“We're going to have to have employers in the new economy…that are going to be so anxious to get good workers they're going to be anxious to hire women.”
Those were the words of Mitt Romney in the second presidential debate responding to a question about equal pay for women. This is a sentence he said on national television with an audience of over 55 million people, and felt it was a perfectly OK statement to make. Just in case you are reading this and saying to yourself, “Yea, what’s your point, so he wants a lot of women to be hired.” No – that is not what he is saying. He is saying that he is going to create so many jobs that employers will actually want to hire women! They will resort to hiring women. There will not be enough men to go around so they will have to hire women. Boy oh boy women, aren’t you lucky to have this man on your side? So in Mitt Romney’s world, which apparently is a lot like the show Mad Men, women get there fair shot only if there aren’t enough men to fill the jobs. This says nothing about if they will be paid the same, just that they will get there shot since there won’t be enough men to fill all the slots.
In this same exchange Governor Romney also said, and I quote, “I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible. My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, I can't be here until 7 or 8 o'clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o'clock so I can be there for making dinner for my kids and being with them when they get home from school. So we said fine. Let's have a flexible schedule so you can have hours that work for you.”
So now you may be saying to yourself, “Uh, what’s wrong with this? Romney’s being sensitive to the special needs of women in the workplace and the demands from their home life.” Let me enlighten Governor Romney and the rest of the GOP to the realities of the year 2012. It is no longer the sole responsibility of women in the home to cook, clean, and take care of the children. It is no longer the sole responsibility of women to have a hot meal on the table for when their husbands come home from a hard day at work. Sometimes it is the husband who has these responsibilities and sometimes they are shared. In a world of equality of the sexes these are not needs that should be reserved only for women but for both men and women, unless those needs are purely biological. It is up to individual families to decide who does what roles in the home, which person makes dinner, who cleans the house, and if these roles will be shared or be done by one person. The flexibility that Mr. Romney says he is so sensitive to should be afforded to both men and women so that every family has the opportunity to be able to balance work and family in a way that they see fit, not because it is a women’s place to cook, clean, take care of the kids, and blow there husband. In addition the piece that Governor Romney also seems not to be sensitive to is that some families consist of a husband and a husband, so in Governor Romney’s world one can only assume that neither spouse, in this case, would be afforded the flexibility to balance work and family since he seems to think that this balance is only reserved for women. Of course there is also the case of single fathers, are they afforded the sensitivity and flexibility that Governor Romney would afford to single mothers? Not according to this statement. According to this statement women must be treated differently than men because they have a certain place in the family and society that apparently the Governor learned from Leave It To Beaver. Governor Romney goes on to enforce his position on this by stating that he wants employers to create “a flexible work schedule that gives women opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to afford.” In 2012 this is not a women issue it is a human issue. Families and roles have changed and these issues that the governor spoke about need to available to all workers regardless of their sex or sexual orientation.
It is clear that Governor Romney sees women differently than he does men. He has made it clear that he does not support the Lilly Ledbetter act that guarantees equal pay for men and women, and if he does not support this he will not support future legislation. It is clear that Governor Romney will do everything he can to defund Planned Parenthood making it harder for women to get the essential health care that low income women and women with no insurance desperately need. It is clear that Governor Romney will put judges on the Supreme Court that will be committed to removing a women’s right to choose. It is clear that when Governor Romney repeals ObamaCare, as he promised to do, women will once again become a pre-existing condition and will again pay more for health insurance then men do.
This may only be my opinion and quite frankly I am not often known for being politically coorect, but Mitt Romney is an insensitive, pompous, chauvinistic, elitist pig, who sees others as being below him, who will never see women as his equal, who cannot be trusted to maintain his position on any subject because at any moment he may changes his position to suit the situation. But what I do know is this. When Governor Romney is not on script, his true colors come out and his views on equality, women, and their role in society become crystal clear as they did in the second debate.
“We're going to have to have employers in the new economy…that are going to be so anxious to get good workers they're going to be anxious to hire women.”
I guess otherwise, they would only hire men?
To read more from Brian Dann go to www.northshoredad.com.
