ALL OF THE GOOD ONES ARE MARRIED :

Earlier this week (Wednesday, April 10, 2002 : Mo vs. Evolution), we made fun of Maureen Dowd's hubristic column The Baby Bust
(MAUREEN DOWD, April 10, 2002, NY Times), the gist of which was that guys don't like her because she's too smart and powerful. The taking off point for her essay was a study showing that career women are less likely to find husbands and have kids. Ms Dowd seized upon the study as a way to castigate modern men as timid twerps, frightened by women who are their equals, or superiors.

So it's especially interesting to read this piece The White House Message Machine (Steve & Cokie Roberts, April 14, 2002, USA Weekend) about Karen Hughes, Torie Clarke, Charlotte Beers and Mary Matalin, four of the most powerful women in the world (only Laura Bush and Condi Rice are missing) who just happen to all be Republicans who, mirabile dictu, actually have families.

The war against terrorism is being fought on two fronts. One is the military campaign to root out "evildoers." But a second, equally important battle is being waged with words and images, not planes and mortars, and the aim is to influence public opinion across the globe. And in contrast to the military effort, the commanding officers of this front are women: Karen Hughes, 45; Mary Matalin, 48, assistant to the president and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney; Victoria Clarke, 42, chief spokeswoman for the Pentagon; and Charlotte Beers, 66, undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs. This is the first time so many women have been so influential in shaping America's image in the world, and it shows. [...]

"One of the things I try to do is bring a perspective of how normal people view the world," says Hughes, the mother of a 15-year-old boy. "It's very easy to sit in the White House and become very insulated. So I walk my dog and talk to my neighbors. At church, people will say things to me, and I go to the grocery store and I go to my son's soccer games at school, and on the sidelines I'm hearing what people are talking about."

Matalin, whose daughters are 3 and 6, agrees that women provide a different viewpoint because they have different responsibilities: "There's something a primary caregiver, particularly a working one, brings to the table." In Clarke's view, her three small children give her a parent's common-sense approach that constantly challenges the Pentagon culture: "At least five times a day I say, 'Look, I'm speaking for Joe Q. Public here!' " Beers raised a daughter while breaking through glass ceilings as an advertising executive, and she is used to pursuing unpopular ideas over the doubts of male colleagues.

It certainly seems that conservative babes have no problem snagging a guy and cranking out some kids while enjoying a career at the very pinnacle of power. Maybe it's not Ms Dowd's "power" that turns men off?

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 14, 2002 7:59 PM