Presidents
Obama and Komorowski in Warsaw, May 27.
The
question for at least one Polish journalist is: Where
where
all the women?
Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland
On Obama's Visit, Dresses
are Lost in a Sea of Suits
"For
a discussion on TVN24 about how can we can benefit from Obama's visit, the female host only invited people wearing suits. Apparently, in her
opinion, those wearing dresses have nothing interesting to say. … Former U.S. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright used to retort: 'There is a special place in hell for
women who don't help other women.'"
On television, Obama is
constantly surrounded by men in suits. On Sunday, the American president had
dinner with leaders of other countries, mostly presidents: Viktor Yanukovych of
Ukraine, Danilo Türk
of Slovenia, Václav
Klaus of the Czech Republic, and so on - a dozen or so male representatives.
And among them there were only two females: Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga and Lithuania
President Dalia Grybauskaitė.
Where are the women? For the
moment, they had left the carrying arms of their husbands. Michelle Obama flew
straight from France to the U.S. to deal with their daughters (they have final
exams at school), and the wives of European leaders were invited by Mrs. Komorowska
for a walk in Zelazowa
Wola, the hometown of Frederic
Chopin.
Today, President Obama is
scheduled to meet with Polish politicians. I've noticed two dresses among the
crowd of suits. They belonged to Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz
and leader of the Poland Comes First Party, Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska.
And at some point, journalist Agnieszka
Romaszewska flashed before my eyes. There must be more, but they appear to
have been out of reach of the cameras.
In today's issue of Rzeczpospolita,
we read information having little to do with Obama but a lot to do with women:
the president of Polish TVP Channel 1 dismissed Katarzyna Trzaskalska,
host of the news program Teleekspress. Just two weeks ago, Trzaskalska gave
birth to a child, and today she's out of work. According to her bossGeorge Modlinger, she was
dismissed for reasons of substance. What the reasons are he didn't say, but
according to chief editor at TVP Channel 1 Iwona Schymalla, who was appalled
by what happened, Trzaskalska was no worse a host than any of her colleagues on
the program, such as Mr. Orlos, for example.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
After the tremendous scandal
that erupted, Trzaskalska will likely return to work. But the problem of women
in Poland remains unaddressed. Women aren't offered positions or are dismissed
just because they're mothers, have just become mothers or may become mothers. This
is contrary to both law and decency.
In a few days, we'll celebrate
National Children's Day. In the most recent issue of Wysokie Obcasy, the
supplement of Gazeta Wyborcza, there is a drawing that's supposed to
picture a conversation between two women. The younger one says joyfully, “Just
look at all of nature that surrounds us. Look at how everything is blooming
and growing. And it's all happening today, on Children's Day.” The older one
says: “How can I be happy if thousands of Polish women are unable to exercise
their rights? …”
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
I didn't laugh, either. For a
discussion on TVN24 about how we can benefit from Obama's visit, the female host only invited people in suits. Apparently, in her
opinion, those wearing dresses have nothing interesting to say.
Madeleine Albright, the
former American secretary of state used to retort: “There is a special place in
hell for women who don't help other women.”
