On Demand
Dee Dee Myers on Why Women Should Rule the World
Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers thinks that women should rule the world. In her new book, Why Women Should Rule the World, Ms. Myers explains why she says that with women in charge, businesses would be more profitable, communities would be healthier, and politics would be more collegial.
Event: Dee Dee Myers will be in conversation with Tina Brown
Tuesday, February 26 at 8 pm
92nd Street Y
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street Y
For tickets, call the Y at (212) 415-5500 or go here.
Weigh in: How do you think the world would be different if more women were in positions of power in government and business?
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Women are no better than men. Dee Dee Myers is just trying to jump the line. Let her shuffle her feet and don't offer Yoga as a relief.
The world would be a better place if women ruled it, but for every woman interested in the job there are 100 men that are just as motivated.
Rule the world? In the first place, women have no interest in ruling the world, that is primarily a desire of lonely, insecure men. And women rarely want to RULE. They want to revere their communities. They want to improve, uplift, sustain and nurture the immediate sphere around them.
Civilization was matriarchal and matrilineal for centuries before the 3 Big Daddy religions (Judiasm, Islam, Christianity) all but eradicated the face of the goddess from the earth and reduced women to chattel. The Islam God Allah used to be the goddess Al-lat. They still have her symbol - the crescent moon - on their flag. Mullahs at the Kabbah shrine are still called "Sons of the Old Woman".
Eh, I could go on and on but nobody wants to hear.
Ha ha,
If you have ever been on the periphery of a bridal party arraignment you would have grave doubts about even giving women the vote let alone ruling anyone or anything! Women have a great sense of compassion when it comes to some things but it can be at the expense of other things like freedom. Do you think Hillary or Obama’s health care proposal will allow people to opt-out if they do not want the burden for religious or philosophical reasons; not on your life! The feminization of the Democratic party continues and we will all be forced to pony up the money to support ever “nurturing” government. Most married men will tell you, women do make effective dictators. Paine & Jefferson are must be spinning in their graves.
Cor,
What about the ancient Greeks and Romans, the ancient Egyptians, the Sumerians,etc...they were all civilizations before the judeo-christian religions took over society and they weren't "matriarchal" at all. This idea that the world was matriarchal and then changed when the judeo-christian religions took over before this is just factually incorrect. I agree 100% that the judeo-christian religions are terribly patriarchal..but it's not like the civilizations that came before weren't patriarchal as well. How far back are you talking about (because patriarchal ancient Egypt goes back very very far) and what evidence is there of this?
I think women would take on the same negative attributes such are normally applied to men for taking on the responsibility for ruling the world. Women would be the same or worse: cigar-smoking, joke cracking, clubbish, greedy, and corrupt. I take author Thomas Berger's 1973 lampoon / nod to the feminist movement 'A Regiment of Women' as an example of what it would look like.
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0671214926?filterBy=addThreeStar
Why don't you have Thomas Berger on the LL show? This especially if Hillary is nominated by the Democrats?
One can also read Berger's The Adventures of an Artificial Woman where, the female frustrated protagonist creates his 'perfect' woman (android). She ends up leaving him and being elected president of the US.
harry,
"you would have grave doubts about even giving women the vote..."
Are you serious? Did you step into some kind of time warp? Are you from the 1820's or something?
Women aren’t as collegial as you think. When you get a little older you will understand. This is why Hillary has such negatives with men. Married men who have actually lived with a woman know the “stories” about her behavior are more than plausible.
Furthermore, do you think most women are serious thinkers? Check out the readership by sex of trash/glam magazines. You must be joking, …and no, the 1920’s!
Until recently, this election was about whether a woman would be the executive of(rule?) this nation. Since Dee Dee is married to (rules?) a man who worked for the NYTIMES for more than 20 years I wonder what is her take on the Times counterproductive story on McCain earlier this week.
Does the name "Empress Dowager CiXi" ring a bell with Dee Dee Myers?
My mother used to always laugh at her fellow feminist friends who insisted that women would make better leaders. Maybe because she's from China, where, whenever women were able to seize power, they were as Machiavellian as men. Maybe they had to be. Maybe human structures are just limited, because our DNA can only code in so many ways.
I'm looking forward to hearing Dee Dee's thoughts. But my initial reaction is that the XY vs. XX chromosomal inheritance makes a difference, but not THAT much.
Is the second book going to be "spandex and the demise of the world"?
Hi Cor,
I just re-read your comment:
"women rarely want to RULE. They want to revere their communities. They want to improve, uplift, sustain and nurture the immediate sphere around them."
From Madonna to the girls who ruled the roost in junior high, I've known plenty of women who'd like to rule the world, and who ain't too nurturing of the "sphere" around them.
Let's face it, power is enticing and intoxicating and perilous regardless of whether you are XX or XY.
Your comment reminds me of a comment Margaret Atwood made at a lecture once, when asked how she could create such well-developed and sometimes diabolical female characters.
"Well, you know. You live. You get around. You MEET some women."
Your comments are so sweetly optimistic, just wondering if you, uh, actually know any women? The great thing about women is the great thing about men. You never do know, until you get to know them, and even then, you never know what could happen.
The French want parity - I do think it would make a difference. I am sure we would find some things done better and others not as well. I think culturally we (USA) are not well integrated - look how men dress in Europe, they are not afraid of color or style (we are so utilitarian here by comparison) - I think broadly speaking our men are not at home with so called feminine aspects - and that has to somehow shape the development of ideas and conceptions - you find females in cabinets in Europe but you'd never see a Trent Lott hairdo for example. Not sure I am explaining this well enough but i don't expect female utopia, just a difference -
I think that the fact that there is a good old boy network that is primarilly white and male does not mean that being white or male equals admission to the club. Most 'people' will never be insiders.
