The Roles of Women in this Campaign

I am in between computers, so I've got a post on Michelle Obama that is going to anchor this series of posts about women in American politics. I just need to get the file over to this computer...hopefully before the end of the week.

In the meantime, I got so fired up that I posted my first blog entry on the Obama-Biden website. I intend to post it here too, but again, that is after I upload my Michelle Obama piece.

But, this post can be an introduction of sorts. Or a continuation of the same topic since I've already weighed in on the Palin selection. She has reignited this issue in a way that I cannot fully explain. It is not as if she is the first woman in politics. And she is not the first woman to espouse views I cannot abide. There were moments during the primary campaign where I seriously had issues with Sen. Clinton and her surrogates when it came to invoking gender. But women change the political poker game, so this is an excititing time.

I am actually happy that the conservatives finally realized that women have valuable contributions to make to our public policy debates. Conservatives like Sarah Palin and Condoleezza Rice help to dispel the notion that women are only useful in policy debates about parenting and culture. I have never been ashamed of my admiration for Condi Rice--as far as I am concerned, she is more powerful than Laura Bush. It makes me proud to know that the woman entrusted with representing the US abroad got to the top of the heap on the merits of the qualifications she brought to the table, and everyone acknowledges that fact.

Of course, I cringe at her blind loyalty to the sinking ship that is the Bush-Cheney legacy. Should Sarah Palin succeed Condi Rice as the most powerful woman in the world, she will be expected to toe the line as well. That is what Republicans do--they stand by their men.

But now that the GOP has demonstrated that it can handle giving women some room at the table, Democrats need to remind the public that women have been there for decades. Democrats have long given women positions of power. I have no doubt that if Barack Obama makes it to the White House, he will give women the same opportunities to shine.

I just hope that we will be given more to do than engage in arguments about culture in the kitchen while the men are in the other room talking war. Women's perspectives are vital to domestic policy issues--after all, who brings those meals to the "kitchen table"? But women also have a stake in the other major issues of our time--our children may be sent off to fight, our cars and homes need alternative sources of energy, and we want to keep our friends and families safe too.

So, stay tuned for my little blog series on women in this campaign and politics in general.