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Sarah Palin’s resignation: A step back for working moms?
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Sarah Palin in Missouri, August 2008. Photo by Tyler Warren. Palin was a popular figure in Central Florida during the 2008 Presidential elections. A September visit to the Villages outside Orlando drew a crowd of about 60,000 people.
There has been a lot of speculation surrounding Sarah Palin’s resignation. The Governor of Alaska, prominent working mom and one of the most polarizing female political figures announced Friday that she was stepping down from her post. The announcement came on the heels of a controversial Vanity Fair article in which advisors to Senator John McCain question her capability as a political leader. Palin’s resignation speech has been described as rambling and not well written, but the one thing many observers have noted was absent from her rationale was an opportunity to spend more time with her family.
But does she need to cite family as a reason for leaving the Governor’s mansion? Several analysts have said such an explanation would have made more sense than the “lame duck” excuse, especially since she has a special-needs toddler at home. Yet it is very rare to hear a male politician leaving his post list caring for his family among the reasons he decided to resign, and you’d never hear journalists asking why he didn’t mention his family. It could be because, as one analyst implies, when balancing politics and family, it is impossible to keep the former in the public eye while sheltering the latter.
Whatever your political leanings or however you feel about Sarah Palin as a leader, watching this working mom – and one with a small child with special needs, no less – leave her tenure as Governor of Alaska is a bit jarring. After all, there aren’t many working moms with small children leading companies or governments these days.
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