Driving home last night I was listening to the PM show on Radio 4 when a discussion began on why it is that it only seems to be women who are dropping out of the Brown cabinet - Smith, Blears etc.
The discussion centred around whether or not this was because Gordon Brown has a "problem" with women. Yes, said one forgettable Labour party representative. No, said the other utterly unremarkable Brown supporter - both of whom were female.
What nobody mentioned, however, is that apart from being women all those who have resigned have another factor in common - they were crap at the job. Not only that, but in the case of Smith she actually knew she was crap and completely out of her depth. She was a prime example of a woman promoted to a position purely on account of her gender - she had no discernible talent for the job and is quite probably the worst Home Secretary we've had that I can remember - and given the hopelessness of her predecessors, that is no mean feat!
There are other reasons why it is only women who are standing down from the Cabinet. Perhaps women are less adept at handling the pressure or maybe women are less loyal than men? I don't know, but it's a sign of the times that when women fail at a job the reaction is to assume it's the fault of a man.
2 comments:
"The discussion centred around whether or not this was because Gordon Brown has a "problem" with women."
It's a problem with people he has, not just women!
Quite - the fact that most of today's political class are incompetent careerists who've never had a proper job in their lives is the reason why so many of his cabinet are crap.
But I get annoyed when anytime a woman in a position of power is revealed to be utterly out of her depth and obviously over promoted - because of her gender - that the assumption is not that, but that it must be something to do with male chauvinism.
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