Suskind Flap: Is the Obama administration sexist?

You might look at my headline and reply, “Is the Pope Catholic?” because you agree with my contention that institutional sexism is bound to exist in a structure so traditionally male-dominated. Read on and let me know what you think about Arena’s question of whether the new Suskind book’s revelations about the treatment of women in the White House will damage Obama.

Politico TheArena logo

Arena Asks: Tuesday’s release of a new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind is causing heartache at the White House. “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President” describes a difficult work environment for women in the Obama administration’s early months, among other revelations. How much, if at all, will the book damage the Obama White House? And did staffers err in giving access to the author, who previously wrote books often critical of the George W. Bush administration?

My Answer:It should come as no surprise to anyone that institutional sexism exists in the White House, as it does in virtually all leadership structures traditionally run by men, progressive or conservative. Suskind’s findings were hardly new or unique to the Obama administration.

True, Obama should be more sensitive because he has experienced institutional racism. So women rightly expect better of him, but hey, in the end, he is still a man’s man who does business on the golf course or over a beer. When Obama appointed a largely male (and largely white men associated with either Obama’s campaign or previous administrations) team of top advisors, it was clear women could expect business as usual: they would not be taken into the inner circles nor would their voices be heard at the same decibels as men’s. Women experience this kind of subtle discrimination every day in almost every venue.

INTENTIONING

Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
Will Take The Lead for (Everyone’s) Good

The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.

What was different this time–and this is huge–is that the women spoke up for themselves, demanded changes, and from evidence in Suskind’s book, got at least some of what they wanted. It is incumbent on women to embrace our own power to make these changes happen. If Obama shows a sincere and continuing commitment to erasing the institutional sexism and moving women to parity in the inner circles of power, he will not be hurt, but could actually benefit from this issue being aired in Suskind’s book.

 

3 Comments

  1. Aletha on September 21, 2011 at 12:36 am

    If Obama shows a sincere and continuing commitment to erasing the institutional sexism and moving women to parity in the inner circles of power, he will not be hurt, but could actually benefit from this issue being aired in Suskind’s book.

    Obama will certainly attempt to convince women he has made such a commitment, but nobody should fall for that spin. Nobody can tell me Obama did not know what kind of pig Lawrence Summers is. Obama did not care; all he cared about was that he thought Summers was the best person for the job. One might excuse Obama for that if Summers had actually done a good job, but to make that claim would be quite a stretch.

    This is old news, anyway, though finally the mainstream media is paying some attention to how it has been business as usual for allegedly powerful women in this Administration.

  2. Gloria Feldt on September 23, 2011 at 3:23 pm

    You are so right about Summers. We could speculate as some have done about Obama’s feeling that he needs to be accepted by that entrenched white male club that has made such hash out of our economy, but clearly it is a problem.

    I also don’t think women as a rule have been much helped by Valerie Jarrett as one of his top advisers, not for that matter by Michelle Obama’s “mom-in-chief”self-definition, as admirable as her devotion to her children might be. Michelle specifically declined to identify as a feminist during the campaign, for example, even though her life would have been vastly different had it not been for feminists who opened the doors to law school and corporate jobs for her.

  3. femisex.com on October 25, 2011 at 10:21 am

    The entire run for the White House was based on sexism: Obama ran specifically in 2008 because he knew the Media would help him beat a “eeek” woman, and he know the the male machine of the DNC and Congress (Kennedy, Durbin, Levin, Daschle,Skunk Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, etc.) would blackball Hillary in any run for the WH.
    Obama USED sexism to get elected in much the same way Regan used racism to get elected. The only difference is Obama knew he had a sexist media on his side. Now all we have is Barky spending us into a hellhole and union bailouts. And Class warfare that is toxic.
    Barak Hussein Obama used sexism to get elected and he will use class warfare to try to get re-elected, but it will not work, I pray.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.