Tag Archives: gender politics

Can’t keep my mouth shut

Romney was asked to defend his position on gender equality at work place at the town hall “debate” tonight.

Even though I enjoy the snarky tweets, in all fairness, here is what Romney said (excerpt from L.A. Times)

Romney countered that, as governor of Massachusetts, he had a stellar record when it came to hiring women, accomplished by “a concerted effort” when he discovered that all the people applying for jobs in his administration were men.

“I went to a number of women’s groups and said, can you help us find folks?” Romney said. “And [they] brought us whole binders full of — of women.

 

 

Not to be picking on the guy, for example, he did not know any qualified women on his own and HAD to ask someone to deliver him a binder?  But even for such a lame example, he lied about it.

Romney then continued:

As an example of his women-friendly policies, Romney cited the treatment of one of his main employees. “My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school,” he said. “She said, ‘I can’t be here until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I need to be able to get home at 5:00 so I can be there for — making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school.’ So we said, ‘Fine, let’s have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you.’”

 

This should teach me. Clearly I do not deserve any sympathy or flexibility for my work load because I do NOT cook.

 

And for the question we have all dying to find the answer to… there is of course a website dedicated to showing us the answer…

 

Father and Daughter

I’m sitting in the train station with the only Starbucks in this town. This has been a routine of mine for Saturday mornings when the kids are at religious class. I like to think it’s free babysitting service provided by the Catholic church for me.

“Awwwww. How cute!” I exclaimed to myself when I saw the father sitting at the table in front of me trying to put up a ponytail for his little girl. The grandmothers from the table next obviously thought the same as they commented on how adorable the scene was.

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I immediately caught myself, wondering WHY, why is it deemed universally adorable whenever we see fathers (attempting to) take care of their OWN children, and whether I ever go “Awww” when I see a woman taking care of hers.

Sometimes, the more clumsy the attempt, the more adorable it appears. The man clearly is trying his best. He gets points for the effort. Do we ever give mothers credits for simply trying without passing judgment?