Friday, September 7, 2007

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on Hillary Clinton and the Presidency

As US Senator Dianne Feinstein has said. "But when you have a woman that achieves and crosses that threshold ... it opens doors like nothing else does.

"I learned that when I became (San Francisco) mayor," she said. "I appointed a woman treasurer, a woman head of the airport, a woman city attorney - and all of a sudden, the nature and complexion of the city begins to change," she said. "So if you want to look at breaking the glass ceiling, Hillary's presence in the White House ... opens the door for women all over the world."

I want to post on this point in great detail. I believe that what must be achieved is a paradigm shift. Our very concept of "leader" "Commander in Chief" "President" and even "boss" will have to change for women to achieve full equality with men in society and politics. The symbol of what is a leader, or what leadership looks like must be altered to encompass the reality of the diversity of the human race.

Change has been accomplished in the face of entrenched resistance and ever preset backlash. It has been accomplished in small steps and bold moves but the battle is not over yet. This change must reach all aspects of public and private life from the bottom to the top of human political and social endeavor.

Ask yourself is it not tiresome when faces in the history books, the boardrooms and the corridors of political power never resemble your own. Where women have made advances in opening up professions and areas of public life to their advancement so have different races and social groups. A paradigmatic shift in thinking will not be achieved without altering the symbol of leader to represent us and our perspectives and our diversity.

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