McCain muses on political women in the public eye, noting:

Through it all, the example both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin set is so admirable. I respect any woman who will go out there and run for office. Maybe it's a cliché, but no matter how many differences I may have with a woman politically, there is still a sense of kinship I feel for a woman in politics.

But having seen female candidates attacked on the right and the left, why would any woman my age ever feel inspired to run for office? What kind of example has the media set for my generation of women? I struggle with this. I don't have ambitions to run for office-I have already done enough campaigning for one lifetime-but I already have a pretty good idea of what it would feel like. I have often wondered how the media would react if it were my brother writing these columns and speaking out on behalf of moderate Republicans. I can pretty much bet that his weight wouldn't have been an issue.

Very true, and it speaks to the grueling arena of politics that becomes doubly treacherous for women. While the GOP's women silencing tactics may be a bit more overt, neither party does a good job in supporting women in positions of power, or throwing its party might behind women aspiring to elected office. While the Obama administration fights the image of being a separate but mostly equal boys club, the Republicans are battling their own image crisis. In addition to shouting down women's groups, the party is currently having trouble retaining women who are interested in leadership positions.

It wasn't always this way. When Pryce was first elected in 1992, Republicans had recruited so many female candidates that then-Conference Chairman Jerry Lewis of California ordered up posters featuring their several dozen smiling faces.

But there are just 17 Republican women in the House today.

And with less than a year to go before the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans have enlisted just 13 more to challenge Democratic incumbents. Even if all of them won, Republicans would have at most 30 women in the House - about half the number Democrats now have.

Part of the issue is that the hard line stance of the party faithful alienates moderate women who lean Republican, but who also may support things like gay marriage and the right to choose. Dede Scozzafava found herself in the crosshairs of conservatives who felt that her views were too liberal to represent Republicans. Olympia Snowe has also found herself targeted because of her failure to defer to the rank and file. Still, political analysts believe that the only women that are considered acceptable by top officials are also completely in line with right wing ideology that many moderate women voters find them "repulsive:"

In the days after Scozzafava's departure, House GOP leaders took pains to emphasize the contributions of their female members, allowing Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and others to kick off a series of floor speeches against the Democrats' health care proposals.

But Foxx and the best-known female Republican in the House - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann - are firmly ensconced in the party's right wing, and Foxx proved it with her opening salvo on health care: "I believe we have more to fear from the potential of that bill passing than we do from any terrorist right now in any country."

Bachmann, who trumpeted the "death panel" argument and has accused President Barack Obama of trying to turn the country into a socialist state, is a particularly big draw with conservatives, who flocked by the thousands to her rally at the U.S. Capitol Thursday.

Still, even if one manages to rise to national prominence, they are still subject to far more media scrutiny than their male counterparts in government.

And, considering how this dance has played out time and time again, it's clear that unless we make some major shifts on how prevalent sexism is in our media and politics, both parties are doomed to repeat this same destructive cycle.

Hillary And Sarah's Common Theme [The Daily Beast]
The GOP's Women Problem [Politico]

Earlier: Is White House Sports Culture Detrimental To Women's Advancement?

Though Ahmadinejad claims the nominations are indicative of "a new era," the Associated Press notes that the nominations may also be a means for Ahmadinejad to fend off the continuing criticism by those who still believe his re-election was rigged and not representative of the will of the people.

Two of the ministers have already been named, according to Reuters: Fatemeh Ajorlou, who will serve as social welfare minister, and Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, a professor and gynecologist, who will serve as health minister. A third female minister is expected to be named soon. [AP] [Reuters]

Clinton notes that wherever she goes, across the globe, people come to speak with her about women in politics. When David Gregory attempts to get Clinton to make a statement regarding Sarah Palin's chances at the Oval Office, Clinton just smiles and says, "Well, I'm out of politics, that's one of the things about being Secretary of State...and I wish her well in her personal life," before noting that it's up to the voters to decide Palin's fate and that she'd like to see a Democratic female candidate make Presidential history:

The Good

1. She got conservatives talking about sexism
She got them talking about sexism coming from the other side of the aisle, true, but after last year's primaries, did anyone really think that such a thing didn't exist? Sarah Palin acknowledged the role Hillary Clinton played in breaking the glass ceiling — thereby acknowledging the existence of a glass ceiling in the first place. She got everyone from Rush Limbaugh to conservative women talking about sexism in the media after many of them spent quite a few months perpetrating it, from "nutcracker" comments to "first wife" comments and everything in between. And once you acknowledge that women don't have it the same as men in politics and the workplace, you can't exactly go back.

