Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ON WEDNESDAY MORNING there was a message on my phone.
“Don’t check the news when you wake up,” it said.
“Honestly, it’s easier.”
I switch on the radio. A preening Trump is making his acceptance speech. Tears fall into my morning coffee.
It wasn’t meant to be like this.
I am the youngest and only daughter in a family of four children. Raised by two forward-thinking liberals, I had been taught that I could do anything my brothers could. That being female was not a hindrance but a strength. That sexism could always be overcome by simply being better. By working harder.
On that morning, for the first time in my life, I started to doubt if that was true.
As a naive young student, I once announced we lived in ‘a post-feminist world’.
Thanks to our mothers and the burning-bra generation of the 60′s and 70′s we no longer had to be constrained by glass ceilings and gender pay-gaps and the ‘tyranny’ of biology.
We just needed to BELIEVE in ourselves.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is the great emblem of that generation. In 2008, in her own words she put ’18 million cracks in the glass ceiling’.
In 2016, on being awarded the democratic nomination she proudly proclaimed “ when there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit”.
But on 8 November 2016 , the American electorate said a firm ‘No’. The people decided that even a racist, misogynist liar was preferable to a female president. Never mind policy, forget about morals, as long as it’s Mr President, we’ll be OK.
Logic would dictate that in this time of of global political and economic uncertainty that the people would seek a steady hand to steer the ship. But, rather than making her appealing, Hillary’s years of public service, the lifetime of social activism and her resilience in the face of family crisis, made her untrustworthy in the eyes of the American public.
Through the course of this election, as women we endured a lot. I shuddered at every mention of ‘crooked Hillary’. When her opponent spat ‘nasty woman’ at her, I yelped in indignation. But never did I lose faith that the right candidate would be returned. I believed that good would always win out over evil. I trusted democracy.
Only in the last few days of the race did my confidence begin to fade. Soundbite after soundbite had ordinary people on the streets of America saying they simply did not trust Hillary Clinton. Not one – that I heard – could say why.
Exit polls show that for every two white women that voted for Ms Clinton, three voted for Mr Trump. It was a dark day for feminism.
A visibly wounded but dignified Hillary took to the stage late Wednesday afternoon. In her long-awaited concession speech she attempted to offer us a glimmer of hope.
“I know that we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling but someday someone will and hopefully it will be sooner than we might think right now,” she said.
But what do we do for now?
We do what women have been doing for generations. We cope. We get up, we get dressed and we keep our heads held high. The fight is not over. It’s just beginning.
Michelle for President 2020. I’m with her.
Emily McManus is a doctor and freelance writer.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The things people get compo for and then there’s this! Just give them the money and let them have a bit of comfort fgs
@Patricia Ellis Dunne: Yes, these women do deserve compensation. Last week a survivor of clerical abuse was hospitalized after going on hunger strike in protest at the trauma inflicted on survivors by Caranua, the state redress authority. When are FF-FG going to start to treat these people as decently as they claim to treat them when they’re giving speeches in the Dail?
Wouldn’t be like the State to do something like that at all now would it!? Sometimes I really really dislike this country.
@Arnold Alley: I can’t disagree with that, I really meant Official Ireland to be honest
How thoroughly Christian of them.
And the church’s marketing team has just pulled off ‘Red Wednesday’ where cathedrals around the world are lit up in red in aid of “justice and victims of suffering”. Practice what ye preach ye hollow, defunct crowd of hypocrites.
Rants McCrank:The decisions to deny redress was done by the organs of our State in our name ,we are all responsible.
@Brian O Reilly: no we are not all responsible. I did not abuse or ill treat anyone and I don’t see why me and my children, through borrowed money for compensation, should have to pay. Your decision and opinion to centralize the liability for all wrongdoing to all citizens is a dream for the legal profession.
@Ranty McCrank: Its a pity the fathers can’t be found and the pensions/estates used to fund this. Remember when lovely auld Johnny dies and leaves the house to Mary & Paddy but unknown to them Jimmy is being denied a share.
@lavbeer: Presumably he would have a will leaving it to who he wants.
So 27 people would get on average a € 82,000 payout,which = 2.214 m
Around 2 million Irish people are paying taxes
That means it will cost me about €1
I’m livid at that loss..How will I cope!!
@Francis Mc Carthy: That’s for this incident alone and 27 people. They are all adding up and increasing in payment amount. If the 1 in 4 stat for abuse is true then 1.25 million people could claim for “redress”. That is €102 billion. Indeed how will we cope. We truly are a failed state with no true leadership. All divided and fighting for scraps.
So who will be Who’s redressing them? Dumped in the taxpayer again? Decisions like this to garner votes from lobby groups may please those members but the working people remember the politicians that are making innocent workers financially liable for the grave misconduct of others.
Why can’t the state sue the Vatican. To get the compensation money back? The way it is. it’s the taxpayer paying the compo!
The DJE is an appallingly bad and oppressive Government Department. It is a law unto itself.
Kudos to the Ombudsman for standing up to Fine Gael on this one.
Stop the prevarication and cough up the dough.
That’s what happens when you combine corruption, nepotism, cronyism, ineptitude and a blatant lack of any kind of morals or dignity!
Shameless crooks running the Banana Republic of Ireland but people care more about the soccer team getting hammered by the Danes!
Its kind of hilarious these days the way women come out with these #metoo stories about how a man grab their arse or tits and the whole world cries for them while the mans career is ruined. meanwhile people have been screaming from the roof tops for decades about the abuse the catholic church carried out in this country and there’s hardly a word about it and 0 justice
@Alfred Pennyworth:
Just do not forget that many a woman’s life was ruined because the fathers of their children abandoned them and that is why they ended up in these awful Laundries. It is the State that is now denying these women the compensation that they deserve to get without delay so they can at least feel that their suffering will be recognized. But no the State could not wait to give the Banks who ruined the country Shedloads of money but they make the women beg for the crumbs .
Flannagan reminds me of Noonan when he dragged dying people into court in the attempt to save the state money and cover up a deadly mess in the blood transfusion scandal.
@Donal Desmond: this happened long before Flanagan became Minister. Get a grip. It’s a review of an administrative scheme.
have your say