So asks Slate, which quotes statistics that suggest that more women than men are involved in the Tea Party movement, and points to the fact that most national and state coordinators are women:
If the Tea Party has any legitimate national leadership, it is dominated by women. Of the eight board members of the Tea Party Patriots who serve as national coordinators for the movement, six are women. Fifteen of the 25 state coordinators are women. One of the three main sponsors of the Tax Day Tea Party that launched the movement is a group called Smart Girl Politics. The site started out as a mommy blog and has turned into a mobilizing campaign that trains future activists and candidates. Despite its explosive growth over the last year, it is still operated like a feminist cooperative, with three stay-at-home moms taking turns raising babies and answering e-mails and phone calls. Spokeswoman Rebecca Wales describes it as a group made up of “a lot of mama bears worried about their families.” The Tea Party, she says, is a natural home for women because “for a long time people have seen the parties as good-ole’-boy, male-run institutions. In the Tea Party, women have finally found their voice.”
Well, if this is all true I suppose that explains why I haven’t found the Tea Party all that appealing — or even interesting for that matter. However, perhaps we should take note, because this is a truly strange trend. Now that we have a party that has been firmly in favor of feminist goals for nearly 40 years in power, all of the sudden a number of women are up in arms.
What is driving all this feminine discontent? For all the cheering about the “women’s nation,” the female takeover of higher education and the successful destruction of a number of traditionally male industries, you’d think women would be happy with those in power, but instead we have Sarah Palin barnstorming around and whipping women into a frenzy.
Maybe part of what’s going on is that men have been disenfranchised to such an extent that younger men have pretty much dropped out of politics. Young white men in particular, who would be more likely to support a right-leaning movement, are so routinely vilified that they might think they should simply keep their mouths shut and stay out of it all.
Are men finally dropping out of politics as well?
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