Friday, 8/26/16, Public Square

Women’s Suffrage Anniversary

Where were the women?

“Lots of men in the room, nothing accomplished.  Where were the women at the Health-Care Summit? Dan Rather on the need to get more females in positions of power in America and around the world.

To be sure, some were in the room, most notably Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, and Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House. The Republicans had one female attendee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee, and the Democrats had three others: Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House health-care adviser, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, and New York Rep. Louise Slaughter. That’s it. Six women out of 42 attendees on a piece of legislation that deals with health care, an issue that affects all Americans.

If you were to rank countries by the percentage of women in their national legislatures, the U.S. would be somewhere around 75th, on par with places like Turkmenistan and Albania.”

What difference do you think women might make?

Why are So Few Women In the Infidelity Club?

This Politico article examines the question of why so few women politicians have ever been caught for sexual indiscretions. 

One woman politician asked a variant of the question, “When would I have time for that?”  My ex-wife used to accuse me of infidelity all the time and the “when would I have time?” question was not an acceptable defense.  I thought I was appealing to rational reasoning ability – but that did not work.

Of the various reasons for the under-repesentation of women in this group, my favorite is this from the article:  “women are way more clever at covering [affairs] up.”

iggy donnelly