Clearly it's still very early, President-Elect Obama hasn't even taken office yet. But from talk of Lawrence Summers as treasury secretary to Michelle Obama's "mom in chief" phrase, there are some disappointing signals about the Obamas' understanding of important symbolism surrounding the quest for women's equality.
Of course I understand Michelle Obama's concern about her children as they not only move to a new city, but into a withering media and public glare. Totally understandable that this is her focus right now. But "mom in chief"? Is she so clueless not to get what a knife through the heart that must be to the millions of women who dreamed of seeing a woman commander in chief in Hillary Clinton, only to hear that no, it's the man who commands while the smart, talented woman gives up her own career to serve solely as mommy in chief? Yes, words matter.
For that matter, can you imagine the derision from the left if a Harvard-educated attorney wife of a Republican political candidate declared her goal was to be "mom in chief"? Couldn't she have put it another way, and just said that her immediate priority is helping her kids adjust to their new life, without that 1950s-sounding "mom in chief" phrase?
I didn't support Hillary Clinton in the primaries, but it was still tough to have to pass over the first truly viable and qualified female candidate for president. And I'm not even a woman trying to balance kids and career. For many older women who supported Hillary, I believe her candidacy was validating the idea that a smart, talented woman could choose to raise a family, support her husband's career and then also achieve dreams of her own. But there was no fairy-tale ending. It turns out that sometimes you can't have it all. Timing matters. If you put off your own career too long, sometimes your time passes you by. I don't mean to denigrate Hillary Clinton's senate career, which is certainly impressive by most standards, but clearly her dream was to be in the White House in her own right. By the time the opportunity came around, though, voters were more attracted to a candidate from a new generation of politics who could lead America into a new era, not return to the '90s. Women like Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright missed many prime career years, sacrifices that men of that generation didn't have to make.
Being a political spouse is tough, and a presidential wife unimaginably so. Michelle Obama will need to find her way, and I wish her well. But I ask her not to symbolically set back the cause of women's equality while she finds her role in the public eye.
I ask the same of Barack Obama: Don't set back the cause of women's equality. President-Elect Obama. I urge you not to pick Lawrence Summers as Treasury Secretary. If you think Summers is brilliant and would be a useful adviser, fine, put him somewhere like your Council of Economic Advisers. But a man who was drummed out of the Harvard presidency in part because of his claim that women scientists don't have the same "intrinsic aptitude" as men, and whose professional history includes charges of disdaining the advice of women, belongs nowhere near a job running a major part of the U.S. government.
Again, it's early, but so far almost all the names swirling around the transition team look like an old boys' network. For all the criticism around here of Laura Bush as a "Stepford wife", George W. Bush not only has a woman in his cabinet, but in his inner circle of power. In my opinion Condoleezza Rice is the wrong woman to be giving advice; but it's quite clear that her opinions are taken seriously by the president. She's not just there as window dressing.
Will we be able to say the same about President Obama? Will he have women in his inner circle in official capacities, in areas that are most critical to the nation right now, like finance and national security?
The cause of women in politics and power looked so promising with Hillary Clinton's candidacy. After her defeat, though, we ended up with absolutely the wrong woman on a national ticket -- Sarah Palin, an unqualified, ignorant pretty face who winked at voters and hoped that claims of being a regular mom would trump the fact that she was way in over her head. The stories ended up being about her clothes, her shopping and her temper tantrums along with her lack of even basic knowledge about the world around us. Didn't do much for the cause of women in power.
We desperately need a counter-balance to that now, President-Elect Obama. No on Lawrence Summers and any other man who does not respect women's abilities or view them as equals. No on cutesy, 1950s-era, women-know-their-place phrases like "mom in chief." And yes on picking some talented women for positions of real power in your administration.