I think its sad that we are still bogged down in gender politics and racial politics.
How about talking about solidarity and something like fairness of opportunity and compensation?
Dee Dee is right about this. The world has changed from the resource constrained competitive one to one where collaboration and knowledge transfer are the factors of success. Right-brain synthesis are the skills that create wealth now. We need more feminine side wisdom in leadership that fosters this kind of creation. Also, women are less likely to lie to conform to the group which men are wont to do, which is the big problem male leaders have gotten us into these days (e.g. Iraq, subprime, Enron, rampant consumerism, etc).
Marianne Williamson talks about this so eloquently and powerfully. She addresses why there is so much depression today, in many women and men. They are grieving unconsciously at the state of the world created by this men's model of living, and the future for their children which looks so precarious now.
Wow, the sexism and the lack of deeper analysis in these comments is disgusting. Woomen aren't deep thinkers? So, I gues when men who are "deep thinkers" spend large quantities of time playing video games, reading lad's mags, and watching pron, they're still more "deep" than a woman who might pick up a gossip mag for fun?
As a Male Boss, I see competent women having to run against the general female stereotypes Men run into all the time:
The woman who leaves the job the minute she marries.
The woman who has children and then 'naturally' expects everyone else to fill in for her-- particularly the co-workers who have no family.
The woman who brings emotional PMS storms to work.
The woman who will quit at the drop of a hat-- even if she needs the job.
These are stereotypes, yes, but they are rooted in fact. And in the workplace, to a man, they are deficits. And too many women have stepped back from the advancements of Liberation and are pretending it IS an idealized 1950's.
For my own Bias, I am head IT. And I will never hire a female tech. I've encountered too many women who just say: "It doesn't work" and walk away when I am expecting her to FIX it.
Again-- stereotype: Men FIX things. Women just tell us it's broke and complain.
Again-- I don't feel I'm a horrible person, but the perceptions come from experience.
Could you please talk about Janet Jagan, the first American woman to be president?
To put it simply, in the hearts of men, women will always be seen as inferior, and needing to give up their power to the men in the lives.This is never expressed not acknowledged but is a product of their growing up in this society and culture. It is just a fact.Yes, this appplies to Hillary and Katie Couric.The double standards are there in broadcasting, politics,and the arts. I agree totally with DeeDee Meyers.
Funny, Eva, I first wrote it as "Madonna not withstanding, women rarely want to RULE..." blah blah.
I think we can both agree that you can't bracket the behavior of all women based on the behavior of a few and you will never know what or how any particular man or woman will do as a leader until they're in office or until the biography is written later. I'll stay sweetly optimistic.
Great show. Dee Dee is smart and has a great sense of humor.
I also appreciate that she doesn't approach the available stats on intelligence with a baseball bat. She's a true classical skeptic, acknowledging many possibilities.
But I'm still voting for Obama...
I think it is the insecure man who can't even entertain the idea of a woman's competence.
I think Dee Dee makes a lot of sense, esp. about being up against a world wired for men and that's why parity in Europe looks so worthy a goal.
you would think the most progressive fields would be the arts but they are the worst!
Cor,
Just read your comment. I agree with you on the Madonna exceptionalism, but how to explain the junior high mean girl phenomenon?
I'm not saying it doesn't have some deeper value.
I mean, I wonder if female cooperativeness is somehow linked to our early pre-adolescent training from "mean girls" to get us to conform to the group's demands?
I say this as someone who was as much a victim as a perpetrator in the mean girl antics in junior high. In the case of my friends, we didn't turn the other cheek, we just passed it down the line.
I ran into one of our "victims" three few years ago. She's extremely successful, and has a wonderful family. She told me "I'm over it!" when I expressed my feelings of regret and guilt. I'm glad she's over it, but I'll admit I'm still stupified by the whole experience decades later.
Even back then, we were aware as girls that the boys had it better, because they would only be beat up by other boys. At the time, we felt the verbal rancor that girls wielded was far more powerful. But who knows?
As a feminist, meaning I believe that women should be treated as equals, some of these comments sadden me. Especially those of Harry and World's Toughest Milkman.
Are women serious thinkers? Of course, just because some people read trash magazines, does not mean that is what all women read. It seems to me you need to do some serious thinking about your sexist and degrading comments. Women are just as competent and intelligent as men.
I think people need to be judged on an individual basis. Not as a whole group. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Do I think more women need to be in places of power, YES. We need to represent our society, and women are half of the world. We have been oppressed for hundreds, thousands of years.
Harry and Milkman, would you make the same comments about black people, or short people? To make these generalized statments based on your own bad marriages and prejudices is not only insulting to women, but to yourselves. Take a look in the mirror and cry yourself to sleep.
lb,
I have to defend "World's Toughest Milkman."
If we women want to be taken seriously and given parity, we need to be able to TAKE A JOKE! Reminds me of the woman prof who cried after hearing Larry Summers' notorious comments - as if she needed to prove Summers' point! Sheesh!
You gotta admit, the notion of the world's toughest milkman is oxymoronic, if you get the subtext of milkman as momma's boy.
But yeah, I'm for parity, too.
Haha LB,
You too are in conflict with Myers then, or at least her title.
She asserts the world would be a better, more fair and productive place if women were in total control. Some here apparently don’t even see the duplicity in castigating me and defending her. I just called them out on their double standard! No you can’t make a categorical statement about sexes, races or whatever. You can make generalizations and observations with regard to patterns, but her assertion should be as offensive as anything I have written to the fair-minded. But then again, this is NYC, where fair-mindedness is usually trumped by group identity.
Sorry again Jefferson, people have mistaken information for education.
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