Compare and Contrast Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in politics

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Introduction

Compare and Contrast

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Thesis Statement

This paper looks at specific examples of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, two women who have attempted to negotiate the tricky waters of role and authority, and how the public reacted to their role and race performances (Nugent, 102-147).

Compare and Contrast

Hillary Clinton was an accomplished lawyer and partner in a wellknown law firm, graduate of prestigious Wellesley College and Yale Law School, first lady of Arkansas, law professor, and mother of one child in 1992 when her husband, Bill Clinton, announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Earlier, in 1975, when she married Bill Clinton in Arkansas, Hillary Rodham retained her own surname, a practice that was common among feminists of her age in order to avoid losing their identity and independence. Because of a chilly reception in Arkansas to her use of her birth name, presumably because she was too independent of her husband, she soon switched her name to Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Rodham graduated from law school in 1973, a time when women began to attend law school in significant numbers (Billias, 52-147). She was among the first generation of women to enjoy the benefits of the civil rights laws' guarantees of equal employment and educational opportunities for women. Despite the legal protections, “second wave” feminists like Hillary Clinton had to fight for equal rights in employment. Many women believed that they had to work harder than their male counterparts to earn respect. Because these women were path breakers at work, many downplayed their roles as mothers and wives and sexual partners.

These women performed their identities at work as efficient, hard workers because of the fear that colleagues would not take them seriously if they viewed them first as mothers and wives and second as professionals. While the second wave feminists matured during an era of more sexual freedom than their mothers, those who entered the professions performed their identities at work as asexual beings in order to avoid being treated as sexual objects by their male counterparts. Included in this asexual performance was work clothing that deemphasized their sexuality.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, the nation has known Sarah Palin for only a short time. When John McCain announced her as his running mate, the curiosity about Sarah Palin, a moose-hunting, conservative, forty-four year old woman who had served as Alaska's Governor for two years, was intense. Palin electrified the Republican Convention during her acceptance speech in which she consciously performed her role and class identities and walked a fine line between being assertive and masculine and retaining her femininity. She performed her female role by dressing in a feminine but professional way, wearing her hair long around her shoulders and by emphasizing her role as a mother of five children. She made deferential comments about her husband—that he was her “guy.” She acted as the supportive wife in praise of her running mate, John ...