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Nov
14
I’m going to add to this post because I’ve spent the last several minutes reading carefully about Ms. Griffin. And frankly, I would love to have…well, whatever she’s having, and talk about her experience.
Why?
Because after reading this story and this one about her rise and resignation, respectively, and in light of the efforts of The White House Project, which is nonpartisan, I want to understand Griffen’s decision-making process. I want insight about what it was like to be so young, with such young children, in a position of such control, that doesn’t even pay. In Virginia, no less – a state that’s evolving before our eyes – part of the south but geographically located in the Mid-Atlantic.
Griffin’s experience, as a woman, as a Republican, as a mother and as a chairperson, could be enlightening and helpful. As she said to The Roanoke Times in 2004, when she was only 35 and had four children, ages 2 through 7:
“I’ve been surprised by this, by how many women have come up to me … and said, ‘This is great!’” Griffin said. “It certainly wasn’t why I was in this role, I would say that. But I think it has some significance in terms of encouraging young women to look at the Republican Party and to see that the Republican Party does represent women and women’s perspective on a number of issues.”
Original post:
Yeah, the question mark is because this teaser for a presentation tomorrow night by Kay Obenshein Griffin doesn’t say much about what Ms. Griffin actually posits to be the failures of feminism. I guess that’s why we call it a teaser. And doesn’t Oberlin seem like a curious place to host such a speech? Not if you’re the Oberlin College Republicans, which is hosting Ms. Griffin. (Seriously, how many could there be in that group, at Oberlin?)
If you’re interested in going, you can read more about the event here. Note how the info says that this is not an official Oberlin event. Ayup.
I guess now that Griffin has resigned as chair of the VA GOP, following “two straight statewide losses,” she’s got more time on her hands, and can probably speak very well about failures. In fact, the article says that she’ll be heading over to George Allen’s offices as chief of staff to help him clean out. I’m soooo curious to hear her opinion of the failures of feminism even more now.
I confess that I’ve never heard of her, but given that her work is featured in a compilation called Great American Conservative Women, that includes work by Phyllis Schlafly and Anne Coulter, I’m getting a few vibes alright.
Last, I should provide full disclosure. I was brought on as an intern and eventually hired at the USDOJ by a woman named Laurie DuMouchelle, who is part of a well-known GOP family from the Detroit area. Laurie has done a lot of things between the years I worked with her (early 80s) and now, and one thing she did for at least a few years was work for George Allen. I have no doubt that through perhaps as few as only two degrees of separation, I am connected to Kay Griffin, because I’m certain that she and Laurie, who lived in Alexandria, knew one another.
Could it have been me? Not likely. Laurie tried to and may actually have eventually started a women’s speakers bureau in the mid-80s. I’d signed on to join her but the situation fell through and I remained at Yale. But we were tight for quite a while and I often wonder what might have happened if I had moved into the house I’d rented with another young woman in Old Town and just winged it…I was that close to being based, post-college, in D.C.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:45 pm November 14th, 2006 in Politics
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11 Responses to “[Updated] At Oberlin: The Failures of Feminism[?]; GOP woman speaks”
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Republicans in Oberlin, huh? The most recent time I ran for the office of state rep (2004), I resided in Oberlin. Republicans at Oberlin College, huh? The inaugural speaker that the Oberlin College Republicans hosted was Michelle Malkin, herself an Oberlin College grad.
Keep in mind, despite the title of this speech, that the GOP in Ohio has actively sought to elect women to public office. You’ve recently posted some thoughts about increasing female representation, even talking of the quotas that some other nations have. How about this–let’s establish a quota in Ohio right now. Let’s propose that you be given the right to overturn three Ohio elections wherein a Democrat woman lost to a Republican man and I be given the right to overturn three Ohio elections wherein a Republican woman lost to a Democrat man so that we can up the number of women in elective office. I choose Sandra O’Brien over Richard Cordray, Betty Montgomery over Marc Dann, and Joy Padgett over Zack Space. Your turn to name three.
I went to the event and just want to make a brief report.
