The Glass Ceiling

I was reading about how history was made recently when Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Pam Melroy greeted one another, each as commander of their own spacecraft. Whitson of the Space Station and Melroy of the Space Shuttle. Quite an accomplishment for both considering the shambles of the Lisa Nowak/Colleen Shipman debacle back in February!

It got me to thinking about women of accomplishment and the one thing that I find lacking in Hillary Clinton as she marches toward the Democratic Presidential nomination. Not that she isn't accomplished in her own right. To a degree. What I wonder, however, is where would she be if she hadn't had her husband's coat tails on which to ride. Her husband's supporters and organization and name recognition. Would she or could she be the front runner she is today?

Every one talks about the race card. She's playing the gender card. Just now Edwards and Obama are beginning to take her to task. Of course both are being hammered for it.

It brings my thoughts back to the forum last week at Maria Shriver's Conference on Women that featured five very formidable women; candidate's wives. Boy, would I love to see an Elizabeth Edwards or a Michelle Obama take on Hillary head to head. I bet the gloves would come off big time!

These women are also women of accomplishment. They among so many who have been hitting that glass ceiling hard for years now yet it has hasn't yet shattered. Not in this country anyway. The Presidency seems to me to be the ultimate goal. My question is do we want it shattered by a woman on her own merit, or one utilizing those proverbial coat tails. If she succeeds and the reality lacks substance, the shards that fall could be dangerous.