The Revolution (Yes, more on Sarah Palin)

I’ve been convinced for a long time that the one, true revolution in Western society in the last century has been the rise of female power.

Every other -ism and -ology — every other religious movement and political reform — has been seen before in one form or another.

The tides of human endeavor wash in and out and very little of substance changes.

But never in the known history of mankind have women aspired to and claimed co-equal power with men.

There have, of course, been “primitive” tribal matriarchies and realms ruled by queens.

But even in those societies men generally commanded the most powerful religious and economic institutions.

Except in small, fragile enclaves, women as a whole remained the property of men.

In much of the world, that structure remains firmly locked in place, particularly in parts of the world where traditionalist religions hold sway.

But in the West, women have broken out. They hold some of the highest positions of power.

At the grassroots level most are as free to determine their own fates as men.

It’s an astonishing event, a kind of massive social experiment that affects every aspect of our lives, from the way we reproduce and raise our children to the way we earn our livings.

And we have the great good fortune to experience it at first hand.

On the whole, it has been a powerful force for good, liberating the creative energies of half our population.

But the experiment is also remarkably new: In the US, women only gained the right to vote 87 years ago.

That means there are tens of thousands of women alive today born into a society where they were disenfranchised.

Title IX, which fostered the explosion of female athletics in America, was signed into law in the early 1970s.

Naturally, a lot of men (and yes, women) are still pretty uncomfortable with women who wield serious power.

Hillary Clinton was portrayed by the media as shrill and bitchy on the campaign trail. Journalists focused their cameras on Condie Rice’s thigh boots.

These days, Nancy Pelosi is caricatured as a botoxed ice queen. And Sarah Palin is lampooned as a ditzy poser.

In point of fact, they’re all revolutionaries.

Setting aside their particular political views and unique talents (or inadquacies), they represent a society in mid-transition.

It’s possible that Gov. Palin would flinch at the idea that she’s a feminist symbol, as well as a conservative icon.

But long after the current culture war is forgotten, historians will remember this era as the Age of the Woman.

Who knows? Palin might still emerge as one of the Founding Mothers.