Scrutiny smacks of sexism

Back in the 1970s, I flirted with becoming a feminist after the birth of my daughter. But after witnessing the strong ideological differences among women over feminism that marked that decade, I decided to help the kid out in other ways.

Thankfully, there's been so much societal, professional and political progress for women that I came to think widespread, institutional gender bias was dead.

Now I'm not so sure. Sexism is still alive. Just look at the mounting criticism of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin over her plan to concurrently help run the country and a household that includes four of her five children -- one with Down syndrome -- and a grandchild on the way.

If husband Todd Palin were the nominee, I doubt he would face the same criticism. Instead, he faces another form of discrimination: the idea that men aren't as good as women at raising kids.

I admit we men tend to utilize different standards. When a child falls on the playground, women conduct post-incident physicals. Men yell from a park bench for Junior to shake it off.

I don't know what type of parent Todd Palin is, but I do know he's not a totem pole. The man is a commercial fisherman, oil worker and snowmobile racer. He can manage to feed the kids and get them to clean their rooms. If he can't, he can get the Secret Service to do it.

Fellow mom Nancy Pelosi should come to Sarah Palin's defense. When Pelosi assumed the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives, she took the grandkids to the well and told us that Congress is in better hands now that a mother and grandmother is in charge. She said the country needed a woman to come in and clean up the nation's mess. Truth to power, Nancy!

Of course, we'll drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Pelosi comes to Palin's rescue -- illustrating the toughest form of sexism women face in both business and politics: discrimination by other women. As far as I can tell, Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro are the only powerful female peers of a different political view to congratulate the Alaska governor.

More typical is the criticism from the president of the National Organization for Women, Kim Gandy. She wrote that John McCain's choice of Palin for vice president is a cynical attempt to get women to vote against their own self-interest. I thought only men were stupid enough to be swayed by a skirt.

Gandy warned that Palin's record demonstrates that not every woman supports women's rights, as if gender predetermines a person's political views. Guys get in big trouble for thinking that way.

It's too bad more women aren't praising Palin's record of achievement. She has succeeded in the male-dominated arenas of athletics and politics, as well as in areas where femininity rules -- beauty pageants and motherhood. I doubt the pregnancy of their 17-year-old unmarried daughter was part of the Palin family plan, but having Bristol come to her parents with news of the baby, and her decision to marry the father, are testimony to the effectiveness of Sarah and Todd's parenting.

Yet the Washington Post's Sally Quinn is among the women who have used the pregnancy and Palin's infant with Down syndrome to argue that the world is much too dangerous to be entrusted to a woman with children at home.

Palin is not above opposition. But questioning her fitness to be vice president based on motherhood is downright sexist. Political fathers never face the same type of scrutiny.

That includes one former county councilman who almost refused to take his newly won U.S. Senate seat in order to care for two sons who were badly injured in the auto accident that claimed their mother and sister. Senate and party leaders urged him to take the oath of office. He did, and for five years he nursed and raised his sons as a single dad. Since then, he has won nearly universal praise for his decision to serve his state and country while concurrently raising a family during trying personal times.

Last week the Democratic Party nominated that man, Joe Biden, to be vice president of the United States.

Correction

Due to an editing error, Rick Martinez's column Saturday on Duke football coach David Cutcliffe indicated that both Peyton and Eli Manning attended the University of Tennessee. Only Peyton did; Eli played at Mississippi.