In praise of women

Well, it seems the governor is still up to his same old tricks, discriminating against women.

The most recent appointments I checked were 34 men and 7 women. That’s about 80 percent men, which is about par for our governor. And yes, I believe the governor is discriminating as surely as George Wallace was when he stood in the doorway preventing black students from entering Old Miss.

Discrimination that happened in the 1960s makes us shake our heads as we remember, seemingly far away from the attitudes we have today. I believe, that 40 years from now, the likelihood of a governor appointing 70 percent to 80 percent men to commissions and boards will be about as unlikely as another George Wallace-type standing in the doorway to prevent black students from attending class.

Yes, there will be a day in the future when there won’t be an all male board or commission in the state, and most of them will have a lot more than a token woman. But let’s look at the present. I’m sure the governor bristles when I compare him to George Wallace, but unless the governor can convince me that he can’t find a qualified woman, he is practicing discrimination.

Yes, I know gender discrimination isn’t the hottest topic on the table, and there are some who think the problem is overrated in the United States. After all, we do have a few women as CEOs, governors, and in other important positions. So let’s compare the good old U.S.A. with the rest of the world and see where we stand on gender equality. Iceland, Finland and Norway top the list and Yemen holds down the bottom. And the U.S.A.? We are 23rd, right behind Burundi, which is 22nd, and way behind the Philippines, which is 5th.

So, we do have a problem, and anyone who denies it should just look at the figures. Beyoncé was recently quoted as saying, “We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet.”

As an example, let’s look at the United Nations. Only 17 percent of the staff and delegates are women. Yes, it’s a worldwide problem but, while we can’t fix the world, we can do some “fixing” right here in Arkansas. After all, according to the Huffington Post, Arkansas ranks 49th in women who hold leadership status, which would be equivalent to commission and board positions.

It seems to me that if you take our state rank and put it in a worldwide view, then the state of Arkansas is going to be ranked a lot lower than the miserable 23th worldwide position the U.S.A. now holds. We’re not down to Yemen, but we’re doing a sorry job in reaching gender equality.

But the governor is on his way out and this little commentary isn’t going to change the leopard’s spots. So instead of hounding the governor, let’s focus on the candidates running for governor in the forthcoming election. That’s right; instead of hearing their pie-in the-sky promises, which we know probably won’t be kept, let’s hear from the candidates on specifics, which won’t require anyone to act but themselves.

These are the commitments I would like the candidates for governor to make:

(1) Commit to gender balance on the commissions in the state by making a real and visible effort to find and appoint qualified women to the more than 300 state commissions and boards.

(2) Specifically, to appoint a woman to the next vacancy on the Highway Commission, the Game and Fish Commission, and the commission over the Department of Environmental Quality.

Ican just see our candidates for governor doing the old Texas two-step, saying, “I’ll appoint a woman to any board as long as she is the most qualified candidate.”

Now, folks, if you really believe our governor or any governor appoints solely on the basis of the best candidate for the job, you just need to interview a few of the thousands of board members from around the state, and if you still believe that, you should join the Flat Earth Society.

So when you see one of the candidates for governor, ask the question-preferably in front of a live mic or TV camera: “If you are elected, will you commit to appoint a woman to the Game and Fish Commission, the Highway Commission, and the Department of Environmental Quality’s board?”

Someone asked me why I continue to hammer about gender equality. Let me use this example: It’s like walking up to an apple tree and, after spotting an especially good-looking apple toward the top, you begin to shake the tree.

Well, I am going to shake the discrimination tree until discrimination against women falls out of the tree.

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Richard Mason is president of Gibraltar Energy Co., and a former president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation. He lives in El Dorado.