The speech targeted a small, though vocal, segment of the feminist community. She singled out Freidan, Steinem, and Greer, to give you an idea of which feminists Ms. Griffin was talking about. In a nutshell, she took exception to the ideology that is anti-family, anti-marriage, and anti-male. She takes aim at the feminists who warn women not to marry because doing so would be to subordinate oneself to a man. Further, she takes aim at the feminists who look upon family obligations as chains of servitude, who say that stay-at-home moms can’t possibly feel fulfilled or reach their fullest potential.
By the way, the lecture hall was packed.
Daniel – I’m so sorry! I don’t know how I missed that first post, except being busy. Sorry about that!
Ok – last post first?
Glad you went and thanks for sharing that information. My comment is basically that she’s pulling up some very old stuff – most women who consider themselves 21st century feminists would never ascribe to the stuf you say she said they believe. The stay at home mom hit is very old school. The thoughts of Freidan, Steinem and Greer obviously also have tempered and been adapted to women now, as opposed to the 60s and 70s, when those women’s theories predominated. Simply, times have changed.
The dialogue between moms who are only at home and moms who do any other combination of being at home and out of the house (working) is voiced frequently in books and in magazine articles and so on. The tension is there – no question.
But more and more, there are excellent examples of society’s adaptation to the fact that women fulfill multiple roles, sometimes at the same time and sometimes sequentially.
One of the most obvious examples of this is Meredith Viera. I don’t watch TV and I only know about her from reading about her, but every single thing I’ve read or heard about her relies on her assertion of when was time to be with her family and when it was time to pursue her career in the media.
Additionally, Forbes, Fortune and others have frequently been writing about women in business and, very exciting, programs being developed by companies and colleges called “on ramps” – programs that allow women to re-enter the work force after having been out for some time, for whatever reason. The realization being that women shouldn’t be written off, unless of course they want to be, and employers would be wise to provide options for these women.
To me, that’s really what the 21st century’s incarnation of feminism is about: allowing women to pursue the path that they desire, just as men always have, with no barriers put up simply because we’re women and might choose to have kids, or choose not to have kids. Ask any female law firm partner without kids if she gets evil eyes. It’s no fun for them sometimes either, and so we have to remember that that kind of thing happens on both ends. Stay at home moms can be pretty nasty to women who choose not to have kids and be all about a career.
Again – women like myself, and many of my friends, our feminism is having choice, making choices and not being vilified for WHATEVER choice we make. THAT’s standing up for women, I think anyway.
Last thing, it would be unfortunate if Ms. Griffin doesn’t help women move beyond the ideas of the 60s and 70s feminism and help promote women and all our options as they exist now. Did you feel that she did try to do that a bit? Again, the White House Project, nonpartisan, is exactly that kind of entity seeking to assist women now, as it suits life and society and family now.
I am DYING to know how her kids gotten taken care of, ages nine months to six years old or so, when she first took up the job as head of the VA GOP. I read that her husband picked up some slack – but how else did she do it?
Do you know that when I met Jennifer Brunner at Meet the Bloggers, the first thing I asked her after the session was over was, How did you do it?? Because she has three now pretty much out of the house kids – I think one might be a junior or senior in h.s. but I’m not
certain – they might all be in their 20s.
That kind of knowledge – about how women juggle, and learning that they do take some time off etc. – that’s the knowledge that forwards women’s choices and contributions.
Not hanging on to seminal theories that no longer describe today’s women.
Again – thanks for going and leaving a comment. I hope to read more about it!
Ms. Griffin did indeed bring up the points you mention, which is why I said that the restricted her criticisms to a small segment of the feminist movement. She provided an abbreviated bio of herself, and, in her speech, she agreed with the positions you take, but I didn’t mention it in my brief report because that’s not what she considered the “Failures of Feminism.” She was careful to draw distinctions between ideologies within the feminist movement.
Though she makes occasional speeches, Ms. Griffin is a stay-at-home mom right now, and she loves it. She realizes that all families can’t have a stay-at-home parent, so she’s very grateful that she has a choice in the matter.
