Chronic inequality fosters mistreatment of women
It’s not Charlie Rose parading naked in front of young female employees, or Rep. John Conyers firing a woman who wouldn’t have sex with him, or Roy Moore in his 30s cruising the mall for teenage girls that should be at the top of the American outrage list — disgusting as all those alleged actions are.
The real issue we need to deal with is the overarching, fundamental absence of equality for women in America.
Just like African Americans, women started from the back of the pack when this country was founded. For more than a century, they couldn’t vote. In most states, they couldn’t serve on juries. Into the 1970s, they could be barred from getting a credit card without a male co-signer. It was only recently that the
barrier keeping them from combat duty fell.
So there’s a solid underpinning of societal discrimination behind the thousand indignities, little and big, that women have to deal with to this day. The shortage of women running the show, the pay inequities, the unequal distribution of child-raising responsibilities — America has come by these things not by accident, but by design.
And now here comes Charlie Rose, stepping out of the shower.
He and all the other men whose “missteps” — Pixar co-founder John Lasseter’s word — are suddenly front-page news were no surprise to the women being victimized down through the years. What’s different now is that they aren’t keeping it to themselves or telling only their close friends. Not just the abuse, but the discriminatory structure it’s attached to, is suddenly being discussed in churches, schools, social clubs and neighborhood organizations.
During the civil rights movement, there came a time when it was no longer OK just to frown on George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door or Bull Connor aiming his fire hoses at black people. There had to be institutional change and a societal mind shift. The fact that we now have a president who sees good people in a neo-Nazi demonstration and goes out of his way to pick fights with black athletes shows the work isn’t done. But the fact that there are people who call him out on those things shows we’ve made headway.
Likewise, if all that results from the flood of recent revelations is Charlie Rose losing his morning gig on CBS and Al Franken going before a Senate ethics hearing — even if Harvey Weinstein is hauled before a jury — we won’t have addressed the underlying problems that keep women subordinate.
What the #metoo movement has done is lay down a demand — that men make a mind shift away from the attitude that women can be accommodated only to the extent that it doesn’t inconvenience other men.
If we don’t respond with institutional and societal change, we’ll be missing the point.
Just don’t say “no”: One of the toughest things for any elected official is turning down a request from a constituent or a supporter, because you never, ever want to outright say “no.”
I thought I was a master of handling such situations with a word or a nod, but I met my match the other day in Acquanetta Warren, mayor of Fontana (San Bernardino County).
We were talking after attending the funeral of former Los Angeles City Councilman David Cunningham and got to the art of saying “no.”
“I end the conversation by telling them, ‘I must turn you down, but you will be satisfied with the result,’ ” Warren said.
Now that is a polite way for a politician to keep you in limbo.
Up on the roof: Openair rooftop bars are becoming all the rage in boutique hotels. The latest addition to the top view cocktail scene is the Proper Hotel.
Located atop the historic triangle building at McAllister, Market and Seventh streets, it offers great views of City Hall, Market and that ugly Federal Building on Mission Street that Nancy Pelosi and I helped get built.
The drink prices are not bad, and the table heaters and glass wind wall keep you from freezing to death.
What’s so interesting about these new rooftop spaces is that they’re high enough up to put you above all the street life, but still low enough to make you feel like you’re in the middle of the city. Hot ticket: Seth Meyers, the “Late Night” comedian who memorably joined then-President Barack Obama in shredding Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011, showed up at the Masonic Auditorium the other night.
It was the first clean comedy show I’ve seen in a long, long time. Next time Meyers comes to town, he’s worth checking out.
Shameless plug: This year’s Chronicle’s auto show at the Moscone Center is simply the best, and I should know, because I’ve been to them all.
Sunday is the last day, so if you’re so inclined, beat it on down before closing time at 8 p.m.