{"id":8865,"date":"2020-08-02T12:50:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T16:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/?p=8865"},"modified":"2020-10-23T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T18:33:03","slug":"women-leaders-and-the-b-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitydc.edu\/president\/2020\/08\/women-leaders-and-the-b-word\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Leaders and the “B” Word"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"(photo credit<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Aggressive. Loud. Opinionated. Bossy.\u00a0 And that other “B” word… “b***h”…<\/p>\n

Oh, sure, I’ve been called my share of names including THAT one… it’s an occupational hazard for women leaders.\u00a0 Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-NY) is the latest woman leader to hear the words, and she took the extraordinary step of calling them out on the floor of the United States House of Representatives:\u00a0 “disgusting, crazy, out of my mind, dangerous…. rude…” and a “F*****g b***h”\u00a0 Another member of Congress, Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL), allegedly used those words in reference to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.\u00a0 He then offered an “apology” that was anything but.\u00a0 So, the Congresswoman took to the House Floor to address the issue.\u00a0 Like so many of us, she’s heard it all before, and she said so as she delivered a powerful speech calling out the misogyny and violence that tolerates profound disrespect for women and women leaders.\u00a0 “Dehumanizing language is not new,” she said of the “pattern of dehumanizing women and others…” through name-calling.\u00a0 She went on, in reference to Congressman Yoho’s defense that he has a wife and daughters so could not be a misogynist,\u00a0 “Having wives and daughters cannot be a shield or excuse for poor behavior…” and “…. having a daughter does not make a man decent… Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man.”\u00a0\u00a0 She went on:\u00a0 “My mother did not raise me to accept abuse from men.”\u00a0 She said that the incident demonstrates how powerful men give other men permission to demean women.\u00a0 “That is not acceptable!” declared the Congresswoman.\u00a0 Watch Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s full remarks on the House floor:<\/p>\n