When it comes to Sarah Palin, the media is wrought with misinformation. The LA Times says, “Sarah Palin’s ‘new feminism’ is hailed”, “A Feminist Dream at the GOP” reads The New York Post, and National Public Radio (NPR) asks, “Sarah Palin: New Face of Feminism?” The answer, NPR, is: absolutely not.
They say she’s broken the glass ceiling, but like most issues related to women’s rights, conservatives are about two decades behind.
Kayla Sawyer
News Editor
and
Sarah Slates
Contributor
When it comes to Sarah Palin, the media is wrought with misinformation. The LA Times says, “Sarah Palin’s ‘new feminism’ is hailed”, “A Feminist Dream at the GOP” reads The New York Post, and National Public Radio (NPR) asks, “Sarah Palin: New Face of Feminism?” The answer, NPR, is: absolutely not.
They say she’s broken the glass ceiling, but like most issues related to women’s rights, conservatives are about two decades behind. This particular glass ceiling was already shattered by Geraldine Ferraro and her vice-presidential nomination in 1984.
Yet there are still people who flock to Palin simply because she is a rarity – a woman in power. And now she’s been given the curious title of “feminist”.
Apparently some people have forgotten that there’s more to being a feminist than just having a vagina (in fact, it isn’t even a prerequisite). Strangely enough, you actually have to support feminist ideals instead of opposing them.
A feminist believes that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities, and strives to change society so that we may achieve political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. If you’re not already familiar with her voting record when it comes to women’s issues, here are the facts:
1. During her time as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin supported billing sexual assault victims for their own rape kits and forensic examinations (which can cost up to $1,200).
2. She supports abstinence-only education, a program that tells students that the only thing they need to know about sex, is not to have any. Feminists advocate a real education that arms students with knowledge about safe sex, contraceptives and the dangers of sexually-transmitted diseases.
3. Palin is against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and supports an overturning of Roe v. Wade. Personally choosing to never have an abortion is a fine thing, but to advocate a ban that would take away the rights of others simply because it violates your personal faith base is intrusive and frightening.
4. The equal rights of everyone, gay or straight, is a feminist priority. When Palin was governor she supported an Alaskan constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Imagine what she’ll do next if she becomes vice president of this country.
5. She fittingly belongs to the faux-feminist group, Feminists for Life, which claims that the wage gap is nothing but a myth. On average, women in 1963 earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by men and 78 cents to men’s dollar in 2007. Not only does the wage gap still exist, but it has only decreased by less than half a percent each year.
6. Even her fiscal choices aren’t feminist. She may be a working mom, but she doesn’t support other working mothers. What she does support is cuts to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which guarantees unpaid family leave to new parents.
She also supports businesses’ right to discriminate on the basis of gender and Senator John McCain’s decision to vote against the Paycheck Fairness Act. She opposed an increase in funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which gives funds to states in order to provide health insurance to cover uninsured children in families.
By championing Palin with the title of “feminist”, it’s pretty clear that conservatives are trying to appropriate the language of the feminist movement. It’s also glaringly obvious that Palin’s ideas run counter to feminist goals.
And yet one of the reasons that Palin is where she is today is because of feminists. But the important thing to remember is that just because she’s benefited from the work of feminists, does not make her one.