Fantastic post by Charli Carpenter about Michele Obama’s decision to not take on a political position as First Lady.
The fact that people have assumed that Michelle would take on a formal
political role as first lady only underscores how normative women’s
political participation is today. Her unwillingness to prioritize that over her duties to her children is not a step backward but a step forward
for the feminist movement: what Michelle is modeling is not
indifference to politics, but policy attention to work-life balance,
the missing element in the first feminist revolution. As the same
news-article relates:
She also says she hopes to focus ways
women maintain a work-family balance and the needs of military
families, and she could act as an informal adviser to her husband as
she has been during the campaign.
Please read the whole thing. Lots of good links there, too.
Apt. 11d 
Good for her — a great third-wave (if there is such a thing) decision.
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Maybe she can make the time to homeschool the girls. Did you see the WP article about how the Obama’s couldn’t afford private schools because of the weekly fund-raising auctions?
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thanks, Alison, for the heads up.
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Yee-hah republican parenthood makes a comeback! (Note the small r, the notion of mothering or fathering as service to the nation dates back to the Era of Good Feelings and the republican motherhood ideal). I’m a little bitter write now because my workplace has called me in for extra hours (with no extra pay) three times in the last two weeks. All stuff that was scheduled way in advance. They’ve provided or subsidized extra child care for older kids but my three year old is shut out.
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Oh, that sucks, Dave.
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I don’t know. I was thinking last night about my overall reaction to press coverage of Michelle Obama, and I realized: I’m not happy with her taking on such a traditional First Lady role because I don’t want a first lady as my role model. I want a very senior female legislator. Very senior.
Maybe I’ll feel better if Obama selects a woman for a very senior cabinet post, although I have not heard much about that. Instead I’ve heard, “He should choose Larry Summers for treasury as a way of showing the feminists he’s his own man.”
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“Obama selects a woman for a very senior cabinet post”
I’m absolutely counting on it. But which one? I’m not sure which posts I consider to be “very senior” There’s the big 4, AG, State, Treasury, and Defense. Of those, I’ve heard a few women bandied about for AG, none for Defense or Treasury. I don’t think Rice can stay on at State. There’s also Energy, HUD, and HHS, all of which have potential women candidates.
I don’t mind having Michelle as a help-mate role model. My problem is not having others, and that includes the woman who actually makes policy, and the man who works as a help-mate.
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Watch where Susan Rice lands, could be State, could be NSC. Watch also where Samantha Power returns to. Both of them will be able to get Obama’s attention any time they want it, one of your better measures of power within an administration, regardless of job title.
When Republican presidents start putting Democrats in charge of Defense or State, then Dems can start thinking of keeping Rs in place. But for 30 years, that’s been a one-way street, and I don’t see any need to keep playing that game.
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Why is HHS always the token woman position? Thank God for Condi and Albright.
There is nothing wrong or traditional or unfeminist for Michelle to decide not to take a political role and instead to make a point of taking care of the kids. Her husband is going to be putting in 100+ hour weeks and her kids are quite young. I think it’s great that she’s not ashamed to be just a mom. I think it’s very good for Democrats for us to embrace multiple images of women. We don’t have to be crafting health policy. Taking care of kids is a good thing, too.
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“Her husband is going to be putting in 100+ hour weeks and her kids are quite young.”
I’m not sure about the 100+ hour weeks. My impression is that recent presidents have played a lot of golf.
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What, now if 3/8 people (or 12/30 years) to hold a position are women, we start calling it a place where we put tokens? HHS is a big agency with power over over a lot of things that effect people. HHS includes, for example, the FDA, NIH, and CDC.
I think Doug’s other comment is key — a person is a token if they’ve been placed somewhere, but don’t have the respect and ear of the president (take Colin Powell at State, for example).
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