Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic First Woman President - When?

Well, Pam, I have read the Bible, so I know very well what parts of it Arne Olsson would quote to justify his insistence that women can't be spiritual leaders. But again because I have read the Bible, I also know what parts of it liberal theologians quote to bolster their belief that women will do just fine as ministers.

The problem with the Bible is that you can actually use it to claim that women can't be any kind of leaders at all. I have one such book at home, written by a man much like Arne Olsson. I was going to get it and quote from it, but I'm afraid that I have mislaid it. Anyway, I remember that the author quoted Genesis to claim that slavery and ill-treatment of black and brown people is forbidden, because there is no support for it in Genesis. On the other hand, Genesis makes it perfectly clear that the husband must rule over his wife, and therefore women must always subordinate themselves to their husbands, and they must never be the leaders of men.

My point is that you can use the Bible to undermine the leadership of women in general. As a non-religious person, I believe that people like Arne Olsson make it harder for women to become Presidents and Prime Ministers. If the Bible represents the highest possible morality and if it rejects women as leaders at least in some situations, doesn't that make it easier to reject women as leaders in all other situations, too?

Of course I'm well aware that many religious people accept female leaders in worldly positions. I think that extremely few religious Americans would have rejected Sarah Palin as President because of her gender.

Let's return to the question of what it takes for a woman to 'transcend her gender'. I think that is a very hard thing to do, but I think that Margaret Thatcher did it. Thatcher was middle-aged and slightly matronly, with an old-fashioned hairstyle, and she never tried to be even the least bit sexy. In a way, she projected a public image which was somewhat similar to the Queen of England:



Margaret Thatcher.



Queen Elizabeth.

Compare Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth with Sarah Palin:



It may certainly be easier to like Sarah Palin than to like Margaret Thatcher, based on these images, but on the other hand Palin isn't 'transcending her gender' in images like these, but rather calling attention to it.

One modern female American politician who I think is transcending her gender is Condoleeza Rice:



Rice projects so much dignity, much like Margaret Thatcher. When it comes to Palin, you can be distracted by her hairstyle, her stylish clothes, all her children and her hockey mom image. When it comes to Palin, you can find yourself talking about details that aren't going to be very important if she is ever going to become America's President, such as who her hairdresser is. And you can talk about such things when it comes to Thatcher and Rice too, but in their cases, you know that their hairdressers, jackets, jewellery and makeup is not what these women are really about. Because Thatcher and Rice transcend their gender, and you are forced to talk about their political beliefs and agendas and what they want to achieve.

Ann