This Opportunity Has Been Brought to You by Feminism

I've written a great deal about how this historic election season has led to a number of political firsts, but I've never seen it expressed quite this way: in a recent column for Newsweek, Martin Linsky wrote, "This campaign will always be remembered for the emergence of the first serious woman candidate for president: Barack Obama." It's a loaded statement that got me thinking beyond Linsky's particular charge to a larger summation: that this political moment has by and large been the result of feminism.

Everyone knows that Clinton's rise -- from her law degree at Yale to her Senate seat -- would not have been possible without the groundwork laid by feminists. March is Women's History Month, and as we acknowledge her historic ascent, it does us good to remember the years of struggle that launched it: the suffrage movement of the early 20th century, the demands for equal pay and equal rights (sans amendment) of the second stage, and the spirited work of the third wave to ensure that the 21st century will be the time for parity. Indeed, the possibility we now have for a woman to command the highest office in our country rests on the labors of the women and supportive men that have come before, and on those who continue to toil for gender justice.

Yet Linsky's comment begs us to probe further -- for what is rarely acknowledged is what feminism has done for men. How else could we arrive at such a moment when the male democratic frontrunner for the presidency is likened to a woman -- and is celebrated for it? Feminism has not only made inroads for women into the worlds of business and politics; it has challenged long-standing assumptions regarding masculinity, significantly expanding the box in which men and boys experience and display their maleness.

More and more men are taking an active part in the raising of their children -- and loving it -- thanks to both the policy shifts and cultural shifts brought by feminism. Workplaces are more family-friendly, gender roles are more flexible, and even the most masculine of institutions -- the armed forces -- boasts beneficial changes because women have entered the ranks. These transformations are palpable and positive, and have led me to wish for a major ad campaign spanning television screens, radio waves, and the sides of buses nationwide depicting how greatly men have benefited from the women's movement. Its caveat would read: "This Opportunity Has Been Brought to You by Feminism."

Of course, these changes have been very good for Senator Obama. Feminism has made it possible for him to do what Clinton, and many other women leaders, feel that they can't: actually own those leadership traits that are seen as feminine (a claim which brain research has shown to exist). Feminism has made it possible for men to be more inclusive -- soft even -- without being diminished. On the contrary, men who add these traits to their manly ways are in great demand, from your house to the White House.

Our country certainly needs to incorporate feminine styles of leadership -- cowboy diplomacy has left us in quite the dire domestic and global state -- and so I applaud our nation's approval of Obama's feminine approach. Yet this endorsement is a product of hard-fought feminist fights, many of which are far from won. And so as we honor this new era that we find ourselves in, and as we celebrate Women's History Month, I hope that the disparate and unfair situation in which women leaders often find themselves in is acknowledged and rejected as well. I hope Obama's rise is accompanied by a new movement on the part of male leaders to ameliorate their leadership -- and that we can learn, as a nation, to truly accept women leading alongside them.

Follow Marie Wilson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/twhp

Comments

[Sursum]

As a woman, I completely accept women as leaders.

However, to my mind, it is just as sexist to vote for a candidate on the grounds that she is a woman, as it is to not vote for her because she's a woman.

I worked the polls yesterday for Obama in Texas. I spoke with many women who said they were somewhat undecided but just felt they "needed to vote for the woman."

Would those women vote for her if she were a man? How about if her last name wasn't Clinton?

I'd vote for Obama if he were a woman. Or white, or Hispanic, or whatever. I like his leadership style, his ethics, his ideas, and his accomplishments. It has nothing to with his gender or race. Can the Clinton supporters say the same thing?

[MrCoffeeCup]

FEMINISTS ARE: Allowed to make their own choices according to their wants and needs. An American ideal. Women are allowed to buy into or reject Feminism! It's their freedom of Choice.

Most failures of marriage and treatment of women in America are the result of Men's failures towards their correct responsibilities. Men have failed their women in many areas; leaving women to survive the best way they can. Man's failures are compounded by Feminists exploiting this rage and condition.

The sorrow is that Feminism is now a movement of rage, anger, frustration, bitterness, instead of a movement of Love, support, healing, consolation. Feminism has forgotten to teach their Sons and Daughters responsibilites to their own gender. A man must be a MAN and accept his own role in the human equation. Women should demand that Men be a Man first and lover next. Feminism espouses that Men, due to their failures, are now no longer considered an important part of the human equation. A very sad outcome! We can be replaced by a vibrator (WITHOUT BATTERIES). How sad is this insight into God's creations!

Great love, great marriage, great success is the result of a Man and a Woman combined together in an NEW LIFE! Promotion of this concept is now forbidden in Feminism. Acceptance of Same Sex Love and gender contracts will subvert the Feminist movement; pushing it into the garbage bin of human relationships.

