Yes! Janet Yellen Will Be First Female Fed Chair. How Long til We Can Stop Talking About Her Gender?
By Hanna Rosin
Later today, President Obama will nominate Janet Yellen to be the head of the Federal Reserve. If all goes as planned, we will soon forget about the fact that she is a woman. Stories about the first female head of a major central bank will die down. Instead, much as happened with Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton as Secretaries of State, we will start debating her policies, her interest rate decisions, her inflation targets, her easy money programs. We will move one step closer to not having to discuss or even think much about the fact that the person deciding our monetary policy wears lipstick sometimes.
But before that happens, let’s pause and consider the case of Janet Yellen’s rise, because it is a perfect example of how in this age of growing female power, gender matters both a lot and not at all.
In the early days of the search for a new Fed Chair, people in the Obama administration were exhibiting what you could call a lazy, reflexive sexism. In July, Ezra Klein reported on the condescending nature of its subtle whisper campaign against Yellen:
She lacks “toughness.” She’s short on “gravitas.” Too “soft-spoken” or “passive.” Some mused that she is not as aggressively brilliant or intellectually probing as other candidates—though they hasten to say she’s clearly very knowledgeable about monetary policy. Others have wondered whether she could handle the inevitable fights with Congress.
full article
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/10/09/janet_yellen_will_be_first_female_fed_chair_how_long_until_we_can_stop_talking.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content
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... just as often as men.
There are still many FIRSTS to be reached - and each one of them will be historic news.
