One of the reason modern feminism is being marginalized these days is because of stupid writings like this one, in which Katie Granju tells us that the reason women resent Sarah Palin is that she isn't "grateful enough" to prior generations of feminists.
For the millions of American women in their 50s, 60s and beyond who remember workplaces before second wave feminism, Palin's attitude toward women's issues is just plain offensive. These women toiled in work environments where bringing a child to work would have been unthinkable. In fact, they were generally fired as soon as they became pregnant. They remember the days before the law protected female workers against sexual harassment and blatant discrimination. They know that it's only in the last generation or so that more fathers have, like Todd Palin, begun taking an equal role in childcare and household management so their wives can go out into the world as professionals. These are women who had mothers and grandmothers who told them what it was like to live in a country where women had no political voice, or even the right to vote.
Excuse me, Katie, but you don't even know what you're talking about.
Women of my generation are old enough to remember what sex discrimination looks like, not just because it happened to our mothers and grandmothers but because it happened to us. We were told from an early age that certain jobs were not "feminine." We were steered to by well-meaning guidance counselors to go into more traditionally feminine careers like nursing and teaching as opposed to other careers in male-dominated professions. We watched the good ol' boy network at school and work, and learned a lot about tokenism.
In the days before the Supreme Court discovered sex discrimination at work, we were often subject to ridicule from male colleagues who were "just having fun," and expected to laugh it off. We watched some women, who didn't behave sufficiently female, get ahead, while others, who suggested openly that there was more to life than work, were sources of scorn.
We were mocked as "baby makers" if we had too many children by feminists supposedly interested in the advancement of women...but not women who wanted to have children. Our motivations were questioned regarding higher education, because we were "taking up the space" that someone more dedicated should have taken.
We've watched as this generation of feminists have told us that we haven't gotten the positions we hold, the jobs or opportunities we fought for, or the lives we've fashioned because we worked hard, made sacrifices, accepted options that fit our personal goals.
No, we've been told that we aren't sufficiently grateful that someone else did something.
Well, excuse me, ladies. I'm getting off the feminist plantation.
I don't think any woman should be derided as "insufficiently grateful" to feminism because she has been successful.
Not once in Granju's column does she point out some way that Palin is "insufficiently grateful" to past feminists, but it's obvious that her disdain for Palin is that Palin hasn't wasted enough time and energy on shrill, meaningless rhetoric about supposed persecution and hardship.
Instead, Palin has succeeded. She doesn't spend time talking about the sexism she has certainly faced in her life. And, I suppose, not wanting to be a victim makes her their object of scorn.
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