2. She forced conservatives to celebrate motherhood that is anything but stay-at-home.
In 1992, a common trope about Hillary Clinton is that she wasn't the "right" kind of mother because she'd worked when Chelsea was young — and Clinton's comment about not baking chocolate chip cookies didn't endear her to conservatives in the slightest. Fast forward to 2008 and, as Rebecca Traister pointed out last year, you had the Republican party Vice Presidential candidate standing beside her devoted husband holding their recently-born son after accepting her party's nomination to the penultimate elected office in the land. For a party populated by a fair number of acolytes who believe in outdated gender roles in marriage, it was a pretty striking picture. For a political establishment that has become more accustomed to powerful women either being childless or post-menopausal, it was a striking example (outside of now-New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand or oft-derided former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift) that fertility and motherhood are not incompatible with high-powered jobs. And Sarah Palin's nomination forced conservatives to defend her right to motherhood and power.

3. She serves as a role model for young women.
They may not ever march in a feminist rally or carry a pro-choice sign at an abortion-rights event, but there's no denying that Sarah Palin has inspired conservative women to see themselves taking the reins of political power — and there's nothing wrong with that. Feminism is supposed to be about empowering all women, and not just those with whom we agree politically. If Sarah Palin inspires a generation of conservative women to think about more equitable marriages, supportive partners and combining motherhood and careers in ways that make sense to them and accord them political power, I fail to see why that's a bad thing.

The Bad

1. She tends to reinforce existing sexual stereotypes (or encourage people to believe them).
From the winking to the wardrobe, Sarah Palin didn't just deny existing stereotypes, she encouraged the ones that were helpful to her and played into the hands of people who wished to reduce her to them. As a political woman, it's a difficult line to walk between playing Mark Penn's unsexed female candidate and Steve Schmidt's more flirtatious one, but Sarah Palin wasn't willing or able to walk the line, and swung too far in the Schmidt direction. Not every politician will wink or be pretty, and they shouldn't have to.

2. Her resignation plays into stereotypes about women.
If there's one rumor about Palin's resignation I am inclined to believe, it's that she wrote her resignation speech herself... and didn't allow anyone to correct or critique it. In giving the speech — and the obvious haste with which her withdrawal from political life was conducted, Palin looks flighty, disorganized, too weak to handle the pressures of political life and too closed-minded to accept assistance from people with her interests at heart. That is almost as bad a stereotype for women in politics as the one about women all being ball-busting harpies.

3. She reminded people of the level to which politics can sink in this country.
One of the reasons I always said I never wanted to go into politics was that I didn't need anyone interviewing my college boyfriends or digging around my closet for skeletons. With the state of Alaska spending upwards of $2 million on ethics investigations (which have turned out to have zero validity), the Palins spending a reported $500,000 on personal legal bills, people on the Internet posting rumors about the contents of her uterus (and that of her daughters') and night after night of jokes about her appearance, her family and her background — little of which was relevant to her qualifications for office, whatever one might think of those — I suspect that a lot of women who didn't start off high school planning to be the next Nancy Pelosi might think twice about politics after they consider what dirt their political opponents might dig out on them.

Earlier: Conservatives Use Sexism To Attack, Undermine Feminists
Unfair & Unbalanced
Bloggingheads with Rebecca Traister

She was guest-lecturing for a women's studies class, in which there were 16 women and 2 men. When she asked if they thought they'd get involved in politics, she was in for a surprise.

One woman raised her hand and said, "I think I'd like to work behind the scenes. I wouldn't want to be the candidate. I tend to be sarcastic and I'm afraid people would think I was catty."

Kunin and the professor pointed out the way in which the woman was stereotyping her own behavior, with no luck. Of course, there was an even better counterpoint from one of the two dudes in the room.

Then, the professor pointed out the writing on the t-shirt one of the men in the class was wearing. I hadn't bothered to try to decipher it from across the table.

It said, in bright yellow scraggly letters on a black background, "SARCASTIC, that's my strong point."

But, you know, apparently only guys are allowed to be sarcastic in a good way.

