I'm not sure what I think of Sarah Palin.  In some ways, she makes me jealous because she's a bright icon of everything I could have been and aren't.  She's like my excuses blowing back in my face after I spit them in the wind and certainly I'm not the only woman who feels that way.  Or, am I? 

 

I comfort myself in thinking well, she's had more money - how many hours has she really spent cleaning house, doing laundry and whipping a yard into shape after working or mothering all day?  Late night grocery expeditions?  I doubt it.  Even sleeping only four hours a day provides a limited amount of extra time and has to reduce energy.  Money does give us freedoms and really is a woman's best friend, if she wants to reach high.  However, putting that aside, it is frustrating to hear the criticisms raining on Palin about raising her family or not because I can't ever recall such a criticism being leveled at a male seeking high position or any mention of mundane family matters at all. 

 

Why is it still considered the woman's job to nurture home and family personally?  Among the worst critics are women themselves!  It amounts to nothing more than jealousy based on the feelings I mentioned earlier.  You see an ugly monster that is what really keeps women down rear its head within families, church groups, parent groups and work settings.  For all our talk of sisterhood and women's rights, it comes right down to the nasty truth that women can't stand to see other women exceed them. 

 

It's as if there's a mindset that it's okay to succeed within certain boundaries implicitly approved by the sisterhood, but anything beyond that is cause for castigation so searing and hurtful that it keeps most women from stretching their furthest, even if they don't overtly realize that's the reason. Who wants to be the woman the others whisper negatively about?  Who can bear it?  Not many; but now we have a shining example of one who dares.

 

So, yeah, I don't know know what I think of Sarah Palin and some of her ideals.  What I do know is that she represents everything that's been held up to women and little girls as possibilities for so many decades.  So, whether or not we like her politics, women owe it to themselves to get out from under the rock of ages and applaud her brave advance into the realm of men.  To do anything else is to undercut ourselves.