Hell on Heels: Palin Misquotes Albright

At a rally on Saturday, Sarah Palin misquoted former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Palin said, "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't support other women." The correct citation is "There's a place in Hell reserved for women who don't help other women." Actually, Palin misquoted her Starbucks coffee cup where she said she had read Secretary Albright's famous statement on her "mocha cup" that morning.

The mistake is incredibly revealing. Right-wing women like Palin want the support of other women without having paid their dues. They are perfectly willing to reap what they have not sowed; they want to reap the benefits of the decades of work other women like Albright have done to make it possible for women to achieve, while they themselves have no track record of having been there for other women throughout their careers. Sisterhood is about women helping women achieve gender equality and equal justice. This isn't political help, it's making the connections among women that change society.

Secretary Albright, who served as Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, was not amused, either by the misquotation or by the candidate who uttered it. She released a statement that said, in part, "Though I am flattered that Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics. This is yet another example of McCain and Palin distorting the truth, and all the more reason to remember that this campaign is not about gender, it is about which candidate has an agenda that will improve the lives of all Americans, including women."

I believe the reason Secretary Albright noted there is a "special place in Hell" for "women who don't help other women" is that she (and I) believe in a just moral order, i.e. the punishment should fit the crime. When you leave other women to twist in the wind, then your punishment should be having the same happen to you. In this world and the next, hell means 'you're on your own.' Heaven, of course, is the opposite. Heaven means having a community that cares about you and helps you.

Sarah Palin doesn't have much of a record of helping women. A very revealing case in point is the recently released budget documents from Wasilla, Alaska, when Sarah Palin was mayor. The budget documents show a shift of the cost of rape kits from the police department's line to victims in her budget for FY 2000. Reports to CNN indicated that Palin "would review each department's budget line by line." What cannot be disputed is that under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had previously paid for these exams and began charging the victims or their health care providers anywhere from $500 to $1200.

That's not women helping women; that's women sabotaging women. Right wing women such as Palin are perfectly willing to take the gains of the women's movement without understanding the deep truth of what we have struggled for so long: women need to be there for each other, especially when others will not.

And doggone it, Sarah, you don't get that. Do ya?

By Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite  |  October 7, 2008; 2:27 PM ET
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