Also from Brian Dann:
The business atmosphere of the 1950's is gone. Women have just as much success in business as men do, often more so because employers are actually looking for women in fields historically dominated by men. Female math & science teachers and engineers are in great demand and, all things being equal, have a distinct advantage over men. The comment about special needs of women in the workplace & the demands of home life is not insinuating that it is only women that take part in parenting. But when a couple has children, someone needs to parent. The male parent may work downtown & the female parent will WANT to work closer to home in order to be available for children. Or, perhaps the female parent works downtown & the male parent is more available for children. It does not matter which parent it is, but someone needs to be the available parent. You are taking a comment meant to be positive & completely turning it around. I am a woman & I am a conservative. I am really tired of hearing that the Republicans hate women. The comments & statements are ludicrous. There are just as many idiotic statements made by Republicans about the Democratic presidential candidate. Please do not base your vote, no matter which side you favor, on a "sound bite" that has taken on a life of its own. Please look at the big picture.
"The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person, who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred in our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way, and that's just the nature of race in our society." - most call this racial stereotyping. "It's like — it was like Special Olympics, or something." - Yep, sensitive. "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." - I think when work hard and earn your wealth its good...but that's just me. "Let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under a McCain...administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel's under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change." - let me be perfectly clear, sometimes people say things that just come out wrong. In closing, Mr. Dann, you are nothing more than a party tool who takes soundbites out of context and tries to make a point...when my children were about 8 they often did the same thing.
Honestly, you've got to do a lot of twisting and turning to take Mr. Dann's first Romney quote and come to the conclusion he did...and then turn it around to be a dig on male same-sex couples, too? Libertyville Patch, I come to you for local tidbits I would otherwise not hear about from other news outlets. Patching into this blog post just confirms you will never be my source for hard-hitting news OR opinions.
We invite all citizens to share their news and opinions through our open Local Voices platform. You are welcome to share yours, too, through the "start a blog" link on the Patch homepage. Thanks for reading!
Making a big deal out of this "sound bite" is no different than people insinuating that the President is a Muslim because he did not have a wedding ring on during a Muslim holiday. Or that he is anti-American because he did not have an American Flag pin in his lapel, or because he did not place his hand over his heart during the National Anthem. STOP nitpicking about ridiculous things and concentrate on the big picture and serious issues that affect the United States of America!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well. It is election day and they probably know their guy is going to lose, so they may be feeling more "edgy" than usual. That being said, I'm sure you'll agree that the thought of Romney's final departure from the national scene makes one more day of their commentary MORE than worthwhile!
This man has proven time and again that he will say ANYTHING to get himself in the White House...He has no core and no discernible principles beyond self-interest.
Talk about taking something out of context. You said, and I quote, "not because it is a women’s place to cook, clean, take care of the kids, and blow there husband." I certainly hope you meant "and below their husband". If that is the case you may want to retract this article, make the approproate correction and re-post. Thanks otherwise for sharing your opinion - that's is what freedom of speech has given us long before Obama-Romney. And equally as valued is the counter-opinion. Without it we would not be the great country we are!
Have you heard of Bain Capital? Romney was CEO of this firm. On one morning in the office, an employee asked the boss (Romney) if he could have some time off. His teenage daughter was on a trip to NYC with some friends..they went to a rave. The girl went missing. Romney declined to give him time off. What he did do was to gather all of the employees and explain the situation. He decided to CLOSE DOWN Bain Capital, fly all of the employees to NYC, set up shop at a hotel and start a hunt for the missing girl. The employees (approx. 30) put up flyers everywhere, went to 'raves' to look for the girl, etc.. they stayed their for days until she was found, unharmed. You can use all of the talking points you want. "War against women"? b.s. This is about character and integrity. Romney has it. Obama..not so much.
really? first of all, this idiot can't even spell and you printed it. more importantly, this is totally lacking class. Cristel, are you proud of this blog post by the mentally challenged Mr. Dann?
The Democrats have totally demeaned women in this election cycle to the point where they even ran campaign ads telling them to "vote like your lady parts depend on it". Personally, i don't know any working women who will consider their lady parts when deciding on who to vote for. The women i know will consider the national debt and the economy as leading factors...not their vagina. Typical Alinsky fear tactics from the Democrats.
And, for the record, I had to quit working 15 years ago, when my son was born, because between my job and my husband's job, we were not home enough with our child. I was lucky to have that time to raise my kids, and I am even more lucky to be back to work at a company that offers flexible working arrangments for us backwards, barefooted women who want to work, and still provide the love and supervision required at home. Flex time offers women and men the ability to take care of family matters and such more easily. Mr. Romney's quotes were made when he was questioned about women in the work force. The reality is that flex time does benefit women in the workforce, by allowing them to get home earlier to care for their families. It does the same for men, but he was not questioned about men in the workforce. Perhaps the question itself was sexist and out of touch? Why would he only be asked about working women - why not working people?