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Daily Social Issues
Weekend Posts
October 3-5, 2008
Governor Palin is not necessarily a realistic image for professional and driven American women. She is more symbol than reality, more fiction than fact.
As a new mother to a special needs child and a mother to four other children, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is becoming a symbol of the "Superwoman." However, there are certainly arguments as to whether she is truly a positive representation of a working mother or whether the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is a healthy, or even a truly realistic female image at all.
When she was first introduced as Senator McCain's running mate, my immediate reaction was: Who will raise her five kids if she suddenly becomes President? Then I thought: Who will watch her kids while she runs for Vice President? More than a few people felt that this was a sexist sentiment, even coming from a woman, since no one would ask this of a man. McCain evidently has seven children and has never been asked this. However, I am going to hold my ground here.
Each time you see the Palin's, the middle child, Willow, is holding the newborn. Sometimes Sarah's husband carries the baby, Trig, but eventually he passes it off to this middle child. I think he does this because he does not want to be seen as "soft" or as "Mr. Mom." Particularly, since he comes from such a macho culture in Alaska.
Following the debate and on the campaign trail, Governor Palin is seen taking photo ops picking up her children or doting on each one, possibly on an airplane landing strip or after a speech. Oftentimes it unfortunately looks like chaos instead of politics or leadership. While I think that she is doing her best here to be an attentive parent, I find it hard to believe that she is all that great a mother to five children while she runs for one of the most demanding jobs in the world. And, it is not the prospect of having a female VP with children at home that concerns me. It is, in fact, the reality that Governor Palin has so many children concurrently in their key developmental years. Now, few women can successfully raise this many children these days focusing on motherhood alone, now add the pressures of being the Vice President or actual President of the US. Now, toss in that her newborn has special needs that will continue to be demanding as he gets older.
Knowing what I know about motherhood, active father involved or not, I just can't see it. The Palin's will either cycle through a staff of nannies and relatives, which is fine. Or, this whole married with five kids, one special needs and holding an extraordinarily demanding high government office like Vice President, thing will stress them to the brink behind closed doors, regardless of how many times they smile at each other lovingly and lift their children into their arms.
I wish her the best, but find her choices and her image completely unrealistic for women.
