{"id":836,"date":"2010-11-11T09:00:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-11T09:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=836"},"modified":"2010-11-11T09:00:24","modified_gmt":"2010-11-11T09:00:24","slug":"madam-president-about-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2010\/11\/11\/madam-president-about-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Madam President (about time)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Equal opportunities for men and women are an essential principle of democracy.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Dilma Rousseff, the new President of Brazil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On Sunday 31st October, Brazil got a female President<\/a>. And she said things like this:<\/p>\n

“I would like for fathers and mothers to look into their daughters’ eyes today and tell them: ‘Yes, women can.’ I would like to register my first post-election commitment: to honour Brazilian women so that this unprecedented fact becomes a natural event.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We in the UK have not had the best role models when it comes to female politicians. They’ve tended to be massively conservative (even when in the Labour party). There was Margaret Thatcher, who was certainly female and Prime Minister. Feminists seem to be split on whether that fact alone makes her an icon, or whether the illiberal policies her Conservative party enacted set us back decades. I won’t argue that here.<\/p>\n

Since then we’ve had some really appalling female politicians. In 2004, Ruth Kelly became the youngest woman to ever sit in the Cabinet as the ‘Secretary of State for Education and Skills’. Unfortunately, the National Union of Teachers gave her an F. She then became both ‘Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government’ and ‘Minister for Women and Equality’. These posts included being the government’s liason to the Muslim community, which was an odd choice for a woman who belonged to the ultra-strict Catholic sect called Opus Dei<\/em>. It also involved fighting for equality for women, which was an odd choice for… you get the idea. (Opus Dei’s record on women’s rights<\/a> wasn’t exactly spectacular, even before you get to questions on abortion or contraception<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Jacqui Smith did a much better job with Education, but then became one of the most hardline Home Secretaries we’ve ever seen, introducing all kinds of laws which removed civil liberties and sparked protests – ID cards, email snooping, holding without charge, tougher laws on drugs and prostitution (against official scientists’ and social advisers’ advice) that did nothing to solve the problems, etc.<\/p>\n

Harriet Harman is held as a hero by some, although she’s not without her share of conservative or illiberal voting either. She proposed a rule change to hide MP’s expenses from the public, voted for the war, and nearly always kept in line with whatever the government position on anything was. (You can’t do this and be very liberal, at least not in the UK in the past 30 years).<\/p>\n

Hazel Blears… next.<\/p>\n

Without going down the full list, the trend has definitely been that while we’ve had women in positions of power (Deputy leader of the Labour Party, senior posts) there haven’t been any big shining examples of female politicians bringing about social equality.<\/p>\n

In the US we have such amazing liberal heroines as Hillary Clinton (my personal opinion here, but I reckon we’d have invaded Iran already if she was in) and the now-famous ‘feminist’ Sarah… Palin… *hides*<\/p>\n

Which is why Dilma Rousseff saying these things as the new President of Brazil is so brilliant. “Equal opportunities for men and women are an essential principle of democracy.”<\/em> That’s fantastic. The UK Labour party is meant to be about reducing inequality, and the Lib Dems have it written specifically on their membership cards, but so far their records when they get into power have been of massively increasing inequality (especially financial).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica (Copyright Syfy channel)<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a lot of scrutiny on the numbers of women in political positions, but I think higher numbers become less important if they’re just as aggressive, reactionary and conservative as the men. What we need as feminists is someone who will move forward not back, move away from the traditional and do new things, and put the support in place to enable women to have a clear chance at equality. In my opinion, that person would by definition have to be a liberal, not conservative. And probably a lefty one.<\/p>\n

It’s a sad fact that when they hear the words “Madam President”, a lot of people immediately think of Battlestar Galactica. Laura Roslin might have been forced to become extremely ruthless due to the plot of the show, but she started off as a bleeding-heart liberal – and we don’t have many of those to choose from. More often, women in power have to prove themselves as more traditionally masculine than the men just to not be considered ‘weak’.<\/p>\n

President Rousseff seems to be ready to take on anything her political enemies can throw at her (which will likely be a lot, given the dirty media campaign against her in the election) but she has come out with the absolutely clear message that equality is a priority. BadRep wishes her every success in her new post!<\/p>\n