When women don't stand up for women

[Blackaxe]

Mervat Tallawy, the executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said Friday that women holding ministerial posts in the Arab world are afraid to be seen to be representing women.

In the second day of the Arab regional conference "10 Years after Beijing: A Call for Peace," Tallawy said women in high-ranking posts were sometimes hesitant to work on women's issues because they're "scared to lose the support of men" in decision-making positions.

Another problem facing women ministers, she said, was that their governments would not take them seriously. "They install women as ministers as evidence of (openness) for outsiders to see, and therefore, women heading ministries become like a decoration," added Tallawy, who has served as a social affairs minister in Egypt.

But Syrian Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban gave a different account. "I discovered that our Arab people have no grudge whatsoever against a woman holding a high-ranking post" in the government, said Shaaban.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=6123

[efhmc]

1. So in order to succeed, they really need to be genderless or manlike.

[Cerridwen]

2. Women in power are expected to be "one of the boys"

Which generally means staying away from those frivolous women's issues.

If they speak up for/about other women and/or their issues they're marginalized or not returned to their post. If they don't speak up, status quo.

I've always defined repression by the number of times the person or group repressed is in catch-22 situations.

[efhmc]

4. Exact;ly.

[Heddi]

5. yup yup yup

Because if you speak up about frivilous women's issues, then you're not labeled as CEO anymore, you're just "another whiny woman".

The expectations of women in our society go beyond Madonna/Whore. It's Whore/Androgny---especially if you want to be at the top, or as close to the top as you'll be allowed to get

A woman in power has to be more than a man. She has to be a superMan. Not only must she shed, hide, or kill every aspect of her femininity and show masculine traits, but she must be MORE masculine than the men (which goes along with in this world, as a woman, you have to do twice the work of men to get half the recognition).

Yes. And to speak up about women's issues will make her seem...even if in the slightest bit...feminine. ANd feminine=weak. Feminine = stupid. Feminine = cries about everything.

I hate it. I have no children as of yet, and have always wanted a girl if/when I have one. But I don't know.....the fact that she has a vagina will mean that every odd imaginable will be stacked against her---JUST because of some folds of flesh. :sad:

[Cerridwen]

3. Deleted double post - hiccup

[abelenkpe]

6. when women don't stand up for women

ya mean like when they vote republican?

It's not really any different here in the US. Women teachers and bosses that I have had have gone out of their way to be just a prejudiced against women as their male counterparts. It's tragic.