Anyone out there want to raise their hand and say that like Ann Romney I'm qualified to advise the Republican Party on women's issues?
Because hey, just like Ann Romney I stayed home and raised children.
Hmm... I don't see anyone out their raising their hands.
Kind of makes me wonder if maybe there might be more to representing women's issues than being a stay-at-home parent.
Naah. Couldn't be.
Hilary Rosen must have been completely out of line to suggest Romney isn't the perfect choice to represent all women for her husband's political campaign and, for that matter, her husband's entire political party.
Gotta be.
Update:
Perhaps not surprisingly Linda Hirshman better articulates the point I was trying to make.
Although Ann Romney may be a fine spokesperson on some issues, the dirty little secret of angling for female votes is that while all women’s work, inside or outside the home, has the same worth, as Michelle Obama and Barbara Bush sweetly expressed, all women do not have the same interests. Women who work in the home do not have the same interest in the recovery of the formal job market as women who have to work for pay. Indeed, wage-earning women probably have more in common with their paycheck-dependent male co-workers on the subject of economic recovery than with household laborers such as Ann Romney.
That sounds about right. When I was a stay-at-home dad I really didn't spend much time thinking directly about either the delightful job markets of the Clinton years or the real-estate bubble. Nor did I think much of the Cheney/Bush-engineered job-market collapses. I instead mostly spent a lot of time stewing about how to manage our household budget while relying on someone else to provide it.
If that had been the sum of my experience of the job market it would not qualify me to say I'd worked a day in my life no matter that as a stay-at-home parent I labored mightily.
Bottom line: In America today most parents are obliged to simultaneously compete for jobs and earn money in the workforce and perform all the duties of domestic consumption at home. To say that Ann Romney's experience in the home qualifies as workforce experience is as out-of-touch as saying that Mitt Romney's experience at Bain Capital qualifies as parenting.
Tags:
I'll raise my hand. I'm a
Submitted by jillian (not verified) on Fri, 2012-04-13 10:50.I'll raise my hand. I'm a stay at home mom, and I'm totally qualified to advise the Republican Party on women's issues.
Much more qualified than Ann Romney, who I have to say has never worked a day in her life, because unlike almost all the stay at home moms to whom she compares herself, she has had all the help that money could buy. She's never worried that she couldn't feed, clothe, or house her children. She's never worried about health care costs, even in the midst of a serious illness. She's never had to decide between food, clothing, shelter, and health care for her kids, and leaving an abusive marriage with the man who was providing those things. She's never had to consider aborting a pregnancy because she couldn't afford to raise another child. Ann Romney, who has never worked a day in her life, who doesn't know the meaning of the word "struggle", is a perfect example of what the Romneys and the rest of the 1% don't know that they don't know. And why the GOP treats women like sluts, like children, like idiots.
Jillian has it right. All the
Submitted by Robert Abrami (not verified) on Mon, 2012-04-16 20:03.Jillian has it right. All the way.
Ann Romney, like Mitt, has never washed a dish or set the table or done any of the million small things that a stay at home mother does during the day/night.
I loved the picture of Mitt and the washing machine. Mitt doing the wash? Give me a break.
Ann and Mitt. I love with money, laughing at those beneath them and making sure their rich pals stay rich.
I think it's disgusting what it would be like to have these two in the White House.
BTW no one has ever said it but the Republicans want to stop the President because he's BLACK OR NOT WHITE.
I lived in NYC before the election and two Wall Street types on the #3 train said one morning that "we'll never see a n----r in the White House".
And this was in NYC.
Mitch McConnell and his zombies can join Ann and Mitt but this is America and its people will see through them all.
Thanks Jillian and sorry to go on so long but each day this gets worse to watch and read about.
Thank you! Just what I was
Submitted by Jeanette (not verified) on Fri, 2012-04-13 14:04.Thank you! Just what I was thinking. Also, love your comment Jillian. There is a world of difference between being a mom who does her work in the home and a mom who doesn't really have to do work in the home or for a career.
Enough of the pity party! If
Submitted by John (not verified) on Sat, 2012-04-14 08:38.Enough of the pity party! If this was Anne Coulter attacking Michelle Obama you would be freaking out at the outlandish attack on women!!! Give me a break. It's a small mind that can't get beyond your political affiliation.
Show me a prominent
Submitted by jillian (not verified) on Sat, 2012-04-14 09:14.Show me a prominent Democratic couple that's as rich as the Romneys and as clueless about their privilege, and I will be happy to rail on them just as hard.