Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Second Class Citizens?

Not so long ago there was a lot of noise about how those in the religious right were denigrating women who made the choice to join the workforce while they had children at home. Many felt that the domestic conservatives were impuning the moral fiber of those women who wished to continue to make contributions to society through their careers as well as through what they did at home. I believe that those concerns were justified and I'm glad the discussion was brought to the fore. While each woman would have to make a choice based on their experience and conscience; no fat, white male had the right to condemn a woman for seeking to do what men had done for centuries.

Lately, though, the tables have turned as evidenced by the recent comments of the wife of the democratic presedential candidate. In an interview she implied that she would be a better first lady because she had workforce experience while her counterpart did not. Leaving aside the striking inaccuracy of her summation of the First Lady's work experience (Ms. Bush was a excellent public school teacher for 9 years...which may actually qualify her for sainthood in some districts), the assumption that having entered the work force makes Ms. Heinz-Kerry better qualified bothers me. Their are more issues here that I can shake a stick at but I'd like to look at two.

First, are we to the point now where certain segments of society are saying that those women who stay at home are inferior in some way? Apologize though she might, Ms. Heinz-Kerry certainly said that in her interview. You can see her world view very clearly through what she said in a moment when a politcal advisor wasn't camped next to her. I thought we'd settled this. No one gets to judge a woman's choice on whether to remain in the workforce or stay at home with and for her family. Or, if one side gets to judge, then so does the other. I like the first one better but I'm deeply distrurbed by the fact that a woman of Ms. Heinz-Kerry's standing would think such a thing.

Secondly, who are we electing here, Senator Kerry or Senator Kerry and his wife? If the latter's the case, do we need to have a First Ladies debate? I always assumed that I was voting for the Pres/VP combination but from her comments she thinks she's better qualified to be married to the Pres by reason for the skills she acquired by being a billionaire heiress. This makes me very uncomfortable and has likely solidified my voting choice. I won't vote for someone who thinks they'd be a better First Lady than a stay-at-home mom and who can't seem to get the facts straight before she says something ignorant. Ms. Heinz-Kerry implies that we, as voters, need to look at the whole package. For me, she's too big a drag on the Kerry, Heinz-Kerry, Edwards ticket.

That just my opinion, I could be wrong.

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