Conservative columnist Ruth Marcus, who writes for the Washington Post, has written a column about the choices that Sarah Palin has to make as a mom, and how other women feel about that choice.
See the column Here
Marcus seems to think that women are evaluating Palin's ability to be Vice President on whether she can prioritize work and family.
My colleague Sally Quinn put it most provocatively. "Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job?" Quinn wondered. "When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick, what choice will she make?"
She goes on to quote several women from a focus group from Women's Voices Women Vote.
"She felt like she was one of us," said one woman, an office manager mother of four. "She has family, she works, she has earned what she's gotten instead of marrying into it. . . . I know there's some controversy . . . but a lot of us work and have babies and all that."
"But can you be president with a tiny baby and a big family and give both what they deserve?" interjected an accountant who works from home.
"Well, what if it was a man? . . . That's where it's a double standard," the office manager said.
"I've heard there are plenty of high executive women -- the job is first, the children have the nanny, the dad helps out, and they survive," offered another woman, a grandmother. "I think she can do it."
"Not if she's really committed to her family," said a recent retiree. "I think she's bitten off more than she can chew."
She then sums up this portion of the article with:
This is part of the never-ending conversation among mothers, working and stay-at-home, full-time and flex. Is there a mother around who heard Palin's story and didn't reflect on her own choices?
I don't question whether Palin can pull off the most impressive juggling act in the history of working moms, balancing, as she told People magazine, BlackBerry and breast pump. But I do wonder -- somewhat to my astonishment -- why she'd choose to, and I suspect many mothers feel the same.
Well, I am a mother who has heard Palin's story and didn't reflect on my own choices. To me, that is the very nature of modern feminism. I am free to make the choices that I think are right for my family, and how I choose to balance work (or not), day-care (or not), school choices, and balance it all with my husband, is not open for anyone else's critique.
Women seem to want to make these choices for themselves and not be questioned by other women, yet they spend an awful lot of time picking apart, dissecting and questioning other women's choices.
Seems to me, if we all just chose to have confidence in each other's ability to make the right choice for our families, we could get rid of the "mommy wars" and move toward the true feminism we all say that we desire.
So, I don't question whether Sarah Palin can balance her family and her job. In the spirit of true feminism, I trust that she has the right and the freedom to make that choice. How she balances it is her business, in conjunction with her husband and whatever other care she arranges.
What I do question is her ability to do the job for which she has been nominated. Also in the spirit of true feminism, rather than blindly voting for her due to her gender, I will evaluate her experience, temperament, history, and qualifications, as I will do for every candidate. From all I've seen so far, she comes up so far lacking in her qualifications to be Vice President, that worrying about how she'll care for her kids if she is, shouldn't be the priority of any woman in America.