Another girl had another reason she wasn't sure about getting involved in politics.

Another woman explained that it was so difficult for her to form her own opinions because there was so much information, and so many divided opinions. Her father thought one thing, her friends another, and she was caught in-between.

Kunin pointed out to her that she was still young, but had another thought she left unexpressed at the time.

I suspect very few men would confess to not having opinions, or better yet, would not be worried about their lack of strong opinions.

Many women do not want to venture out into the "opinion world" until they are certain of themselves, the facts, and that they are right. They are afraid of being shot down. The result is often silence.

This is an affliction from which I have never suffered, but it's one Kunin and I have both seen before. Women can often be our own worst enemies, trying to live up to supposed standards of quiet, non-confrontational femininity or enforcing them on other women. It's sort of like Jill at Feministe's troll Eliza:

If more fanatic feminists stopped trying to feminize the male community and masculinize the female community we, (this whole country and over) would be in a far better situation.

You know, because gender roles are static and all women are one thing and all men are another and never the twain shall meet.

And Kunin is pretty worried that if the students in a women's studies class at a card-carrying Liberal East Coast University are viewing themselves this way, it's more widespread than any of us would like to admit.

To be political means to speak out, to risk being called "catty", or worse. I don't hear men worrying about whether they may be right or not. They enjoy the fight, whether it is with words or fists. Women still tend to shy away from controversy, to be uncomfortable with competition. Perhaps that is why only 17 percent of the members of Congress are female, and men are still largely running the country.

I mean, if you're a woman interested in politics, goodness knows, you wouldn't want anyone to call you "Tracy Flick" and be mean and suggest that by being outspoken or opinionated you're less of a woman. That's not the point of that kind of sexist mockery or anything, to get you to shut up and put you in your place, to keep you from being competition, to get you to quit.

Better words to live by? The day in which some asswipe only calls you "catty" is a day in which you aren't being nearly opinionated enough.

In Politics, What Works For A Man Still Does Not Work For A Woman [Huffington Post]

Related: Feministe's Next Top Troll, March Madness Edition: The GET A SENSE OF HUMOR, BITCHEZ Bracket [Feministe]
When Is a Joke Not Just a Joke? (Part 2) [Brainstorm]

• 
  Do you agree with the Bush Doctrine?
• Sarah Palin:"In what respect?"
• Peggy Hill: "I'm not sure what this means, but I once heard that when you're stuck in an unpleasant situation, it helps to just lie back and think of England."
• 
  Why do you feel you're the most qualified candidate, in terms of foreign policy experience?
• SP:"You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."
• PH:"How would we rate me? I'd say, Face: A minus. Body: B... plus. Personality: A plus. Brains: A plus. So with my looks and my brains, and my muchos talentos, I should have an advantage over these bimbos!"
• 
  Do you ever worry that you might not be prepared for this position?
• SP:"I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day?
• PH:"I am field-tripping in an hour and I can't remember any good songs for the bus. What does that John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt do again?
• 
  Do you think humans have contributed to global warming?
• SP:""A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made."
• PH: "I had no choice. You can't get anything good without chemicals. Chemicals are what keep my hair so high and brown."
• 
  Can you give me any concrete examples of your running mate's economic policies? Or concrete examples of anything, really?
• SP:“I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring ‘em to ya."
• PH:" I find that I am too busy being successful so I have trouble remembering all of my bright ideas."
• 
  Why do you think women should vote for you?
• SP: "I was just your average hockey mom in Alaska."
• PH:"As you can see, I do not have testicles."

• Despite attempts by residents in Austin, Texas to get billboards depicting aborted fetuses taken down, the city government says they can't do anything about them because they aren't breaking any laws. • The manager of Image Hotel on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey claims to have fired all of his male staff after he caught them having affairs with foreign female tourists. • According to collected tax data, women "out-gave" men in gifts by $5 billion in 2005. • A Pakistani newspaper claims that there are 100 rapes occurring in Karachi per day, but, of course, that number may be higher that due to rape victims' fear and silence. • A study of hospital discharge records in California revealed a decreased number of complications as a result of a hysterectomy over the past 15 years. • A study of Lipitor, a drug prescribed to men and women to reduce the risk of a heart attack and lower cholesterol, has revealed that the drug is mismarketed towards women and makes unfounded claims about the effectiveness of the drug for them. •