Sunday, October 14, 2007
Working Class Women for Hillary!
This presidential election may finally signal the ascendancy of women in politics--and not the ascendancy of educated, ambitious, upper-class women, but that of the women who live the real, on-the-ground, day-to-day life in America. This election, instead of being played out in the boardrooms of Texas oil companies, is playing out in the beauty salons of small-town America.
It's a funny phenomenon that women's harshest critics are often other women. (This is probably true for any oppressed group-- for instance, it's a sort of truism that Black cops are rougher on Blacks than white cops are.) And this is most true when the "elite" members of an oppressed group are fighting for turf with each other--challenging each other for who has the largest portion of the little bit of real estate they've wrested from the majority group.
This is why, while it seems counter-intuitive, it's not really surprising that working class women, including African-American working class women, are the most enthusiastic about Hillary, while educated professional women are more cool.
Since more women vote than men, and women are deemed to have been instrumental in the turning of the Senate in 2006, this may be the most significant factor in the 2008 race.
This presidential election may finally signal the ascendancy of women in politics--and not the ascendancy of educated, ambitious, upper-class women, but that of the women who live the real, on-the-ground, day-to-day life in America. This election, instead of being played out in the boardrooms of Texas oil companies, is playing out in the beauty salons of small-town America.
It's a funny phenomenon that women's harshest critics are often other women. (This is probably true for any oppressed group-- for instance, it's a sort of truism that Black cops are rougher on Blacks than white cops are.) And this is most true when the "elite" members of an oppressed group are fighting for turf with each other--challenging each other for who has the largest portion of the little bit of real estate they've wrested from the majority group.
This is why, while it seems counter-intuitive, it's not really surprising that working class women, including African-American working class women, are the most enthusiastic about Hillary, while educated professional women are more cool.
Since more women vote than men, and women are deemed to have been instrumental in the turning of the Senate in 2006, this may be the most significant factor in the 2008 race.