Though 21st-century feminism is as you describe, there are still throwbacks to yesteryear spouting venomous anti-marriage, anti-family, and anti-male pronouncements, and judging by the audience reaction (overwhelmingly Oberlin College students), many have been exposed or are currently being exposed to this extreme ideology. I don’t view Ms. Griffins’s speech as setting feminism back a few years. I think that as long as this ideology continues to be noised about, reported on, and/or published, it’s okay for Ms. Griffin to offer rebuttals to such an ideology in her speeches.
As an aside, Ms. Griffin, in her opening remarks, had thought of an even more controversial title than “Failures of Feminism,” but she thought that this title would be sufficient to raise enough eyebrows to draw an audience (and she did draw an audience), so she left well enough alone.
Daniel – I never addressed your very first post here! Man, I got behind.
Okay – Michelle Malkin an Oberlin grad, eh? What did they do to her?
Just teasing. She’s witty but I don’t like her wit a lot of the time. It’s not my style, though clearly a lot of people really like her. I have found some extremely helpful posts there though and some stuff that I won’t see anywhere else. There was a time when I was checking it daily but that was around the Israel-Hezbollah stuff. Not I might check it once a month or so.
As for your proposal about swapping out winners and losers to increase female presence? No can do because I’m really about the voters. But in addition, we need to look out for Ohio and, you know, there’s just no way anyone would convince that Rich Cordray should be replaced – for any reason.
Now – about your follow up to my post about Griffin’s presentation: I agree that rebuttals to the ideology of the 60s and 70s is fine. But if I were a person speaking on the topic, I would spend extremely little time on that – it’s just not relevant much today – I don’t think anyway.
As for her being a stay at home mom, I think that’s only since November 8 or so when she resigned. I know the VA GOP chair position was non-paying, but I’m sure she put in a minimum of 10-20 hours/week if not more, don’t you think, during much of the time she held that post, no?
Thanks for the added info.
“As for your proposal about swapping out winners and losers to increase female presence? No can do because I’m really about the voters.” That’s the way I see it, too. My tongue-in-cheek proposal illustrates why I’m not in a hurry to establish gender quotas for elected office holders. As long as women and men both turn out to vote, both genders are represented.
I’m a little fuzzy on Ms. Griffin’s timetable of the events in her life, so I can’t give a definitive answer about which periods of her life she’s been working and which periods of her life she hasn’t. If you firmly believe, as she does, that a woman should be able to make those kinds of choices without society second-guessing her, then does it really matter to us, who are not part of Ms. Griffin’s family, if she’s staying at home or if she’s out of the house? All I know for certain is that she described herself as a stay-at-home mom who, in spite of what extreme feminists preach to her about bonds of servitude, subordination to a husband, and lack of self-fulfillment, enjoys being a stay-at-home mom. Though those extreme feminist sentiments were in vogue during the 60’s, they have not disappeared even though they are no longer in vogue now. Ms. Griffin reports that she still has extreme feminist volleys aimed at her, and the audience at Oberlin College seemed to acknowledge that such an ideology is still present.
Maybe I didn’t articulate my thoughts well. I’m not interested in second-guessing Griffin’s choices. I’m interested in knowing the choices she’s made and how she reached them – what calculus did she use. Only if we share “how does she do it” knowledge – whether its being home or at work or juggling between the two, can each of us then make choices for ourselves and learn what other combinations work. When one woman hears about how other women telecommute or job-share or work from home or do none of the above, we all gain. That was my intent. Never to say, oooo – well see? she had three nannies, two grandmothers and a live-in au pair, no wonder she could be VA GOP for three years.
I will, however, say, that I got very sick of reading about Soledad O’Brien after she had her twins. Everything written about her was how incredible and great and wonderful. But she had two nannies. That’s great – but most women can’t afford two nannies. It’s just not a realistic model for how we can balance our lives.
I like to look to how other women manage and figure out what options might exist that I’d never considered before. Why? BEcause I know I don’t have all the answers, and I always look to improve what I’m doing. Because I know I’m flawed. Because I know I’m human.
I have no idea if Ms. Griffin ever employed a nanny. She never mentioned any caregivers other than herself and her husband during her speech.
Tx as always, Daniel – you are nothing if not thorough. Have a good Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Jill. There is a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to you to.
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