CHALLENGE

Gender and Feminism, a New Maturity?

One of the most fascinating aspects of the battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been the surprisingly variable response from women voters.

Hillary was the feminist dream come true, or so we all thought, but a shockingly high proportion of women voters have plumbed for Barack – A trend that has been seen to be growing.

Immediately, some famous feminists have called foul. They feel that women who support the “young, handsome” male in this epochal battle are abandoning the faith. These ‘heretics’, they claim, have played true to sexist form in rejecting the more experienced and more iconic woman in place of the untried though charismatic male upstart.

Many of the older generation feminists have even expressed a surprisingly negative sentiment about the future with statements made like “this is the only real chance of my lifetime to see a woman become president”.

What I see though is that if for a moment one listens to these ‘traitorous’ voters, neither sex not rock star charm have anything to do with their choice. Many are in fact staunch feminists. The issue for them is ‘the issues’. The Clintons are a known quantity and many women do not like what they stand for. These voters are in fact thrilled to have a choice, and of a one who stands equally tall on issues of equality yet solidly against the Iraq war.

In the final analysis, for the young new American voter the choice has nothing to do with either gender or race and nothing could be more thrilling or actually more amazing. The iconic issues of the past have been foregone for a new, mature, approach to selecting the best PERSON for the job.

May the best person win…

click to go to Samantha Power’s original Scotsman interview…she’s an excellent example of a very broad phenomenon.