Isn’t it a shame that
a governor should have to be so lacking in knowledge of administrative talent
among women in his state that he needs other people to identify “binders” of qualified
women for him?
Imagine a governor saying, “I don’t know any people of
color, but I know people who do.”
And then he asks those people to recommend individuals to
serve in his cabinet to increase diversity. Wouldn’t such appointees always be
at one remove from real power?
Gov. Mitt Romney must be unaware of the Massachusetts Caucus
of Women Legislators, which was formed in 1975, or MassGAP, the Massachusetts
Government Appointments Group, founded in 2002, if he had to ask for outside
help in identifying qualified women to serve in his cabinet.
FactCheck.org in August took a look at Romney’s claim that
he increased the proportion of women in state government and found a
discrepancy in his remarks. See “Romney’s Big Night” and scroll down to “Women-filled
Administration?”
Women have worked hard to break through the so-called “glass
ceiling,” but in Massachusetts it seems they have to break out of “binders” to
be seen as real people with the talent and skills to serve their state. When Romney looks at one of these women
around the cabinet table, does he see a person or a “binder”?
To bind someone is to restrain her. Does Romney really want to be "Binder-in-Chief" of the nation? One hopes such attitudes will make his campaign fold and he can then be consigned to a dusty Folder of History.
A feminist invocation in the 1970s was "May patriarchy fall." Looks like it needs to be invoked once more.
--Bernice
Yo GO girl! (err, I mean Woman!)
ReplyDeleteI think that the reaction to binders full of women candidates for high administrative posts is overblown. Assuming he's telling the truth I think it's good that he recognized a deficit of women in cabinet level positions. The fact that he didn't carry lists of qualified women in his head but asked for help is not important to me.
ReplyDeleteBut the larger issue is that his main answer to the question of unequal pay for women only addressed women on the executive level, aka the 1%. Glass ceilings aside I don't worry a lot about women whose talents have taken them, along with a lot of men, to be binder fodder for a governor's cabinet selections.
The binder anecdote well describes Mitt Romney: a chief executive who knows a ton about what he needs to do to choose other executives, but seems very shaky on what knows about what the rest of us need.
Bernice, I felt exactly as you did. My first question was "Who are these people the Mitt hired who did not recognize that there were no women in the mix?"
ReplyDeleteWhite boy network - still in play.
Hmmmmmmm.... I wonder...... maybe old Willard was really trying to say that he likes "bound women" instead of "women in binders"..... hey, it does make a certain amount of sense considering his actions!!! Or was it "binders of bound women"??? "bound women in a binder"??? Maybe he can put the binders in the dog cage on top of his car......
ReplyDelete