What happens when women get into high government office

If you have a society in which men are running things and enforcing male standards of conduct in the public sphere, you can have an occasional woman in high public office and it will not harm the society. But once the appointment of women to conspicuous political positions becomes routine and expected, and once female standards of public conduct become normalized, thus pushing aside male standards, then you have things like this:

That’s Romanian cabinet minister Elena Udrea on the cover of a special edition of Romania’s Tabu fashion magazine dedicated to “The Powerful Woman.”

When men occupy a high office, it is for the purpose of doing a job. The job comes first. When women occupy a high office, it is for their self and their vanity. Public boasting about their “power” comes first, along with displays of themselves.

The problem is not female vanity. Much of the world revolves around it. The problem is putting female vanity where it doesn’t belong.

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James H. writes:

What happens when women get into high government positions? They take on Camille Paglia as senior adviser.

Dean Ericson writes:

Aha. Now I see Anthony Wiener’s mistake. Instead of furtively tweeting his underwear portrait he should have posed for the cover of Forbes standing atop the U.S. Capitol dome dressed in his skivvies and beating his chest. Then he would have been seen as sexy and powerful—like Elena Udrea—instead of being treated like a ridiculous pervert.

Karl J. writes:

“When men occupy a high office, it is for the purpose of doing a job. The job comes first.”

Seriously? Do you really think men don’t ever make displays of themselves? What about those who see political office primarily as a means of enriching themselves, or as a tool of social engineering?

I mean, do you really think our current president (for instance) is all about “doing a job”?

LA replies:

It’s a generalization. Of course all generalizations have many exceptions.

As for Obama, however he conceives his job, whether it’s protecting the Constitution or socializing America or empowering jihadists or getting re-elected, he is focused on it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 02, 2011 11:06 AM | Send