Lisa Hrabluk

Crazy day for news about women.

Sarah Palin, U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate, dominated the headlines around the world with the revelation her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant and intends to marry her hockey-loving boyfriend. Palin’s VP candidacy has prompted lots of commentary. The overriding opinion is she is too inexperienced, particularly on issues of foreign policy, and only got the nomination because she is a woman. Fab.

Women columnists and bloggers are also caught up in a debate about whether, as a mother of five, including a baby with Downs syndrome, and her impending grandmotherhood, she is going to be able to have it all. My favourite comment comes from Phyllis Schlafly, famed anti-feminist, who says women who have one or two babies just don’t get it. Its easy to juggle when you’ve got five or more kids because you just delegate…just like a CEO.

But she received particular praise from religious conservatives, who voiced near-uniform confidence that her large and growing brood would enhance, not detract from, her performance as vice president.

“It changes your life and gives you a different perspective on the world,” said Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative organizer who helped defeat the equal rights amendment nearly three decades ago.

“People who don’t have children or who have only one or two are kind of overwhelmed at the notion of five children,” Ms. Schlafly continued, mentioning that she had raised six children and run for Congress as well. “I think a hard-working, well-organized C.E.O. type can handle it very well.”

Read the whole story in the New York Times  A New Twist in the Debate on Mothers

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the New York Times, receiving far less play than Mrs. Palin, was this item:

Pakistan: Murder of Brides Investigated

The authorities began an investigation Monday into the killing of five women in Baluchistan Province who tried to choose their own husbands. The women, three of them teenagers, were shot, thrown into a ditch and buried alive more than a month ago. The authorities suspect they were killed because they had defied tribal elders by marrying without consent. The police said they had arrested three relatives of the women in connection with their deaths. A provincial lawmaker defended their deaths as part of a “centuries-old tradition.”

In Pakistan, they bury alive their daughters who dare to marry for love. For them, there is no choice. In North America, we struggle with our choices because we have so many and we think that not accepting all of them will reflect badly on who we are and the many titles we claim – daughter, mother, lover, worker.

I am among those women who wonder how Sarah Palin will do it all and I wish her luck. What I don’t, is wish it for me.

And rounding out the news, was a story out of the U.K. Respected actress Helen Mirren, gave an interview in which she talked about how she used to love cocaine and that date rape isn’t something that should be left to the courts to settle.

She revealed it all in an article in the October issue of British GQ and it has been taken up by commentators in all the U.K. dailies.

For two different takes on Mirren’s comments, try Julie Bindel at The Guardian – Helen Mirren’s twisted logic

Some of the women reading Mirren’s words will take notice of her daft views. She is a role model and a highly respected individual. They might think that if they reported a rape by a man they were intimate with that the police will think they are wasting their time. Some might feel shame that they have been devastated by an attack by a man who chose not to beat her up and put a knife to her throat. I hope not, but it is likely that her words will influence some in entirely the wrong way.

… and then check out an editorial in The Independent  – Is Helen Mirren Right about Date Rape?

Only 5 per cent of reported rapes in Britain now end in a successful prosecution – one of the lowest conviction rates in the developed world. A key determinant, Mr Graef concluded, was today’s “ladette culture” in which young women routinely drink to excess.

Where victims of rape have been drinking, the chances of conviction are seriously lowered. Defence barristers who can no longer raise questions in court about the victim’s “provocative” clothes, or her previous history of sexual liaisons, can raise questions about the amount of alcohol she has consumed – and introduce CCTV footage of the woman in a drunken state.

Three continents. Three interpretations of women’s sexuality. Each is about the choices an individual woman makes and the rush to judgment by her family, and her community for those choices.