of Massachusetts. I really hope that he discovers that a female running mate is the winning ticket for 2012.

All of the constant speculation about the Palin effect as a reason not to nominate a woman needs to go away. We learned alot having Clinton and Palin run in 2008. We need to use those lessons, learn from them, and make another attempt at putting a woman on the ticket. The more we do it (and there should ALWAYS be women on the national ticket from here on out) the more likely we are to have many many successes. To NOT put a woman on the ticket because she is a woman is just too sexist for words. Really now.......we can do better than that weak piece of reasoning. Enough already!!

MSM Simply Not Interested In Women and Their Progress

Cynthia Ruccia




I need to whine a little bit, and darn it----I HATE whining!!! Normally, I'm more of a "let's figure it out and move forward" kind of person, but I'm stuck in a place right now and I haven't figured out how to proceed yet.

Here's the deal-----and I'm sure some of you are sitting there saying "DUH!!!!" But I'm a bit of a Pollyanna, and I like to believe that people are generally good and that I can appeal to that side of them. Humph!!!! That's not happening right now!!!!

Well, I've had this idea that I've been writing about over the last several months that we are going to have to make a stink and an uproar if we are going to convince anyone that they should nominate a female VP. My thinking is that the Republican nominee would generally benefit in every conceivable way if he were to choose a woman to be on the ticket with him. There is really a trove of very very talented women on the Republican side that would make terrific VPs (HBO's VEEP notwithstanding----but that's another story/headache) starting with former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Republican Conference Vice Chair Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers, Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and the list goes on and on.

Now that there is a presumptive nominee on the Republican side, the rumor mill is working overtime in the media contemplating what type of VP would benefit Mitt Romney the most. Hispanic or swing state person? Chris Christie? Sober types like our own Ohio Senator Rob Portman or former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels. Some of the women are even mentioned from time to time. You even hear at times that the rank and file Republicans put Condi Rice at the top of their lists.

So I decided that it was time to speak up about the importance of putting a woman on the ticket, specifically that idea. I've written alot about the problems that women face right now being considered for the ticket, the main one being the "Palin effect."  Funny that. Almost always in every conceivable media mention of women on the ticket it is mentioned about how difficult it would be to nominate a woman because of what happened to Sarah Palin in 2008. And no one EVER puts up an argument to rebut this ridiculous idea. Whatever happened to Sarah Palin in 2008 won't likely happen again in 2012 because we have learned and we will be better prepared. It just burns me up that whenever a man screws up or isn't successful at something no one EVER says that we can't nominate another man because it didn't work out with the last one. It is just so BLINDLY sexist.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I have retained a number of media contacts both in print and on TV and cable on all sides of the political spectrum.  As you know, I had my run on all of the shows in 2008 for a few months as we protested the treatment of Hillary Clinton. I was at both conventions and on TV alot. I didn't do it to get on TV so I could glorify myself. I'm not a press hog. To be honest, I'm always a little uncomfortable being put in that situation. But sometimes I'm willing to stand up before others do, so I find my face on camera at times.

I decided to contact my sources, the media bookers that I know, and I discussed my idea with them that they haven't had anyone on to promote the idea of a female VP blah blah blah. I was told GREAT---let's do it, just call back while I run the idea by our principle who really likes you and  who I'm sure will be happy to have you on. Well guess what happened?????  Total silence and stonewalling. Total.

I also wrote up an op-ed piece with a great friend of mine who specializes in this sort of thing, wants to help, but needs to stay in the background. She always makes my writing so much better, tighter, and more provocative keeping the piece within the correct number of words needed for a submission of this type. It is a GREAT piece which outlines how vulnerable and soft the female support for Obama is and how Romney could really capitalize on this by nominating a woman VP. It was a beautifully argued piece if I do say so myself. I contacted my media sources once again. And once again TOTAL SILENCE and stonewalling. If we don't ever get the thing published, I'll put it up on the blog. But I'm far from giving up.

I've read through Anita Finlay's book "Dirty Words on Clean Skin" and in it she talks in a very interesting way about this media blindness phenomenon when it comes to women's advancement. The media just doesn't see how their actions and memes keep women from breaking through the various glass ceilings. And while all of you say "duh----of course it's there," I am defiant enough to want to ignore it and plow my way over, under, around, or through it. There must be a way. I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how to get the word out that there ARE women out here who want to see a woman nominated for VP  in 2012. And I think that there are lots and lots of them----men too!! We have four and a half months until the conventions and I believe that anything can happen between now and then for this cause of a woman VP.

