Do Women Have To Work Harder?
With the blow up of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenditures reportedly totaling around $150K, Campbell Brown of CNN’s No Bias, No Bull put the issue up for pubic debate – do women have to work harder than men? Are they judged more harshly – especially when it comes to how they look?
We could probably go round and round on this issue. But perhaps the more interesting subject is how put together do you need to be to step into the political limelight at the level Sarah Palin has?
Sarah’s background is not one the oozes money. Pictures released of her old wardrobe pre VP run showed a women doing her best with a limited clothing budget but you wouldn’t cite her as having great fashion taste. Others running for office come from a situation of greater incomes (didn’t Obama make several million last year?) and frankly years to build up the stylish wardrobes they sport.
Looking at all the candidates and their wives (since Sarah is the only women I’ll throw the wives in too) you can see that they all dress extremely well. I mean come on, if anyone doesn’t think Obama is spending a ton on his wardrobe, not to mention his wife Michelle’s understated high style selections (how often have you seen her look drab or wear the same outfit twice?). And McCain has a solid wardrobe that probably costs more than it looks and his wife Cindy (who has a fortune) is often sporting top designer wear with lovely if pricely jewelry.
Perhaps the real issue is whether we’d really take anyone who shops at Target seriously. The unfortunate truth may just be that we are more influenced by the proverbial ‘book cover’ than we want to admit.