Women, Men have failed in many areas! It's up to you to insist that they return to responsibilities of MANHOOD! Love, true love, will return to enrich both genders. Like a good Mothers, teach with your best abilities, that your sons are to be Men! Hopefully you have a Man's help wherever possible!

[AtiasMom]

You can find research to say anything you want it to. It's like statistics, you can twist any findings to say what you want it to.

I liked the article, but question the fact that women can't lead. Is that only in America? What about the other countries that have had successful leaders?

Unless you mean that a woman has to have a man leading her to be considered somewhat a leader.

I for one am glad that men have infiltrated women professions. Otherwise, the wages would be much lower than they are.

If this country isn't sexist, tell me why you still hear so many women in high positions receiving lower wages. Tell me why the media is so afraid of Hillary that they can only find fault with her? At least she has a record that can be reviewed.

[avicenna]

As a female who has pretty much ignored society's expectations of my behaviour or demeanor, I would hope that these historic elections go beyond our narrow conceptualization and attempts to categorize perspectives and approaches through something as base as gender goggles. Hillary is more then just a female and Obama is more then just a progressive male. We also have to be honest about why Hillary versus another accomplished woman is in the position she is in - her experience as a wife of a former president. Is that what women need? They can't reach for the gold on their own merit? To really fix the mess that has ensnared the US both internally and externally, there is a desparate need for a new and fresh perspective. A new approach on how things should get done. Hillary's so-called experience is perhaps her albatross. McCain is arguably more "experienced" - as I heard the trait comes with age - does that mean he would make the best leader?
Paraphrasing from Dr. E - problems cannot be solved by the same mindset that created them.

[DeminGOPland]

Well my concern is that 20% of Obama's support will shift to McCain if he defeats Hillary. Can we conclude that group is anti-feminist?

[WriterInLansing]

I like Clinton but support Obama. But I do feel bad that Clinton has to be "one of the boys" and tough on military issues because otherwise she'd be castigated for being too feminine. What's sad is that even today she may be right--if she were as "feminine" as Obama, the right wing attack machine would tear her down--like they don't have enough hatred for her. If they try that with Obama, well it just doesn't have the same oomph when applied to a man (especially a charismatic and apparently strong man like Obama).

If Hillary gets the nomination I'll totally support her, but I think it would be hard for her to win, for so many reasons. I think the first female president will probably come from a younger generation, one that doesn't have to come to power the way Hillary did (the way she had to because of her generation), and one that doesn't feel she has to prove that she's "man enough" for the job.

[boltaflex]

Estrogen --GOOOOD, Testosterone --BAAAAAD.

Brought to you by the Feminist Movement

[KristenfromMA]

No, a nice balance of the 2 is good.

[FdeBear]

We have sons. And so did your mother.

[mansky]

One should take note, within the topic of this piece, just how hawkish Clinton is compared with Obama. She's running to the right of him, claiming that he's not as strong as McCain on national security. She's using a Republican talking point to attack Obama. This is the kind of thing that really scares me about Clinton. I trust her on health care, but not at all on the war.

Does anyone doubt that, should she run against McCain she will move more to the right, and if elected be more of a hawk than Obama would be?

[imaproudliberal]

Should she be elected, Hillary will make Rove/Bush/Cheney look like rogue amateurs. This country can't afford a 3rd Bush term - from Hillary or Grandpa Munster.

[paulsa]

Hillary Clinton is not just using a Republican talking point, and it's more than a right-left issue. This supposed icon of feminism is attacking Barack Obama for exemplifying the very traits that feminism has championed, and at the same time, holding herself out as an embodiment of the old-style "take charge/fight/take no prisoners" attitude that Ms. Wilson decries. The "three AM phone call" ad is the most telling case in point -- trying to scare people into trusting the big, all-knowing parent figure who will urge us to go on sleeping like children while they take care of us. Is electing that kind of person supporting feminism?

[Interested01]

Right on target! Senator Clinton joined Biden, Kerry, and Edwards in supported Bush's war authorization when common sense, the military brass, and a whole fleet of experts on Iraq and the Middle East were against it. Why? They were all running for President, and felt they had to show they weren't "soft" on defense. Obama's courage in standing up to Bush and Co. wasn't easy, because he was thinking about the Presidency, too.

Clinton has subsequently issued a veiled threat to nuke Iran ("All options remain on the table"), and seems to think that threats and "toughness" will help get her elected. Bush, Cheney, Lieberman, Clinton... they all fantasize that an aggressive posture in the Middle East is the only approach, when such a policy has only proved to strengthen Iran, Hamas, and other like minded adversaries. Obama understands instead of another Iron Lady in the form of Hillary Clinton, a balance of geopolitical Yin and Yang will be needed to secure our future.