But I never ever want it to be said that a woman wasn't nominated because there was never any indication that women wanted a woman VP. How can we get the word out there if no one is willing to help us get the word out? Right now it's a catch-22-----damned if we do and damned if we don't. Reminds me of Sarah Palin being criticized for working and not staying at home with her 5 kids, and Ann Romney being criticized for not working and staying at home with her 5 kids. Uh----please decide which one it is----ok?  You can't have both at the same time!!!! It's the bind we find ourselves in.

So I'm just simmering over here in Columbus, OH trying to figure out what my next move is. I'm NOT giving up until the Convention has passed. That gives us around 140 days to find the way forward. And don't forget that if the Republicans put up a woman for VP-----what might the Democrats do in return??So I'm whining tonight and maybe even tomorrow. But we've only just started to try to break through with this message. Got to find a way to thread this needle. Time's a wasting.........

Exhibit A: How Leftist Feminists Block Progress----A Tutorial

Cynthia Ruccia



No, that is not a picture of me. Here is a picture of me:



The first picture you see above is Exhibit A:  one Barbara O'Brien who has a blog I'd never heard of until a few days ago, mahablog. She not only has this blog, but she is also a practitioner of Buddhism which she writes about for About.com. I became aware of her and her blog when my friend AB put a link to my last piece about the death knell of leftist feminism and traffic from her site came over to Women Win Too. I was curious, so I checked it out, and I could feel my blood pressure rising, as many of us do when we have to confront the intractable conversation that substitutes for women's rights talk these days from the left.

We Are Hearing The Final Death Knell of Leftist Feminism

Cynthia Ruccia



Hear that noise this past week? You know, that one from Hilary Rosen and all of the uproar that ensued? Been hearing that kind of noise lately---- such as the Republican War on Women meme that apparently, according to the Dems, was started by the Republicans themselves (to what end one can't even imagine)? The talk of only the Democrats are woman friendly, etc and so on? Heard all of that?

What you are REALLY hearing is the final death of an era. The last days of the left owning women's interests are here. Oh, it's not going to die pretty. It will not be a spiritual, moving, sad death. It's going to be the biggest fight of all. The lefty feminists will not go down silently. They will kick, scream, threaten, insult, and be the biggest bullies you've ever seen. They will throw out every weapon available including letting the male interests who are using them  continue to manipulate them all the way to the grave. Oh it's going to be butt ugly.

The War FOR Women is on!!!!!

Cynthia Ruccia




Finally-------the war for the women's vote is out in the open. And it is starting off with a bang!! With Rick Santorum bowing out of the presidential race, the Romney campaign has wasted no time starting to stake its claim to winning women to his side. It has been hard to sit on the sidelines watching the Democrats take the entire battlefield of assuming what the female vote wants while the Republican message was a deafening silence. It felt too much like the past 30 or so years when the Republicans ceded the entirety of women's issues to the Democrats in exchange for the pro-life evangelical vote. Blech!!!  Many of us have been watching in dread while the Republicans have gotten pummeled for being anti-women, and the antics of Limbaugh, the inability of Santorum to stay on message and thus spill his guts every now and then about his views on contraception, and the Virginia legislature and their abortion/ultrasound bill haven't helped any.

Woman VP 2012----A Preview

Cynthia Ruccia



Something is coming in the weeks to come to promote a woman VP!! I WILL keep you posted!!! In the meantime, please come over to our brand spanking new Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/WomanVp2012  and "like" us to get this whole thing started. It's time for us to finally DO something instead of just talking. This is just beginning. Stay tuned.......

Speculation On A Female VP

Cynthia Ruccia



There she is-----New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez. You can read more about her background here, here, and here. In my opinion, she has a stellar resume and she should be on everyone's short list of vice presidential candidates. Actually, she should be at the very very top of that list. She brings accomplishment and two of the most important political demographics for the Republicans-----she's Hispanic and she's female. If the Republicans are going to win in November, they will need to bring a percentage of the female and the Hispanic vote to achieve that victory. I am an Independent and I am not making a partisan endorsement here. I am only interested in getting a woman elected president, and since that doesn't appear to be happening this year, I'll have to settle for VP. And it doesn't appear that the Obama/Biden ticket is going to change, so our only hope of getting a woman on the ticket is going to lie with the Republicans.

Sexism equals MONEY$$$$$$$

Cynthia Ruccia

Did you see this? The so-called "Republican War on Women"  has proven a fundraising boon to women's groups!!  If there was ever proof that this is a cynical undertaking, this very very selective war on women is helping women's groups rake in the bucks and thus allowing a special group of women retain their jobs. To be fair, this is business as usual, of course. Whatever it takes to keep the treasuries full-----anything is fair game.

However, I can't help but ask myself while all of this one-sided controversy gets stirred up, is it making any real difference in whether glass ceilings are being broken? Is it helping our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, etc. get a leg up to running some things in this country?