If we were in any doubt that the prospect of a female leader fills some people with fear and loathing, the coverage of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin’s political careers should be enough to confirm our worst fears (although I’ve got to say that another one of my worst fears is a fundie, anti-environmentalist gun-nut secessionist becoming the second most powerful person in the western world). But according to a new Harvard study, although people have negative ideas about female leaders, once they actually experience what it’s like to have ladies in charge, their attitudes to women in power become more positive.
Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher? A good thing for women? Well, possibly...
Good news, right? Well, it would be if there were a few more women in power to begin with – people’s prejudices can’t be challenged by female leaders if there are no female leaders. And we could be waiting a while for this to change, according to last year’s report from our Central Statistics Office:
The report shows that women are under-represented in decision-making structures at both national and regional levels. Only 13% of TDs in Dáil Eireann are women, while they account for 34% of members of State Boards, 20% of members of local authorities and just 16% of members of regional authorities.
And here’s a surprise – except no, it totally isn’t:
The education and health sectors employed the highest proportion of women, with around an 80% share of the total at work in these sectors. However, women were not well represented at senior level positions. In the health service, women represented just over 30% of medical and dental consultants. Similarly, women accounted for 84.7% of primary school teachers but only 51% of primary school managers.
Women: doing socially important but low status, badly paid work since, um, the dawn of time!
And if anyone wants to know why I’m a feminist, well, here’s one of many reasons:
Women’s income in 2005 was around two-thirds of men’s income. After adjusting for differences in hours worked, women’s hourly earnings were around 86% of men’s. The proportion of men at risk of poverty in 2006, after pensions and social transfers, was 17.5% compared to 19.5% of women.
Sigh. But I want to try and look on the bright side. I do not think Sarah Palin becoming America’s VP is a good thing for women (this is a woman who, as Mayor, made rape victims pay for the cost of the rape kits) or indeed the world. But there is this: high-profile women in power do change people’s expectations. For most of my generation, Margaret Thatcher is the first UK Prime Minister we remember – she was in power from when I was 4 to when I was 15 (one of my teachers came into the classroom grinning from ear to ear and told us she was out). Thatcher wasn’t a female-friendly politican either, but the fact that she was the British PM for pretty much my entire childhood and early adolescence meant that I, and others my age, always took it for granted that women could run countries (badly, in that case, but still). I just wish more women would get elected whose politics I agree with, but alas I fear that, as in the cases of both Thatcher and Palin and even Mary Harney, a conservative women is always going to be less threatening to the masses than a liberal one. What do you think?
I remember the day I realised Thatcher was a woman. I too had grown up with her in power and had never given any thought as to whether she was male or female. I just knew I didn’t like her, because my parents didn’t.
No one who lived through Thatcher could ever forget it – and I mean those who benefited as well as those (us Scots) who were hammered. This evil witch set women in politics back at least 30 years in the UK from the time she came into office. For example, how many of the “Blair Babes” have come to true prominence since 1997? It’s been a disaster. Just as well the men in charge are doing such a great job, really…
We have, thankfully, great liberal role models in Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, both of whom show such compassion (unlike Mary Harney) but they have not got the power of a government member.
It’s tough when women make up so few of the numbers; maybe we need an active policy on it, like in India. But, the patriarchy is still so strong here. Can you imagine suggesting to any of our politicians that they need equal amounts of women in the Dáil? They’d probably pat you on the head.
I used to work in a govt funded office and the whole board of directors were crumbly oul fellas. I nearly went off my bin trying to deal with them. Some of them completely ignored me, others could barely conceal their distaste for me because I was young, full of ideas etc. I left eventually, pissed off with the lack of progress available to me.
Don’t know if its possible for a woman with more liberal policies to be elected. I don’t mean our presidents as, in fairness, they are wonderful women but don’t really have a lot of power. There is something I have noticed in a lot of jobs – if a woman gets to the top its because she was such a wagon that she walked on everyone else to get there. I’m not saying thats true for every position but I have seen a few…especially in the public service. This may be a reflection of the promotion policy in these services where (points system at interview or not) its all who you know/play golf with etc., and the women applicants probably had to kick, scream, backstab and plot just to get a job that a fella would have got no problem just by being competent. God that sounds awful! Im a girl, I swear!
Penny, I know you’re not a fan of Camille Paglia and now you’ll hate her even more!
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2008/09/10/palin/index1.html
I now publicly disown paglia. The only reason for the existence of that article is because Steinem wrote an anti-palin op-ed piece in the LA Times.
We should all be absolutely terrified of a palin vice presidency.
Helen Clarke has been PM of New Zealand for nearly a decade now. She’s managed to keep NZ socially liberal and fiscally successful. I think she’s fantastic.
sorry – that’s Clark without the “E”
i don’t consider myself a feminist, first. but, i agree with what you say though, well i think i do, it shouldn’t be the fact that it’s a woman going for a position it shouldn’t matter either way, it’s what they can do in the job. i grew up wit maggie as the PM and never questioned the fact that she was a women and that if she was a man would bobby sans etc. gotten political statis. i just didn’t like her as a person. i think the 2 mary’s in the aras are brilliant role models for us a nation too. especially mary rob. the memory of her crying in somalia is burnt into my brain.
i think the palin one is only there though because she is a woman, well that’s what it looks like to me, and with the state of j mcgains health it looks like she could be president.
i think i’m rambling now!!