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Women Making Strides In Obama Administration

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HuckleberryFriend
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
It's always such a nice feeling to see women in political office who aren't there as the token "SEE WE TOTALLY LOVE WOMEN LOOKS HERE'S ONE RIGHT HERE" but just because they were the best one for the job and it's no big deal.
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AthertonMerriweather
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
I know many women who would've gone into politics, but felt their career choices would be limited and chose to pursue other careers. I hope this will encourage more young women (and also young minority men) to venture into politics.
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raineoffire
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
Seems like the real issue here is that women and minorities need to be encouraged and given the opportunities to go to college, to get graduate degrees, to become lawyers, to run for office, etc. It's mostly white men in the most important positions in the government not because they're better or smarter, but because they make up most of the pool of qualified candidates. I'm glad to see this is slowly changing.
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AthertonMerriweather
06/22/09

@raineoffire: I pretty much just wrote the same thing below. It seems like Obama has a pretty limited pool to pick from.
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SunburnedCounsel
06/22/09

@raineoffire:
"but because they make up most of the pool of qualified candidates."
Or, because our culture assumes that white men are the basis of "qualified" and measures all others accordingly.
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Trulymadlyme
06/22/09

@raineoffire: They're around. Like post from last week pointed out, there are plenty of qualified women and people of color running around. Seriously.

The problem is that many do not do the unpaid internships or the poorly paid legislative or political aid jobs where a lot of politicos are mentored and basically pulled up through the ranks. Mostly because they can't afford to work for free. (See: why young Magazine staffers are insanely upper middle class (or upper class) and white.)

If you want to find competent qualified people of color and women, they're already working for the government as GS 13-15, running the agencies and programs that these overwhelming white politicos head. In fact, they're covering for a lot of these guys who are not necessarily qualified for the jobs and appointments they are taking. This is even happening now.

[www.nytimes.com]

There are plenty of bankruptcy practitioners (minority and female) that are more qualified and competent than this guy. I can name ten off the top of my head.

The qualified candidate excuse is bullshit and a myth. They're not looking too hard.
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Lymed
06/22/09

@raineoffire: Women are damn well represented in higher education. I know more women get BAs than men and I think more women get JDs too. But there are different career paths outside of school, and those career paths are not all by choice.
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raineoffire
06/22/09

@SunburnedCounsel: Well, "qualified" in that they have advanced degrees and a ton of hands-on experience. Women (who are traditionally supposed to stay home with the babies) and minorities (who traditionally have lower incomes and can't afford tuition/time to go to school/internships) have less opportunity for that. But "tradition" is often crap, so it's time to move on and change our views of who is supposed to do what.
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Trulymadlyme
06/22/09

@raineoffire: They're are plenty of qualified women and minorities with advanced degrees. Arguing that they don't exist is a myth, which excuses the laziness of certain industries in recruiting these people.
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linnyt is a walking cliché
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
I was looking through the white house flickr and I feel like a lot of the people Obama was around all the time in his staff were men.

His advisers:

More advisers:

[farm4.static.flickr.com]
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Majrhoulihan
06/22/09

@linnyt is a walking cliché: But Obama is also operating in a world that is racist and sexist. There are forces out there that are making sure that of all the people that have advanded economics degrees and budget experience, most of them look like Peter Orszag.

I'm not saying there aren't qualified women or minorities out there who could have that job, but let's not pretend there are as many black women given the opportunity to reach that level as there are white men.
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deitybox
06/22/09

@linnyt is a walking cliché: Yeah, but at least two of those guys aren't "white".
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Lymed
06/22/09

@deitybox: and at least one isn't Christian
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stoprobbers
06/22/09

@linnyt is a walking cliché: What does his Flickr pool have to do with anything? Just because sometimes the group of people in his office are men doesn't mean he's sexist.

