The embers of the women’s movement championed by Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan are cooling and turning to ash. During the last election cycle, a successful initiative was still able to galvanize women voters into one voting block through abortion rights. Similar attempts did not succeed in this year’s competition. Falling in status are pink things people wear on their heads, bra burnings, and Murphy Brown reruns.
Where will white wealthy women turn for direction?
Nancy Pelosi is without a doubt the most powerful women in American politics. She took office in the house of representatives in 1987. She was the first women to become speaker of the house in 2007. All this after she raised five children with a man she married in 1963. Despite spending nearly a quarter of a century focused on being a wife and mother, Nancy Pelosi has enjoyed an enormously successful political life.
Perhaps being part of a large, bustling family contributes to her success rather than distracts from it. Perhaps devoting the necessary energy to maintaining a life-partner garners the type of support one needs in political life. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) also chose a very traditional family life. She raised two children with one husband, whom she married in 1954. The same can be said about Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
As minority groups switch alliances, perhaps it’s time for a new focus for women. Perhaps there will be a rising status of all those activities in neighborhoods full of long-term partners and their kids. It seems that such efforts come back in forms of future career support later in life.
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