Do Women Have To Behave Like Men In Order To Succeed Essay

The old Virginia Slims cigarette print advertisement said â€Å"You’ve come a long way baby. †, a reference to the fight of women for rights equivalent to those of men. Indeed women’s suffrage has come a long way from the days of chaining themselves to wagons in the crusade to get women the right to vote. These days, women have become an important and integral part of society. Women are now movers, shakers, and builders who help shape the future not only of nations, but of the world. The question being asked now is â€Å"Have women lost their sense of womanhood in the quest to be treated as an equal of their male counterparts in the workplace? I believe that nothing could be further from the truth. Women do not have to behave like men in order to succeed because it is their womanhood that sets them apart and makes them more effective than men in most instances. I believe that women are successful in whatever they undertake because they have been blessed with the ability to balance hard as nails logic with emotional consideration for the final outcome of various discussions. This is not to say that one sex or the other shall be more successful in a given field based solely upon the gender of a person. A clear example of such a scenario can be seen in the highly successful political careers of former Arkansas governor and president of the country Bill Clinton and his wife, the senator from New York Hillary Rodham Clinton. Their relationship I believe, is a symbiotic one wherein Hillary was allowed to keep her femininity even has she proved to be just as hard working and dedicated to her political career as any man elected to public office. This is a political relationship that borrows strengths and weaknesses from each other. Bill Clinton styled himself after his political idol, the late president John F. Kennedy but, recognized the potential of his wife to be his productive partner in the political arena not only because she was a woman, but because she is a highly intelligent and analytical person who can see things that he may not see. While Bill Clinton was viewed as a politician gifted with skill, intelligence and an uncanny ability to deceive people for his own political benefit, he was also granted the abilities of resiliency and endurance. The very same qualities that people now see Hillary sharing with remarkable similarity with her husband who is also her political mentor. It is this sharing of strengths and weaknesses that makes him a formidable man and she a formidable woman. As a woman, Hillary faced the same problems and wife faces, most notably, the seemingly endless philandering of her husband and the subsequent results of her decision to stay by his side no matter what the cost. She has always shown that she is a true-blue woman in dealing with her private affairs with her husband by keeping her reactions out of the press and dealing with the problem privately whenever possible. This however, did not make her less of an equal in the eyes of her husband who gave her, at the time of his presidency, the voice to be heard in the political decision making process that is usually reserved for the vice president and attorney general. President Clinton had openly said during his presidency that he valued her opinion and she had influence on his administrative policies. Did she have to behave like a man to achieve that status in their relationship? No. Instead, she was the other voice that Clinton may or may not have heard from his political advisers. She was the voice of the women in the White House. Since they were a tag team in the White House during his presidency, it is expected that if Hillary makes it to the White House in 2008, Bill will then take on the role of adviser to the president just as Hillary did for him and in the process, they will continue to be mirror images of each other for the benefit of the country. This time, Bill will be voice of the men that Hillary listens to and considers. In conclusion, I would like to point out that some of the most notable names of political leaders in the 20th century have been women. Margaret Thatcher, Cory Aquino, and Indira Gandhi to name but a few. All are women who were not just political leaders but daughters, wives, and mothers as well. Women in the true sense of the word, but leaders in the world formerly dominated by men as well.