Post 3: Response to "Women of power in Nebraska"

Women and power, the struggle is ages old. It is often said that we live in a nation where, although women claim equal rights, they have to fight harder to get to power. Here in Nebraska we like to think that our state leads “the good life” and that children are raised in tolerant environments. Growing up, in a small town, I was taught that I could do whatever I wanted to do; and I was never exposed to the actuality of how hard attaining those goals might be. “Women of power in Nebraska” written by Joanne Young, a woman, deals with the lack of women in power in our state today. Prior to reading this article I had never really thought too much about the role that women played in our state’s power positions. During my junior year I met Laurie Smith Camp, a Nebraska Federal District Judge, at the state Mock Trial Competition. I walked out of the room that day not fully appreciating the fact of what she had achieved, and how few women held similar offices of power in my own state. In fact as I read through the article the numbers that flew at me astounded, shocked, and frustrated me. I, who consider myself a fairly knowledgeable person in politics, had never even thought of the gross disproportion of political positions held by women.
As I continued to read the essay many thoughts raced through my head as to what lead to this lack of women in power. My first instinct was that our previously chauvinistic state was slow on the upswing at allowing access to powerful positions to the women of our state. But he more and more I thought about the problem, the more I realized that the blame must also fall on the women of Nebraska. Women can’t be expected to stumble into positions of power, because, well that’s not exactly how men get into those positions either. So what does that say about the women in Nebraska? Are we in fact disinclined to reach for the brass ring of political, and influential power? History shows that Nebraska holds breakthroughs for women into power positions, such as the 1986 governor’s race, where two women ran against each other in the gubernatorial race.
The lack of women in power positions in Nebraska is not limited to the political field. When I read on in this article I found that this shortage or women stretched to the business world too. Also I was inclined to laugh at the surveys claiming that a vast majority of women are concerned about the domination of the cooperate world in Nebraska by males. Indeed this vast majority must not be working very hard to correct the tipped scales, or things would be different, or at least abandoning harsh standstill for some progressive movement.
As my reading of the article came to a close I was forced to conclude that the lack of women in power in Nebraska is not through social fault, but through the fault of the women of this state themselves. I believe that if women want power, they should reach for it, and I also firmly believe that if you work for something it will eventually come to you in some shape or form. I wish that things were different, I really do; but it is hard for me to sympathies with a plea that I feel does no good, if no one is willing to step up and change it.