[mansky]

Clinton supporters believe that electing a woman trumps Iraq.

[FdeBear]

And Elizabeth I was never queen of England or Catherine the Great never ruled an empire.

[VillyVal]

man-sky ... excuse the intrusion into your unwarranted conclusion, but unless you have mind-reading superpowers, you're way off base.... what we BELIEVE can only be discerned BY YOU from what we say. Perhaps if you search diligently enough you'll find a single pundit/blogger/commenter somewhere who would make such an outlandish assertion, but I doubt it.

Confine your comments to what you can KNOW or can surmise from words spoken or written or that you can logically deduce from premises stated. Attributing your own telepathically derived preposterous conclusions to those you set up as opposing your own viewpoint is a mistake.

[splashy]

Hmm, he was doing a speech in front of a bunch of anti-war activists, and has said he would bomb Pakistan. Doesn't sound so brave to me, or anti-war.

[nyscribbler]

Edit- Second line should say If a man engages in behaviour its not "feminine" though it may be femininist.

[CatfishAndGrits]

Soooo Feminism brought Obama thus far........hmmm.

I guess black people dying in slavery, or hanging from trees had nothing to with shining a light on Americas duplicity about the struggles of minorities and women.

Geez. Just stop it please......

[FdeBear]

As a black woman, I have witnessed what many white women go through who decide to raise their mixed race chhildren in America. These children are generally embraced by the black community when whites reject them. It takes strength, resourcefulness, humility and self-confidence. This is the heart of feminism - not some shallow man hating ideology. They too face contempt and resistance from a society bent on their erasure. If they don't have money as a buffer,it can be pretty rough. They often get support and build cooperative relationships with other women and enlightened men who are also struggling to raise their children. This is feminism. Mr. Obama has had the benefits of his mother's and grandparent's devotion - against all odds as well as that of the heritage of the black community in America and Africa. So yes, CatfishAndGrits - he would be the first to tell you that feminist ideals (the recognition of women's power) and the history of our black struggle in America and colonialist Africa make him what he is today. And as any black woman on the planet will tell you, we get more hell from being female than we do for our racial or ethnic identity. I'll stop now and let you think about it.

[nyscribbler]

This blogger gets it backwards. If a man engages in behaviour its not "feminine" though it may be feminine. I must suspect, along with a couple of other commenters, that this is a surreptious attack on Obama as unmanly in the Republican mode. We can take pride in Obama's wish to be constructive rather than sticky to macho styles that prevent resolutions. We all grew from the feminist movement, not just women- that doesn't make men less capable of asserting masculinity. It simply expands what we understand masculinity to consist of.

[splashy]

Wow! I didn't take it that way at all!

It's stating how much men have benefited from feminism, by a broadening of their horizons when it comes to the acceptance of different behavior from what was once accepted. Perhaps you need to have lived during the time when men were as boxed in as women were.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

"Our country certainly needs to incorporate feminine styles of leadership -- cowboy diplomacy has left us in quite the dire domestic and global state -- and so I applaud our nation's approval of Obama's feminine approach. Yet this endorsement is a product of hard-fought feminist fights, many of which are far from won."

I agree with this 100%, and bemoan the fact that - ironically - Hillary exhibits NONE of those traits. In fact, Hillary's warmongering and other votes for authoritarianism constitute what some feminists used to call a consequence of excess testosterone.

I "reject and denounce" her candidacy on the basis of that aggressively testosterone-laden neo-con record.

[splashy]

You mean the fact that she cares about the health and well being of women and children, and has fought to make sure they are taken care of EVERYWHERE is irrelevant? Doesn't sound very cruel to me. She has bucked many many men that would subjugate women for many many years. You need to study her record more, obviously.

[standforpeace]

When Barack Obama asserts that as president he will talk with our enemies or responds calmly when attacked by Clinton or her surrogates or speaks at a rally for peace, he is incorporating the best of many of our traditions and movements including the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, and the women's movement. He is asserting his humanity (and ours) in a way that should make us all proud. When Hillary Clinton votes to authorize the war or to brand the entire Iranian army as a terrorist force or runs those 3 am commercials or sends her husband out to engage in race baiting, she also speaks to something that is intrinsic to our humanity -- because we have all had times in our lives when fear and anger and the desire to win at all costs dominated our actions. I think that both men and women are subject to all of these forces and emotions; however, we also have the ability to choose what we will put at the center of our own lives and the direction in which we will send our country.

[mansky]

I think the points made in the piece are very good, and I agree with them. However, not enough has been made of the impact of the 60's civil rights movement on both Feminism and Obama's personality.