Published: November 19, 2008 10:50 am      

GESENHUES: Is feminism dead in Indiana?

On Friday, a final tally of votes confirmed that Republican Ed Clere had won a close race for a state representative seat despite a campaign mailer he had sent to his female constituents.

It was in the form of a handwritten letter from his wife and started with the words: “As women, I think we all enjoy the idea of a strong and heroic man coming into our life and sweeping us off our feet.” It went on to read, “Perhaps this man whisks us away to a far-off place, and there we live happily ever after.”

Upon opening the letter, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I had to read the first paragraph again — and again. It had me perplexed. I couldn’t get past the whisked away to a far-off place line. It took awhile before I could read the rest of the letter, which turned out to be innocent enough and simply conveyed what a good man Mrs. Clere thought her husband to be.

But still, the beginning was so antiquated that the purpose of the letter was lost on me. It sounded as if Cinderella had written it. Is this what the Southern Indiana Republican party thinks female voters want? Heroic men and far-off places? Is feminism dead in Southern Indiana? It worries me that this was the rhetoric chosen to persuade me politically.

Some (my husband) may say that I'm overreacting and reading way too much into a few lonely words. But that is how bad ideas start and grow — with just a few lonely words. My male cousin has accused me of being jaded and not believing in the happily-ever-after. I believe in the happily-ever-after. I don’t believe that my happily-ever-after is in the hands of a man, including my husband who happens to be the most heroic man I know.

I've considered sending the Southern Indiana Republican party an email in response to Mrs. Clere’s letter. I would tell them not to assume that women want to be saved by a heroic man. That’s not the way to win our hearts or our votes. We want political leaders who understand our need to find balance in life, and who will work in favor of our rights and stand beside us. (Of course, I could always just write a column about it.)

Most women I know do not want to be swept off their feet and taken to some far-off place. The women I know are firmly grounded with both of their feet on the ground and want to stay that way. They want to be taken seriously. They want equal pay and equal opportunity. They are moms who work both inside and outside of the home. They are teachers, physicians, lawyers, and everything else. They are receiving graduate degrees and raising families. They are not wishing to be saved by a heroic man — they go after what they want.

Fortunately, this election year provided strong examples of women who made huge strides going after what they wanted. Our daughters got to watch Hillary Clinton come closer to the Oval Office than any other woman in history. She pushed through until the end, never once giving up no matter how many people told her she should stop.

And there was Sarah Palin, mother of five and the Republican vicepresidential candidate. I wonder what she would have thought of the letter. As much as I disagreed with her politics and questioned her capabilities, I find it hard to believe that the moose-hunter in her would ever wait around for a heroic man to whisk her away.

It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th amendment was passed giving women the right to vote. In fact, two women would run for president before they could even cast a ballot in the presidential race. Victoria Woodhull ran in 1872 and Belva Lockwood in 1884 and 1888. I imagine Victoria and Belva would have been a bit taken aback with the letter even 120 years ago. Of course, they would have never received a campaign letter being that they couldn’t vote anyway.

Besides Mr. Clere’s state representative seat, another post was earned this past Friday. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody became the first female four-star general in the United States Army. Along with Hillary and Sarah, Ann showed us how far women can go when they play the role of someone capable of saving themselves instead of someone waiting to be saved.



Amy Gesenhues is a freelance writer who lives in Floyd County. You can read her daily commentaries at www.AmyWroteIt.Wordpress.com. E-mail her directly at amy@amywroteit.com.