Hooray for the Little Difference!

During the 1952 Presidential campaign, with Eisenhower certain to demolish Adlai Stevenson, my mom, an active Democrat, bought a record to play on our new high tech record player that plugged into our TV. This 45 rpm format had been introduced in 1949 and looked like a midget with a big mouth, being much smaller than the old 78s but with a huge spindle hole in the middle.

The recording artist was Sophie Tucker, the last of the Red Hot Mamas, and the song was “Sophie Tucker for President”. The thought that a woman would run for President could only be treated as a joke back then, and that is how Sophie presented it, with an undertone of not quite so remote possibility and with a little sexual innuendo. On the record, Sophie set out her campaign agenda to an all male audience and assured them that women were just as capable as men, naming specific capabilities, each of which was followed by a “hurray for [the capability]”from the audience. Sophie climaxed [pun intended] her speech by saying, “In fact, there’s very little difference between men and women”, to which one enthusiastic male then shouted, “hooray for the little difference” [sexual innuendo intended].

This post is prompted by the impending birth of my granddaughter, who will probably be born within a week. I wonder what changes will take place in our world and in America during her life. Her statistical life expectancy would take her to 2085, but good luck and healthy living could take her into the 22nd century. She has one great-grandmother still living, Marigold, who was born at a time when American women not only did not run for President, but were not even allowed to vote for the office. American women did have local voting rights in some States, with Washington State joining the list in 1910, but women’s suffrage was not guaranteed by the US Constitution until ratification of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, 85 years ago this Friday.

In 1979, the UN General Assembly adopted the "Treaty for the Rights of Women”, a comprehensive international bill of rights for women. Almost every nation on earth has ratified this treaty, except for such chauvinistic societies as Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Somalia - and – the United States of America.

Sophie was right, there is very little difference between men and women, at least politically. But her responder was also correct in celebrating the difference. Having children of each sex enables parents to see what the children have in common and also how they are different. But that is also true of children of the same sex. The real lesson of being a parent, or of being as observant of children as their parents are, is learning that every child of every parent is unique, including and apart from their sex. The variety of our individuality is one of the great joys of being alive. Welcome to the world, granddaughter, and Vive la difference!

[P.S. for political junkies. Check out this supposedly humorous post on the difference between Democrats and Republicans and Southerners at the Laugh at Liberals blog, especially the lively exchange of comments to the post.]