the most underestimated, disenfranchised group in this election. In reading this wonderful and spot on diary http://www.dailykos.com/... where Emit describes the power of simply reaching out to a disenfranchised non-voter, I find myself thinking about the group I call "submissive feminist". This is a monumental group which we have ignored and/or dismissed, yet McCain has embraced (maybe even accidentally) with his selection of Sarah Palin.
I know these women. They populate the congregations of the mega churches. Religiously they are under the thumbs of their husbands. Yet, personally they run the show. Legions of them run entire schools and "women's ministries". They operate under the direction of a women who is under a male only executive branch. These women work for free and their director, though often better educated, doing more work than any man, will NEVER earn a pay check on par or above these men.
They care very much about the issues of women and children. They are isolated and send their children to the schools attached to these churches or home school them rather than let them be exposed to any radical, critical, oppositional thinking.
They will work, en masse, to influence local school boards and schools if they choose to send their children to public schools and even when they do not. They are excellent executives in the PTA, hockey, soccer, football, and theatre organizations. Their legions volunteer in schools, organizing classrooms and field trips.
They are sick of being told that these experiences do not count, that they do not matter except as an extension of their husbands and male pastors. They rally around their female directors and form strong, effective blocks of workers getting the work done; albeit separately and less than equal.
It does not matter to them what Sarah Palin has done, just that she has done it. She is being recognized for her work, women's work. And she is doing it and getting recognition at the pleasure of the male leadership. A role they are very familiar with.
They probably would have voted for McCain anyway. Some may have flirted with voting for Hillary or even Obama; at the risk of being less than submissive to the choices their husbands' outlined for them. So what has been gained by energizing this block?
They are building excitement, showing up in force to see Palin. And with excitement comes energy which will attract others who are disenfranchised, the independent, the undecided. Those not interested in being informed, but being part of the excitement, of something larger than themselves. Something and someone who is valued for the work that they do everyday without accolade, or pay, much less equal pay.
She is their rallying point. Their moment when their "feminism" is not "submissive" and has possibilities. The "feminism" which sets women back a century, but for the moment they are in the spotlight.
Obama/Biden need to come out and re-create the informed excitement that catapulted his candidacy. Do not dismiss the strength of these disenfranchised women. Leadership is something they take very seriously. It is the one thing that separates them from their submissive reality.