"The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Or at least so claims Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President, a new book by Ron Suskind. From a review in the Washington Post:
It says that women occupied many of the West Wing’s senior positions, but felt outgunned and outmaneuvered by male colleagues such as former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Summers.
“I felt like a piece of meat,” Christina Romer, former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said of one meeting in which Suskind writes she was “boxed out” by Summers
[...]
“The president has a real woman problem,” an unnamed high-ranking female official told Suskind. “ The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.”
...According to the book, female staffers, like Dunn and Romer, felt sidelined. In November 2009, female aides complained to the president about being left out of meetings, or ignored.
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Oct '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
If politics at that level isn’t all sharp elbows and deplorable ego then fish don’t live in water. Can Romer truly have believed the West Wing would be otherwise? Sure! She has spent her whole adult life in elite academia, cosseted by an ethos of “inclusion” and gender favoritism known more neutrally as “affirmative action.” Watching academic Liberals grow up is both humorous and nauseating.
May '11
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
When I saw the title of this post I thought it had something to do with Sarah Palin`s penchant for black men.
Feb '11
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Please spare me the drama. If these women (one would generally assume somewhat qualified) couldn't assert themselves in the what is a high powered and tacitly masculine world then they don't deserve any sympathy. Ladies its time you wake up and play the game, it may not be what you want but play you must. I am always annoyed when some women use the sexist mantra as a cop out, it usually means that they were not very good at their jobs and want to blame someone else for their incompetence.
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 8:12amNov '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Mark Wilson: The question on my mind is:
Did excluding women from the decision-making process make our country under President Obama more worse or less worse? Discuss.
I think this is a false argument. Valerie Jarrett (malheureusement) has wielded enormous clout in Obama's political career.
Jan '11
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Yeah...ok.: Its bush's fault.
[Edited to comply w/CoC] · Sep 16 at 5:28pm
Edited on Sep 16 at 05:56 pm
I apologize. On Friday nites my comments tend to stray beyond the merely lame.
May '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Assuming, arguendo, these women were discriminated against in the White House, they are barking up the wrong tree. The feminist movement long ago sold its soul to the Democratic Party in return for the kickbacks from abortion outfits. As long as President Obama protects Planned Parenthood, he could have his own Amazonian Guard and you wouldn't hear a peep from feminists.
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 12:55pmApr '11
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
These aren't difficult allegations to believe, certainly not where Summers is concerned.. Remember his ouster from Harvard? From the Boston Globe, announcing his departure in 2006 after the briefest tenure as President in 144 years of Harvard history: "Last year, Summers sparked international outrage by speculating at an economics conference that innate differences between men and women might be one of the reasons women lag behind in science and math careers."
Aug '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
Isn't it the female appointees' job to speak up and make themselves heard?
This is federal US executive-level politics we're talking about. It's not just the big leagues, it's the biggest league on the entire freakin' planet! It's not an academic committee where everybody is expected to play nice and "build a consensus", it's the White House! The aides compete for the President's ear, and the competition is stiff.
Heck, if someone like Colin Powell could (allegedly) have trouble competing in that environment, why do these people expect to have influence without having to fight for it?
Being shoved out by two guys (Rahm and Summers) doesn't sound like sexism. It sounds like a triumvirate. Are they saying that Rahm and Summers would submissively let anybody else to the party as long as they were male? I seriously doubt that's true.
A White House appointment isn't a guarantee of influence. It's an invitation to participate in a blood-sport.
Nov '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
To me, the big deal here is that there's this book out there that says to feminists: this guy (Obama) is not your guy. All along, there were feminists who backed Obama reluctantly, and who insisted (in typical Left victimology mode) that sexism was responsible for the fact that Obama beat Hilary. Any additional fracturing of the Left's coalition behind Obama is good for the Right.
I don't mean that these hardcore feminists are likely to vote for a Republican. But there is an advantage to be derived from their losing enthusiasm for the Democrat, perhaps even staying home on Election Day.
Nov '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
It's like Entourage meets The West Wing.
May '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
I wonder what Condi, or the Albright would say to all this whinging. I doubt either of them were treated with kid gloves by their respective Whitehouse administrations.
With all this sidelining of women (assumedly via meetings at the men's urinal), how does Secretary of State Clinton get to wield any power?
Power is ugly, deal with it, deal it out to others, or just quietly leave.
Edited on September 17, 2011 at 9:11pmOct '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
I'm not sure how Summers’ excommunication at the hands of Harvard's Thought Police is evidence for what is being claimed. Is it, after all, beyond the pale merely to ask the question whether or not persistent gender differences might have something to do with … uhh, gender? That mere suggestion famously caused one female professor to grow faint. So much for the fearless examination of ideas, for boldly letting science and reason dictate the course of one’s academic pursuits, rather than intellectual orthodoxy.
Nov '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
And what has the Secretary of State got to say about this? Uh, anybody hear from her lately?
Crickets.
Aug '10
Re: "The President Has a Real Woman Problem"
As a committed sexist, I'm glad to see that not all liberal men have been castrated.