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Spain's New Defense Minister Is Pregnant
AP and AOL News ^ | 16 April 08 | DANIEL WOOLLS

Posted on 04/17/2008 5:11:56 AM PDT by SkyPilot

MADRID, Spain (April 16) - Here's an image Spaniards will not soon forget: their new defense minister, reviewing trim, crisply uniformed soldiers, with her baby bump on display.

Wearing a black pants suit and a white maternity blouse, Chacon reviews troops in Madrid on Monday after being sworn in as defense minister. She is one of nine women in Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Cabinet, compared to eight men.

The surprise appointment of Carme Chacon, age 37 and with no military experience, is the boldest statement yet from a Socialist government that has made gender equality one of its top priorities.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who won re-election in March, unveiled a Cabinet Monday that not only gives Spain its first female defense minister but also features nine women to eight men. That compares to a 50-50 split in his first term, when there were 16 ministers.

Carme Chacon is the first woman to serve as Spain's defense minister, and she's seven months pregnant. Critics say Chacon, 37, has no military experience. Supporters say the appointment demonstrates that not only can a woman hold a senior position in government or business, but she can do it while expecting a baby.

Photos of Chacon -- who is seven months pregnant -- reviewing the soldiers ran on the front page of seven national newspapers on Tuesday, and footage of the appearance dominated Spanish television. Her photo was also on the front page of the International Herald Tribune.

Although women's rights advocates have Chacon's appointment, some conservatives have raised objections. A group of retired officers criticized her lack of military background while insisting her pregnancy was not a problem.

Chacon is now one of the most visible members of a government that has enacted sweeping social legislation designed to rid traditionally male-dominated Spain of gender discrimination.

It legalized gay marriage, streamlined divorce procedures, forced political parties to field more female candidates and passed a law designed to promote women in the workplace and pressure companies to put more of them in their boardrooms.

Chacon, left, talks with two fellow Cabinet members outside the parliament building Wednesday. Zapatero's government has already made radical changes in traditionally male-dominated Spain. It legalized gay marriage, streamlined divorce procedures, and forced political parties to field more female candidates.

This time Zapatero even created a new department, the Equality Ministry, to press these goals. The portfolio went to a 31-year-old woman, Bibiana Aido.

Women's advocacy groups are delighted with the prime minister's choice of Chacon to oversee a military force that was not even open to women a generation ago. Now 15 percent of its 130,000 troops are women.

Feminists see a twin statement from the prime minister: Not only can a woman hold a senior position in government or business, but she can do it while expecting a baby.

"Perhaps the message is that even the highest responsibilities have to be compatible with the issue of individual and personal responsibility. That is the real political message behind this," said Marisa Soleto, vice president of a Madrid-based advocacy group called the Women's Foundation.

Chacon, who was housing minister in the last government, wore heels, a black pant suit and white maternity blouse as she reviewed troops Monday at a ceremony in which she officially took over her post. Her husband is Miguel Barroso, who in the past has worked in Zapatero's press office.

She called the troops to attention, ordered them to join her in saying "Long live Spain, long live the King," and gave a brief speech in which she said her appointment was a sign of progress.

"The fact that a woman is taking over responsibility for the Defense Ministry is proof of integration between Spanish society and its armed forces," Chacon said.

Spaniards are now wondering how the military will digest having a female boss.

A senior military official told the newspaper El Pais anonymously that "we receive her with the same respect as her predecessors, and with even more politeness."

The Association of the Spanish Military, made up of retirees, called Zapatero's decision a mistake -- not because of her pregnancy but because it feels she is too inexperienced.

The conservative newspaper El Mundo said it has no problem with seeing a female defense minister, but a pregnant one raises all kinds of concerns, such as whether she will take all of the 16 weeks of leave she is entitled to when the baby is born in June.

The combination of a crisis situation among Spanish peacekeepers in Afghanistan or Lebanon and a defense minister on maternity leave would leave Spain in an "absurd" situation, it said an editorial. Plus, Chacon has no knowledge of military affairs.

"All signs are that Zapatero is using the armed forces as a guinea pig for a provocative experiment," it said. "Time will tell if this is major progress or nonsense."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: defenseminister; europe; moralabsolutes; pregnant; spain; zapatero
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To: SkyPilot

The Gov of Alaska is expecting in a few weeks. Feminists do not seem to be part of the discussion.


