Meryl’s post this morning, about the Great Male Bloggers not noticing all of the women around them, has gotten me to think of many incidents from my own life of watching Ohio politics from the sidelines.
Take, for instance, my friends Betty and Jo Ann. They’ve both spent the majority of their adult lifetimes in the midst of Ohio politics. And yes, quite successfully. My husband has worked with each of them several times.
Yet Betty has told us that, whenever she’s asked what her job is, she’s learned to respond “I’m a lawyer.” Well, technically, she is. But she learned to give that answer because people didn’t believe her when she told them her real job: Attorney General of the State of Ohio. She was tired of the explanations, and most of the men didn’t seem to want to hear it anyway. Anyway, she served two terms as Attorney General, and then retired from the post. She’s now the Auditor for the State of Ohio.
Jo Ann worked in a different branch of Ohio politics: she became Speaker of the Ohio State House of Representatives. She’s retired from the House now. In her newfound spare time, she’s going to be co-chair of the national Republican Party.
On top of all of this, I’m reminded of a story by Joanna Russ that I read a while ago: “When It Changed.” The story takes place on the planet Whileaway, whose population centuries ago was decimated by a plague that killed only men, but all the men. The women kept going through parthenogenetic reproduction, and managed to build a good society. Then men arrive, to re-establish contact.
One of them, who is waiting to speak to the society’s leaders, stands in a room with Our Narrator while all the women file in and fill all the chairs. He’s had the plague explained to him. However, he looks over the room chock full of women, and turns to Our Narrator and asks, “But where are all the people?”
We’re here, Kevin and James. Always were. I guess you just can’t see for looking.
white pebble 