allAfrica.com: Africa: The Sarah Palin Journey (Page 1 of 1)

Women all over the world must have been overjoyed to see the possibility of a fellow woman become second in command over the affairs of the world's most powerful country.

Mother of five, Governor Sarah Palin was catapulted to the fore by virtue of the fact that she was nominated as running mate to Senator John McCain in the forth coming US elections. The klieg lights have not left her since then. Her pro-life stance, power suits (a change to men in black suits) and spectacles were initially seen as a breath of fresh air to the campaign trail. But the honeymoon was soon over and the media began to unearth everything about her.

But before you could say SARAH, Madam Governor had soon become the butt of jokes, fodder for satire, object of ridicule on late night shows, and the topic of harsh discussion on the pages of magazines and newspaper articles etc. In short, she received plenty of pummelling in the media.

They queried her credentials and went as far as telling us that though she was a Governor, it was just over a mere 700,000! Political pundits were unsparing in their comments about her too. After watching a clip from an interview with Mrs Palin, one analyst said in all his fifty whatever years in the business he had never seen anything so "pathetic".

But the truth is that men too have bumbled, waffled and stumbled their way into high office for years. Many a past Presidential candidate has not been without one hitch, gaffe, indiscretion or the other. Men are forgiven for their weaknesses, while women, from the Palin example, are ridiculed to no end. In the battle of the genders, women just cannot win!

Sarah Palin was to see the ferocious side of the media. The media dug its teeth into its quarry from day one and set out to fault her every word and action. From the manner of her selection, her pregnant unmarried daughter, past political decisions etc all came under closer than usual scrutiny and criticism.

Ironically women joined in the 'fun' too. Comediennes and female talk show hosts took her to the cleaners. One comedienne joked that Mrs Palin could see Russia from her bedroom window in her Alaskan home. This was in cynical reference to the Governor's responses to questions about Russia . Palin is referred to as being "folksy". In Nigerian parlance that may translate to "shumeh", "Ara Oke" (from the hinterland/ up country).

Both electronic and print media practitioners have had a field day tearing into the VP nominee. The Editor of a popular weekly international news magazine wrote a scathing piece on Palin's responses in an interview session on foreign policy.

The fact that she had risen from being a Mayor to the position of a Governor of a State appears inconsequential and vanished from her CV. Incidentally Alaska is the largest State in the United States . The people of Alaska most certainly found something profoundly intelligent about her before handing over the office of Chief Executive Officer to her. She must have exhibited her competencies and wisdom in handling the affairs of her State to have remained in office. Sadly I think the handling of her nomination by the party chiefs has been responsible for her being regarded as a light weight from day one. Thrust into sudden limelight, Mrs Palin has had no choice but to glide along and make the most of the issues. She may not be fully grounded in foreign policy but since when has that been the sin of the Century? How many past male presidents were all-rounders? Surrounded by a myriad of advisers they successfully navigated the global stage with passionate dexterity and no one remembers their weaknesses.

The run up to the Vice-Presidential TV was riddled with cynicism about the anticipated performance of Mrs Palin. Most expected her to be a car wreck. Political commentators reckoned that she would be out of her depth on the economy, the financial crises, and foreign policy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan .

One wondered if the Republicans' handling of this whole affair has not cost them the election anyway. It is encouraging to have a woman at the top but did they handle her introduction properly? According to reports they left their nominee unscripted when they shouldn't and coach her with clichés and light-weight information on other occasions. Hence on heavy duty critical national issues such as the economy and foreign policy, Mrs Palin may come across as a novice. Anyway as far as the TV debate between Governor Palin and Senator Biden went some political commentators reckoned there was no victor nor vanquished.

Generally speaking, the ordeal of Governor Palin symbolises what women have to face when trying to compete in a male-dominated world. In our hypocritical world, a lot of lip service is paid to equality of the genders. In reality women still have to fight harder to reach the top in the political realm, the boardroom, educational institutions, armed forces etc. She has to practically behave like a man to make it in a man's world. She has no chance in hell unless she nearly burns herself out trying to get to the top. Once there she has to continue the battle in order to sustain her position and not be ousted overnight. Frankly speaking, this may be why some women resort to using their bodies to gain advantage. Other women find that in order to live up to expectations they have to over do things. A typical display of the predicament faced by women vying to get to the top was last weekend when we saw a rather feisty Mrs Palin accuse Barack Obama of "consorting with terrorists".

In Nigeria women are nowhere near to the top two jobs at the federal level. Aso Rock is the preserve of the men. Being allowed to contest as the Chief Executive Officer of a state is also just as remote. So far we have had women as deputy-governors and Speakers in the Federal House of Representatives and State Houses of Assembly.

Recently a national consultation session was held in Abuja to explore the way forward for improved women participation in the electoral system and political activities in Nigeria . The background to the consultation was to address the impediments women face in their quest to participate meaningfully in the political sphere. Ironically, even in the advanced nations these gender issues still evoke a lot of emotion. All the reforms in the world may not be able to successfully alter the mindset against women. As we have seen with Mrs Palin, even her co-debater was careful in addressing her lest he be accused of being sexist. Gender issues look set to always play a central role in our lives.

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