‘Man power’

Taken from a Sept. 23 audio recording on prisonradio.org.

It has been over a generation since the U.S. Senate hearings on the sexual harassment charges of a law professor, Anita Hill, against then judge, now Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas.

A lot has changed since then.

Or has it?

The French have a saying, “Plus ca change,” or “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The charges now poised against a sitting judge, and possible justice, Brett Kavanaugh, by a psychology professor, Dr. Christine B. Ford, of sexual assault over 30 years ago, show us that things have changed very little.

For power remains a mostly male prerogative, and women, unless they act as man-like as possible, are, more often than not, treated like children: seen and not heard.

For at the nexus between law and power lies the courts, one of the last, mighty bastions of male power.

The remarkable #Me Too movement may have enormous power in the realm of culture (think Hollywood), but law remains a largely (white) male preserve.

Still.

Women, the majority of the U.S. population, are not the majority of political leaders, don’t earn the highest incomes and aren’t paid wages equal to men.

In other words, their power is quite limited.

They are, however, the highest number of law students in the country, so that day is coming when they will dominate the field.

But not today.

Man power still reigns in politics and law, and unless I miss my guess, in the next few days, we shall see Brett Kavanaugh don the dark robe of a junior justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.