Men Aren’t From Mars, But Can We Send A Few of Them There?

Honestly, Hillary Clinton should just un-announce right now or productivity in this country is going to grind to a halt.

But hey, bright side, maybe this is how we get rid of Carly Fiorina! After all, the only math she can do is subtracting 30,000 from things, and even she tells people that she’s asked 314 more questions than Hillz. Or is it that she’s answered that many? Anyway, we all know that Hillary Clinton has never answered questions. Or has she?

I get confused easily, I guess, when it comes to questions, numbers, or questions about numbers. Be patient with me.

Because I’m a woman, and that makes me a special snowflake requiring a whole different approach, per the training Marc Ott, the taciturn, good-at-math, not inherently curious Austin City Manager offered up to the city’s staff:

The newly-elected 10-member City Council, plus the mayor, is the first majority female City Council in Austin’s history, with seven women and four men.

But apparently this represented such a huge change in governance that the city manager’s office thought the city staff who regularly interact with the City Council needed extra training – in the form of a two-hour training session in March with two speakers from Florida – on how to talk to a female-dominated City Council after decades of rule by men.

The first speaker was Jonathan K. Allen, who is a city manager of the relatively small Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. Allen is considered an expert in this field because his local city commission is all-female. His advice included:

Women ask lots of questions. He learned a valuable lesson on communicating with women from his 11-year-old daughter, who peppered him with questions while they were on the way to volleyball. “In a matter of 15 seconds, I got 10 questions that I had to patiently respond to,” Allen said. Allen says female City Council members are less likely to read agenda information and instead ask questions. He says it’s tempting to just tell them to read the packet, but “my daughter taught me the importance of being patient” even when they may already know the answer to the question.

…

Women are taking over, Hillary Clinton will only encourage this. Allen talked about the general trend of more women getting involved in government, citing stats of more female mayors, for instance. “You see women in leadership positions…you will have to interact with them in a different way,” Allen said. “I submit to you if Hillary Clinton just runs, just runs for the office, you are going to see even greater numbers in leadership position, if she wins, you will see even greater numbers starting at the bottom on top.” He warns the staff to play nice with people on advisory boards or commissions because you never know when they become the elected official.

You never know. We’re just sitting there, seemingly content to be on an advisory board, when suddenly, BAM, we’ve been elected to office. It is like we think we are equal players in this whole democracy thingy.

“Allen is considered an expert in this field because his local city commission is all-female.”

If working with five women establishes one as an expert, then I’m getting an agent to sign me up to be an expert and get flown in to testify all over the country about the things I know about women. After all, I am one every single day, and I know a whole bunch of other women, way more than four, and we spent a ton of time together. I’ve basically earned my Ph.D. in Women, but only because I didn’t have to take statistics as part of the program, and there wasn’t much reading.

This day was already shaping up to be awful. The Texas House of Representatives has put HB 3994 on the Major State Calendar, which is basically the expedited, we’re going to really make sure we pass this damn bill today calendar. The quick reminder (go here for the gory details) of why this bill is singularly hateful and harmful:

This bill greatly complicates, unnecessarily lengthens, and greatly increases the cost of the bypass procedure while removing almost all judicial discretion and creating such a high burden of proof for the minor that it will be all but impossible to obtain a bypass. It is the Voter ID of abortion access. It also puts a target square on the back of judges who hear these cases by requiring more strict records be kept than are legally necessary. 

When it comes to official business, either at the State of Texas or City of Austin, women are treated with a fundamental lack of respect, whether over how to control their bodies, who they can or can’t marry, and how they behave while governing, and it has got to stop.

 

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