Sonia Sotomayor Quits All-Female Club

2 years ago

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So this is an interesting development that needs to be noted in Woman Up: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor realized that belonging to a women-only club is a political liability, no matter what her reasons for joining in the first place. So on Friday, 6:58 p.m. Eastern time, the White House e-mail landed in my BlackBerry with the news that Sotomayor quit the women-only Belizean Grove club.

"I am writing to inform you that I have resigned from the Belizean Grove, effective today. I believe that the Belizean Grove does not practice invidious discrimination and my membership did not violate the Judicial Code of Ethics, but I do not want questions about this to distract anyone from my qualifications and record," Sotomayor wrote in a one paragraph letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican.

The Belizean Grove was created as a female counter to the all-male Bohemian Club in California.

The mission statement of the Belizean Grove Club, headquartered in New York, says it is

"a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, non-profit and social sectors; who build long term mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same."

The resignation deprives Republicans from some fodder. And the resignation won't end talk show chatter, but will deny some senator the excuse of not voting for Sotomayor on the grounds she belongs to an exclusionary club. Men in public life wanting to advance almost always get in trouble for belonging to all-male clubs and are often pressured to quit.

She made the right political call.

Check out Woman Upper Janet Battalle's analysis of the Sotomayor record.

Filed Under: Woman Up, The Daily FLOTUS with Lynn Sweet

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