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On November 18th an online magazine called The Root featured feminist essays about Michelle Obama entitled, “Four Takes on the Mom in Chief”. My personal admiration of Michelle is second to none. The essays discussed her decision to leave her job and become a stay-at-home First Lady. The “working mother balancing act” is an ongoing controversial topic among American women. For some it is a luxury, for others a necessity. And for some women, the choice does not exist at all and they must work to support themselves and their children. I understand both sides of this discussion, having lived them. I also realize it is less about “a personal choice” and more about “a consequence of our time”, meaning the social infrastructure in America is not conducive to mothers in the workplace.
Reading the essays reminded me of a conversation I had with Iain Robertson (a local Obama campaign organizer) last summer at Rachael’s Café. I admired his grass roots political mobilization efforts and asked him why he thought Hilary Clinton had lost the primary. His reply: “because she’s a strong woman.” Hearing that made my heart sink, as it confirmed a very real inconvenient truth: our modern culture considers racism unacceptable but still tolerates sexism.
Included in this blog entry are excerpts from two of the essays. The entire article and essays may be viewed at:
http://theroot.com/id/48903/?gt1=38002
I hope they provoke a deeper examination of our cultural and racial roles as women in American.
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Excerpts from the essay, How Michelle Obama Passed for Being White, by Leslie Morgan Steiner:
…..White America demands that candidates' spouses be nonthreatening, deferential, attractive—and stay-at-home moms. Remember Howard Dean's wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean and Hillary Rodham Clinton? As candidates' wives, they were vilified for a lifelong commitment to their work. If (Michelle) Obama had continued working, she would have faced subtle and unsubtle attacks by the Republican Party and the media. Bad mom, unsupportive wife, possibly a subversive radical or something far worse...a feminist.
It's not that Michelle Obama has been deceptive—a presidential campaign is like a national consumer product launch backed by a $200 million marketing budget. Obama had to aim for a stereotype, an idealized symbol of white American motherhood, something like '50s TV icons Donna Reed or June Cleaver, in order to appeal to white voters……
Snarky mainstream headlines about her "mom first" values twist the guilt knife into the 80 million black, white, Latina, Asian and multiracial moms in America who have to work…..
Why do American media seem to rejoice when women, especially powerful, brainy, brilliantly educated women like Michelle, declare how fulfilled we are quitting work to "put our kids first"? Most parents juggle work and kids, sometimes prioritizing one or the other, depending on the day's demands. I don't know any moms, working or at-home, who don't put their kids first. Heaven forbid we hear a woman speak the truth: "Part of putting my kids first means providing economically for them—my family is proud and grateful that I have a good job."
http://www.theroot.com/id/48899
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Excerpts From the essay, The End of Feminism as We Know It?, written by Rebecca Walker:
…..For the last 30 years feminist discourse has struggled to be inclusive of the perspectives of women of color, to honor "the way we do things." At the heart of feminism's slippery promise of diversity lay its white centrism, its monopoly by women over 50, its de facto placement of the rest of us in the margins.
The rise of Michelle Obama challenges that centrism by following in the footsteps of female intellectuals and women of conscience like Anna Julia Cooper, who fought on behalf of women and all those who were oppressed. "The cause of freedom," Cooper wrote, "is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity."
Unlike the leaders for suffrage who abandoned the cause of women of color in order to get the vote, women of color have historically refused to abandon any part of themselves or their community in the name of political expediency. All must be saved or none.
My sense is that Michelle Obama's scope and influence will be equally broad. When she voices her concerns, she mentions "working folks," "a balance of work and family for women" and military families left out in the cold.
Michelle offers a possibility for change, a new kind of female leadership. And this, my friends, is a major turn of events. The wild card, of course, will be the response of those currently at the center of the women's movement, who will no doubt find themselves displaced, pushed more into the margin than ever before. How will second-wave feminism find relevance when a devoted partner, full-time mother and credentialed black powerhouse becomes first lady, and doesn't feel victimized by the job?
But that will be for them to wrestle with. Not Michelle.