41 posted on 04/17/2008 8:58:49 AM PDT by RightWhale (Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
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To: Cheburashka
Carme Chacón contrajo el 14 de diciembre de 2007 matrimonio con el periodista Miguel Barroso, ex secretario de Estado de Comunicación en la VIII Legislatura.

Doin' the math...headline should have read:

Defense Minister in Shotgun Wedding

42 posted on 04/17/2008 9:02:03 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Forget it...I'll never be able to pull the lever for McCain!)
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To: Tallguy
The "37 year old" part doesn't inspire a lot of confidence either...

Exactly. The long and short of it is that she is vastly under qualified to be Secretary of Defense for her nation.

43 posted on 04/17/2008 9:54:39 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I wasn't in church during the time when the statements were made.")
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To: Tallguy
The age does not worry me as in Europe and Britain we tend to have younger people in government than in the States but if she really does not have much experience that worries me.

Depends on what you call experience in some ways dependent upon how they run the department the only experience for a governmental official may be good organization and managing a budget they may leave the military bit to the military similar as to how we do in Britain. The defense minister overseas and implements the government policy but to a great extent how it is carried out is the job of the military chief of staffs etc.

44 posted on 04/17/2008 11:22:19 AM PDT by snugs ((An English Cheney Chick - Big Time))
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To: SkyPilot
This is Zapatero’s display of his contempt for the military.
I would like to see NATO disbanded. The Euros can then form their all girl, all gay army. Disgraceful.
45 posted on 04/17/2008 11:58:21 AM PDT by OeOeO
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To: snugs
The defense minister overseas and implements the government policy but to a great extent how it is carried out is the job of the military chief of staffs etc.

Hadn't considered that dimension. Thanks.

The problem is that, taken as a whole, she looks unqualified. Age, no prior military experience, an affirmative-action cabinet (9 Women vs. 8 Men) -- it all suggests that she is likely to be unqualified.

46 posted on 04/17/2008 12:05:26 PM PDT by Tallguy (Tagline is offline till something better comes along...)
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To: SkyPilot
What's more amazing is that a Spanish woman is actually having a baby. Their fertility rate is at like 0.00003/children per woman or something, isn't it?
47 posted on 04/17/2008 1:19:39 PM PDT by Antoninus (Tell us how you came to Barack?)
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To: Night Hides Not

Well, to pick nits, at the time of the wedding she was Minister of Housing, not Defense.

Of course now as Minister of Defense she has her pick of the shotguns, doesn’t she?


48 posted on 04/17/2008 2:41:14 PM PDT by Cheburashka (Liberalism: a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.)
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To: Cheburashka
Well, to pick nits, at the time of the wedding she was Minister of Housing, not Defense.

Thanks for picking that nit! Maybe Zapatero didn't like what she was putting in her house.

Typical bureaucrat...screw up, move up.

49 posted on 04/17/2008 3:00:07 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Forget it...I'll never be able to pull the lever for McCain!)
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To: Sci Fi Guy
"So does anyone know why she got the job? Forget female, forget pregnant, why is she qualified?

Like all Marxists/Lefists regimes, the current Spanish government hates traditional Spain and seeks complete societal change and upheaval. Look at the Spanish government and you'll see what the Democrat Party has in store for America. By tearing society apart and mocking its traditions and mores they hope to solidify their power permanently by changing the usually conservative mindset of the populace. Of course this woman is probably totally unqualified for the post she occupies. That's the whole point of her appointment. To mock and insult the traditional male ethos of Spanish society and its military.

50 posted on 04/17/2008 3:01:15 PM PDT by StormEye
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To: sr4402

Calling Maury...Maury Povich...you call on the white courtesy phone.


51 posted on 04/17/2008 3:07:11 PM PDT by johnnyd
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To: johnnyd

Calling Maury...Maury Povich...you have a call on the white courtesy phone.


52 posted on 04/17/2008 3:10:09 PM PDT by johnnyd
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To: StormEye

Well put, it’s a symbolic emasculating of the military.


53 posted on 04/17/2008 5:09:51 PM PDT by Clock King (Bring the noise!)
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To: SkyPilot

It is a way to insult the Spanish army and show that the Socialist government can do whatever it wants.


54 posted on 04/18/2008 5:15:49 AM PDT by J Aguilar (Veritas vos liberabit)
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