So Ed Rendell says, “Janet’s perfect for that job. she has no life… she has no family; she can devote 19-20 hours a day,” and suddenly he's a sexist pig?
Woah.
Like so many in the media, Campbell Brown’s got this one wrong. Look, I’m all for fighting sexism and all manner of "–isms," and "–tries" wherever they pop up; but what Rendell said about Gov Napolitano wasn’t sexist. It wasn’t even stupid.
In fact, it was practical, not to mention complimentary.
Homeland Security is a high-stress, high commitment job. You want someone who--to be perfectly honest—is willing to put 300 million people ahead of everything else they might possibly care about including their own relationships and personal life. So when Rendell said “Janet has no life” that’s exactly what I want to hear from the future Sec. of Homeland Security—that the only thing she might even remotely be attached to is the office she’s being appointed to. I want to know that Janet or Jimmy or Billy or whoever the hell it is has no life to speak of to the point of being concerned. i want to know that she/he/they like to be holed up in rooms staring at monitors, evidence and theories for weeks at a time with as few bathroom breaks as possible. I want to know you're just as crazy about protection as the bad guys are crazy about blowin' ish up.
I don't want to hear about soccer practice, PTA meetings, your kids, your hobbies, your spouse, your favorite sports team, your social calendar, your outside interests, etc. because all that says to me is you've got lots of distractions--too many in fact to handle something this important.
For what it's worth, I've spent 17 years in Corporate America. As a male I was expected to work 80-hour weeks, family or no family. It was understood. As a single male, it was openly assumed that whatever free time I may have had was either going to the company or to partying.
The last thing my bosses or the bosses of my male colleagues wanted to hear about was our family/ personal lives. And no one ran to our aid championing “male rights” or “screaming gender bias" in our defense.
Why? Because there was none.
Our bosses might've been selfish, myopic, greedy with our time, even unreasonable about the company's needs. But they weren't sexist--the men and women were both expected to have no lives, no attachements. In fact, if any case, there were plenty of times where being a woman was enough to not work as hard--you could always say, "i have kids i haven't seen" and get pity for it.
There’s not any here regarding Janet Napolitano.
Men are expected to screw over their kids, their wives, their girlfriends and every outside interest possible that doesn’t relate to their career or their company; so much so that there's not even a name for it.
But soon as someone says a woman’s a good hire because she has no outside life, it’s sexism?
Shut up and get back to work, Campbell. That is, if you can find the time between all your other interests.
