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Blog

Sarah Palin and Why All Women are Not Progressives

12/29/2010

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An essay by Dr. Judith L. Hand (2010)
PictureSarah Palin
In 2005, I established a website dedicated to abolishing war. Among a great many necessities, an important key element is to have empowered women as leaders and followers. Women, it is argued, are the natural allies of nonviolent conflict resolution, and leaving them on the sidelines in a campaign to entirely end the practice of war guarantees failure. Reading this or hearing me speak, insistent skeptics often throw out the challenge, “If women are allies of nonviolence, how do you explain Sarah Palin? And what’s with Ann Coulter?”

Years ago, when people were working, unsuccessfully as it turns out, to pass an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would guarantee to women the rights guaranteed to men, people often asked me, “How do you explain Phyllis Schlafly?” Schlafly fought hard to defeat the amendment; she was the poster-girl for keeping women in their traditional places and hampered by traditional limitations (although she did not actually practice what she preached, being extremely active outside the home).

PicturePhyllis Schafley
Rather than skeptical, the tone of the questions at that time tended to be puzzled: how to explain women like Schlafly who dug in their heels to prevent change, even change that would give their mothers, sisters, and daughters rights equal to those granted to men. The behavior of these women seemed so counterintuitive. Shouldn’t all women want women to have equal pay for equal work, equal ability buy stocks without a husband’s okay, equal access to the money available for sports programs in schools, and so on? Why should women have to fight every possible inequality one by one, with the ever-present possibility of loosing any given right should state legislators change their minds when an amendment could make sexual equality set law in all states for all time?

Back then I had a couple of answers, based mostly on personal experience, answers I still consider valid. In the years since, I’ve explored the subjects of social conflict, war, and male/female gender differences with respect to physical aggression. This produced a much clearer understanding of this seeming puzzle of women-as-conservatives phenomenon, even when it keeps them subordinate to men or leads them to support a president who wants to wage preemptive war. My answers now are more inclusive and based on biological, anthropological, and psychological studies.


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    ​About the Author

    Dr. Judith L. Hand. Dr. Hand earned her Ph.D. in biology from UCLA. Her studies included animal behavior and primatology. After completing a Smithsonian Post-doctoral Fellowship at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., she returned to UCLA as a research associate and lecturer. Her undergraduate major was in cultural anthropology. She worked as a technician in neurophysiology laboratories at UCLA and the Max Planck Institute, in Munich, Germany. As a student of animal communication, she is the author of several books and scientific papers on the subject of social conflict resolution.

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  • Home
  • Overview
    • Study Guide
    • The Single Most Important Idea
    • Mission Statement
    • War Is Not Inevitable keynote speech
    • Capstone Essay: "To Abolish War"
    • An Action Plan
    • The Nine Cornerstones
    • How Far We Have Already Come
    • The Secret Ingredient
    • The Vision Thing
    • How Long It Will Take
    • What You Can Do
    • The AFWW Logo Explained
    • Examples of War Expenses
    • Biological Differences
    • What Makes People Happy
  • Nine Cornerstones
    • Summary of the Nine Cornerstones
    • Embrace The Goal
    • Empower Women
    • Enlist Young Men
    • Ensure Essential Resources
    • Foster Connectedness
    • Promote Nonviolent Conflict Resolution
    • Provide Security and Order
    • Shift Our Economies
    • Spread Liberal Democracy
  • Videos
  • Books
    • A Future Without War: 2nd Edition
    • Shift: The Beginning of War, the Ending of War
    • War and Sex and Human Destiny
    • Women, Power, and the Biology of Peace
  • Blog
    • List of Blog Posts
  • More
    • Archived Blog
    • Map of Non-warring Cultures
    • Newsletters >
      • #44 Ending War Is Achievable
      • #43 A Global Peace System
      • #42 Women Rising!!
      • #41 Good News on Peace vs. Tragedy in Paris
      • #40 About AFWW and Shift
      • #39 Hague Conference and "Shift"
      • #38 Shift-Chapters 1-4
      • #37 Women and Ending War
      • #36 Four Notable Events
      • #35 Peace Systems and Opting out of War
      • #34 New book Shift on Kindle
      • #33 War Is Over - If You Want It
      • #32 Three Books and a TEDx Video
      • #31 An Ending-War Plan, Drones, Belfast
      • #30 Two Calls for Action
      • #29 Dismantling the War Machine
      • #28 Biology and Ending War
      • #27 Drone Warfare
      • #26 Ending War IS Possible
      • #25 Warmongers, Women, People & Change
      • #23 Special Edition - The Mutilation of Wonder Woman
      • #22 Special Edition: Film Launch
      • #21 Shaping our Destiny - Paradigm Shift
      • #20 Women on the Frontlines
      • #19 Media Favorites: Peace Movements Worldwide
      • #18 Capstone Essay
      • #17 AFWW, Sarah Palin, Origin of War, Empathy
      • #16 Women and Girls
      • #15 Abolishing Nuclear Weapons
      • #14 - Twitter, Ardi and more!
      • #13 Economics, Ending War, Building Lasting Peace
      • #12 - Nuclear Disarmament
      • #11 - Nonviolence: Powerful and Necessary
      • #10 - Economics and Social Transformation
      • #9 - Proof That Humans Can Live Without War
      • #8 - Changing History: The Next Big Shift
      • #7 Global Women Leaders Flex Security Muscles
      • #6 Economic Change
      • #5 Report: World Peace Conference
      • #4 AFWW Goes to a World Peace Conference
      • #3 Democracy in Action
      • #2 Seasons Greetings!
      • #1 A Newsletter for AFWW
  • About
    • About the Author
    • Movie Reviews >
      • Pray the Devil Back to Hell
      • A Force More Powerful
      • Iron Jawed Angels
      • Gandhi
      • Amazing Grace
      • Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan
    • Book Reviews >
      • Fry - Beyond War
      • Hrdy - Mothers and Others
      • Myers - Why Women Should Rule
      • Zak - The Moral Molecule
    • Speeches and Workshops
  • Related Projects
    • General & Miscellaneous
    • Empower Women
    • Enlist Young Men
    • Ensure Essential Resources
    • Foster Connectedness​
    • Promote Nonviolent Conflict Resolution
    • Provide Security and Order
    • Shift Our Economies
    • Spread Liberal Democracy
  • Contact