Believe it. If you’ve been thinking there have been an awful lot of women’s names in the coverage of Governor-Elect Shumlin’s appointments, you’re not imagining things.
With only a handful of Executive Branch appointments to go, there have so far been 13 women named to these leadership positions in Vermont state government. That’s 13 out of 26 (50% for those of you with counting issues), which represents a net gain of 8 women.
Now that’s cool.
!!!sqwaaaaaaaak!!!
You should appoint the best qualified!
QUOTAS! QUOTAS! QUOTAS!
[cough, sputter]
So, is this the post, or is it a different one, where Democrats finally talk about Shumlin’s well-known (at least to insiders, I guess) patriarchal, chauvinistic attitude towards women?
I wanted to use the word “womanizing” in there, but being that I have no direct evidence, but rather just a few personal observations and a handful of direct experiences told to me, I guess I’ll leave that term out, to save on the hyperbole.
Nonetheless, progressives, feminists, and decent human beings- at some point- are going to have to address both Shumlin’s behavior and reputation towards women. Personally, I lack enough direct, “juicy” info on the topic to write my own piece on it, but I know that most with a personal experience of the gov-elect or a decent insider-view of him over the years knows what I’m talking about. I figure a blurb like this diary extoling how great he is for putting forth such a woman-heavy administration (which, yes, is awesome) might wanna have the counter weight of the fact that, well, Shumlin’s no feminist. That would be like calling George Bush an economist ’cause he likes money.
I know Shumlin. Sometimes he can come off as a good-ole-boy swapping the dirty jokes with the guys, but he is not that way at all. It is significant that his campaign manager, now of his key aides, is a young woman and that half of his administrative appointees are female. Although Shum is no saint, Another significant point should be that he chose them, not because of their gender, but because of what they have done and can do to help him get his agenda across. It’s going to be a tough session no matter who he appoints.