Saturday, October 24, 2009

Andrea Mitchell interviews Nancy Pelosi on being a woman in Congress

Nancy Pelosi discussed being a woman in Congress with Andrea Mitchell this week. The segment is about 10 minutes long, and it's worth watching.


Around minute 5, she asks the Speaker whether it bothers her that people discuss her hair and makeup. After all, no one had those discussions about, say, Tip O'Neill. Nancy Pelosi has the expected response that she's here to do a job, etc. Of course, I frequently think about this issue too, and the conclusions I've come to are these:

1. Life isn't fair, and people are going to talk about what women in politics wear. We can't ignore it just because we don't like it.
2. It is possible to minimize some of those discussions by dressing well (and by "well" I place primary importance on appropriateness and suitability, not beauty or trend).
3. There's nothing to stop me from talking about what Harry Reid or Rahm Emanuel or John Roberts wears, and I just might do that. There's just so much ground to cover...

No comments:

Post a Comment