I mean, really. Talk about making a mountain out a molehill. He has male staffers? OMFG!!!
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linnyt is a walking cliché
06/22/09

@stoprobbers: I'm not saying he's sexist. The flickr pool appears be designed to show daily life in the white house. I'm looking at the photos and not seeing a lot of women. The photos look like a bunch of guys doing their thing and a woman or two sprinkled in sometimes. The photostream, as a whole, looks that way to me.

I do agree with the other posters that say women/minorities haven't had the same opportunities as white men.
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Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith
06/22/09

@deitybox: You don't count Rahm Emmanuel as white?
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stoprobbers
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
Just because you don't walk around beating a drum and chanting "I LOVE WOMEN AND MINORITIES" doesn't mean you're not looking out for them.

I, for one, find Obama's subtlety refreshing. We're not a cause. We're half the fucking human race.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
Bwaahahahaha! Soon my pretties, SOON the white mens will be overcome just like we all planned!

Step 1: Elect Non-American Black Muslin (CHECK)

Step 2: Have frosty chocolate milkshakes (CHECK)

Step 3: Put Whitey into special 'Happy Happy, You're Totally Not Imprisoned, It's For Your Own Good' camps.

Step 4: Abortions for all!

Step 5: Breed all the white wimmens with Non-American Black Muslins

Step 6: Have frosty chocolate milkshakes
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tawdrylorde
06/22/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): don't forget forcing everyone to be teh ghey.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
06/22/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): God damn you, now I'm going to have to go to Wattaburger after work and have a milk shake.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/22/09

@tawdrylorde: Ah yes! Step 7: Buttsecks for all!
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save jinger
06/22/09

@MissSkittles is not your kind of lady: Ha, I'm off to get a chocolate malt now!
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
06/22/09

@MissSkittles is not your kind of lady: I am so suggestible. Pretty much every food commercial ever works on me.
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Eleanor Ramilly
06/22/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Step 8: Force everyone into socialism, spend the money from the wealthy on the Mexicans.
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mbot says Spock yeah!
06/22/09

@Eleanor Ramilly: Step 9: Arugula.
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BeckyIva
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
Ok... almost 50% is still WAY larger than the portion of the population white men represent...
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save jinger
06/22/09

@BeckyIva: But the political world is still largely dominated by them, so let's take what we can get?
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BeckyIva
06/22/09

@save jinger: Nah, I'm with PilgrimSoul. I'll be impressed when senior positions in the government are reflective of the population they are meant to represent.
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Majrhoulihan
06/22/09

@BeckyIva: Which means that the graduates of Masters and Ph.D. programs matches the distribution in the general population. This starts a lot lower than government...this starts pretty much from birth.
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save jinger
06/22/09

@BeckyIva: Well, yeah, but this is a step in the right direction. Progress doesn't happen overnight.
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BeckyIva
06/22/09

@Majrhoulihan: Sure. And to clarify, I am not necessarily critical of the president's appointees, I'm just not ready to bust out the party horns just yet.
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save jinger
06/22/09

@BeckyIva: But this means sexism is cured, right?
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sympathyforthebasementcat
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
Is Hillary asecret Muslim too? Conspiracy! Or depending on the fabric of her scarf, maybe she's just a secret muslin.
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dreamweave
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration
How will we complete the domination and subjugation of white men with only slightly more than 50%???
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SylvanSylph
06/22/09

@dreamweave: Smallpox blankets?
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PilgrimSoul
06/22/09

In reply to Women Making Strides In Obama Administration

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PilgrimSoul
06/22/09

@PilgrimSoul: Damnit, it's collapsed.
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stoprobbers
06/22/09

@PilgrimSoul: Take a break! Eat a cookie!

(I'm trying to contribute to a non-collapsed comment.)
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PilgrimSoul
06/22/09

@stoprobbers: Someone's an ANTM fan.

On-topic: I am tired of fêting people for the things they are SUPPOSED TO DO.
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bluebears
06/22/09

@PilgrimSoul: they always collapse the pictures now.
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kapoosta
06/22/09

@bluebears: This may qualify as a threadjack but it seems people here might wanna know: If you put at least ten words with the picture, it won't collapse.
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