Posted on 06/02/2006 5:19:42 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
NEW YORK - Like so many women, Suzanne Holstein, a schoolteacher and mother of two, has had her struggles balancing motherhood and career. So she was sympathetic when she heard that ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas, a woman she admires, was stepping down from her prestigious evening-news perch to focus on her growing family.
And yet, like many women across the country, Holstein is not only a little disappointed by Vargas' move, but a little suspicious.
"I can't believe that a woman who's worked so hard to get where she is would just resign like that," says Holstein, 39. "I think they pushed her out."
Empathy, respect, disappointment, suspicion: women seem to be expressing all those emotions when they discuss Vargas, co-anchor of "World News Tonight" until this week, when she was replaced by Charles Gibson.
If she was pushed aside — and she denies it — it's troubling, they say. If she wasn't, it's even more troubling to some, who see it as a reminder of just how difficult it is to "have it all" — even when you have as much going for you as she does.
Vargas, 43, is hardly a household name like Katie Couric, whose ascension to the sole anchor chair at CBS was hailed by many as a breakthrough for women when it was announced in April. Yet when Vargas was named ABC co-anchor along with Bob Woodruff last December, she immediately became one of the most visible women in America.
Only weeks later, Woodruff was gravely wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, forcing Vargas to go solo. The following month, she announced her pregnancy, which she says was unexpected. With ratings falling, she was permanently replaced on the evening news this week by the 63-year-old Gibson. (She'll return from maternity leave to co-anchor "20/20.")
Vargas said she'd felt no pressure from above to step down, but did so for the good of her family. "Every woman has the right to make that decision for herself and her family without anybody judging it," she told The Associated Press at the time.
Feminist groups say Vargas is just being publicly graceful about what was really her abrupt removal from the job.
"We see it as a demotion," says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and one of the country's most recognizable feminists. "We're worried. Is this a return to the days when it was tougher for women to get ahead?"
Smeal was one of three feminist leaders to sign a letter this week to the heads of ABC, asking them to reinstate Vargas.
"This clear demotion signals a dispiriting return to the days of discrimination against women that we thought were behind us," said the letter. It asked the network to find a work schedule that would allow Vargas to be both a dedicated mother and a dedicated journalist — and even brought a little show business into the equation, decrying ABC's cancellation of "Commander in Chief," starring Geena Davis as the first woman president.
"You have now managed to eliminate two of the country's most visible women role models," said the letter, also signed by Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, and Susan Scanlan, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations.
Certainly, there are those who believe that Vargas' move was a personal choice and nothing more.
"I would take her at her word," says Christina Hoff Sommers, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, whose writings are often critical of feminist groups. "By now there are so many prominent women out there. Women have never been doing better."
But whether Vargas was forced out may not be the real issue, says Geneva Overholser, a former ombudsman for The Washington Post.
"Whether it was her choice or not, she certainly speaks the truth — it's HARD to make it work," says Overholser of the mommy-work conundrum. Two decades ago, when faced with the possibility of a big new job, Overholser passed it up, she says — like Vargas, she had one child and was pregnant with another. "I felt I couldn't do it," she said. Later, she became editor of The Des Moines Register, and as it turns out, "I know I was a much better editor because I was a mother."
The message to take from the Vargas story, says Overholser, now at the Washington bureau of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is that while some women manage to combine work and parenthood well, "we mustn't ever think it's easy. And yet, we must never think it's impossible."
Holstein, the Maryland schoolteacher, knows very well that it's not easy. About a year ago, her husband, an engineering consultant, was working in Iraq and her older daughter was having a rough adjustment to high school. Her daughter needed her; the balance wasn't working. And so she took a year's leave of absence to be with her child. She returned to her job a few months ago.
What she's learned, she says, is that you simply can't have it all. "You can't have the perfect marriage, home, children and career, AND be happy," she says. "Something's gotta give."
For Jackie Spooner Wilhoit, a mother of two boys in Hilton Head, S.C., the balancing act works, but only because she has carefully honed it over the years, she says. An interior designer, she works for herself, and so is able to make the baseball games or the school plays. She's been known to bring her boys with her when she sees clients or works out at the gym.
As for Vargas — whom she thinks is terrific — she doesn't want to judge her move.
"I do find it disappointing, if it's the network that made the decision," says Wilhoit, 47. "But if it was her, well, sometimes you don't know how you're going to feel until you're in the situation.
"Here she is at the pinnacle of her career," Wilhoit says, "but she's also at an incredible point in terms of her children. And maybe she's decided, 'Gosh, I made it. But you know what? My kids need me.'"
Someone please call the Whaaaaaaaaaambulance!!!
I don't need to have the news spoonfed to me, thank you.
I thought Vargas was doing a good job. Now that she's gone, I haven't been watching the news (just like before she debuted).
I watched one of her last broadcasts.....she tripped up three times reading the tele-prompter. I thought, there has to be someone who can read better than that on-screen.
The truth is probably in the viewership numbers.
Vargas probably wasn't delivering the needed numbers. Otherwise, ABC would have no reason to replace her.
Could it be that her replacement isn't as cute? ;)
"We see it as a demotion," says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and one of the country's most recognizable feminists. "We're worried. Is this a return to the days when it was tougher for women to get ahead?"
I think that is the sickest thing I have heard in a long time. Seriously. And, trust me, I read a lot of crazy stuff from liberals and crazies on FREEPERS through articles posted.
I figure that if it's important, some FReepers will start about 5 threads on the subject, all with different titles, and I'll read it along with interesting and sarcastic running commentary. I only watch local news on the TV.
""I think they pushed her out."
Duh. And why not? She had the lowest ratings in nightly news.
Who is Elizabeth Vargas?
What's Google?
The uber feminists can't understand or accept that. They look upon it as a betrayal to their cause. They act as if Vargas 'owes' them. To them, family/children is a chore - not a career.* They can't conceive of anyone wanting/choosing family first...even when the person says so themselves. Pathetic.
It's akin to blacks who decide they can rise above 'the reservation' that the demonRats want to keep them on.
Let a woman choose motherhood/family first or a black get uppity, especially if they are republican, and they are crucified by the socialists who have the mentality that somehow these persons have 'betrayed the cause." (Individualism is an anathema to socialists)
*
This notion is part of the school latent imprinting. I have some of the books 'given' to the public schools by Family Planning(this way, the books as not officially part of the "curriculum' and parents never see them) that teach Jr. High age girls such things as thinking about what you want to be, and what careers, when you grow up. It adds that "marriage does not count" - they are impressed with the 'facts' that babies are not all fun but mostly messy, crying things that interfere with your life. The boys are taught "never let a woman/wife tell you that you should be responsible for the bills while she stays home. She should be responsible for 50% of all bills"
Kids at that age, without a clue of what being married or being parents entail, think "yeah." then they forget the 'lessons' but when they grown up , those 'lessons' are still in the head.
The schools are turning out good little socialists. But some are reverting and that is driving the socialists wild.
FMCDH(BITS)
IIRC, Rush talked about this story a couple of days ago and played a song called "Born to Be Hurt" by Sandy Posey. I think it was in connection to Smeal's quote. It was incredibly funny.
Oh, I thought it was THE Vargas girl. :)
:O)
P
Google is something people do with their eyes.
I think that girl likes geography.
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