Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Go Tell a Woman to Run

*By Virginia Phillips, Smith College '07 and Kristen Zearfoss, American University '07, Summer Interns 2005 with the _Women Under Forty Political Action Committee_* In a country where we tell little girls that they can be anything that they want to be, how do we explain that there has yet to be a woman president? Do we start by attempting to explain the vicious cycle women encounter when trying to enter positions of power? Now imagine looking into the same little girl's eyes when you tell her to take a look around her classroom and know that she'll earn 23% less money than her male counterparts for the same work. Women have yet to make a significant impact in the upper echelon of politics. Yes, Nancy Pelosi is the House Minority leader. Yes, Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg served on the Supreme Court, and yes, Condoleezza Rice is now the Secretary of State. Subtract the token figureheads, however, and you're left with women as only 14% of the United States Congress. *Family Obligations Leave Women Little Time for Politics* Patterns still tend towards women raising families. Almost all male members of Congress with children have a wife who keeps the home fires burning. Similarly, this trend continues within the business realm. Of all the Fortune 500 companies, only two have women CEO's. Because women often put aside their political aspirations to devote their time to their families, when they enter politics, incumbent men, who have not done the same, are unavoidably and undeniably a few rungs higher on the ladder. This makes the men more eligible for chair and committee appointments based simply on a resume that they were most likely able to create with the help of a devoted wife. With social norms not giving women the luxury of a "stay at home" dad, it is unusual for women to achieve the same seniority and advantages of men at a comparable age. As a result, women's issues are not given significant attention. So starts the vicious cycle of young women's passivity within politics. Young women see volunteering with a soup kitchen or other charities as a much more valuable investment than political involvement. With their lack of involvement ranging from volunteering on a campaign, donating money to candidates, or the most significant contribution a young woman could give of running for office herself, the entrenched bureaucracy of an old white male congress will continue. *It Takes Money to Win* This ties back to the vicious cycle, starting with money. The cold, hard fact is that women give less. Whether this is because women have become apathetic as a result of seeing very few women in Congress, and even fewer young women in Congress, and therefore feel disenfranchised, or women simply harbor less of an interest in politics, women support political candidates far less than men do. As Molly Ivins wrote in her column, On the Highwire, "The problem for women candidates is that we can't raise money as well as men do. And all of those hoary old cliches-- money is the mother's milk of politics, etc. are true, true, true. We don't have the same networks. We don't have the same entree. When a person announces he/she is going to run for any political office the press always asks the same question: 'Is he/she serious?' What that means is, 'Can the candidate get money?' It's always the first and often the only question. Serious means money." Breaking the cycle has been, and is sure to continue to be arduous work. Only when women begin to run for office in increasing numbers, and become visible to the public eye, will the masses become desensitized to political societal norms and begin to be more financially supportive. Fundraising is a pesky obstacle that women are working to conquer in order to gain respect and credibility as candidates. There are some groups, such as Emily's List, WUFPAC, the Women's Campaign Fund and WISH List that work to help women overcome the financial challenges they face, along with providing candidate training programs to teach women how to run. Unfortunately, even with this help, women are still greatly disadvantaged financially, making it the most important problem that women interested in running for public office must face. In the eyes of many voters partisanship trumps the importance of young women in office. However, it is when the differences between Republican and Democrat are put aside that young women's needs are most often addressed. As Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson points out, it was the great influx of women to Congress in 1992 that pushed such initiatives as the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the creation of the Office of Women's Health Research, all made priorities by the bipartisan Congressional Women's Caucus. "It wasn't that men were against these changes," she said, "They just hadn't considered the issues before." Partisanship should not get in the way of voting for women, when, as Marie Wilson, co-founder of the White House Project, acknowledges, "Recent research shows a direct correlation between the number of women in a legislative body, and the passage of bills benefiting women and children -- regardless of party." *What to Get Your Issues on the Table? Elect a Woman* To continue to ensure that such necessary bills that will help women are given the proper attention, we have the responsibility of working to ensure that a substantial percent of the legislature are women. And to do this, we must create the impression that women are indeed qualified to lead the country as Governors, Congresswoman and even the President. Currently, the United States ranks 61st in the amount of women holding office. As a supposed hegemony, this is unacceptable and cannot continue. According to a CNN poll, less than 50% of the American public can envision a woman president over the next ten years. "The only way to stop it is to change the rules, inside and out, individually and collectively, rewriting the definition of 'leader' and putting a women's face on it," said Marie Wilson. At this point in time, especially with the speculation of a female presidential candidate in '08, it is vital for all women to shake off feelings of apathetic disenfranchisement and get involved politically. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. If women aren't willing to financially support other women, the face of politics is going to remain much too gray and much too masculine. What else can be done? The obvious: encourage young women to run; women are much more comfortable and confident about running if they are asked or encouraged. As backwards as it may sound, women need to run for office and lose, in order to start winning. The American public needs to get used to seeing women as candidates first, so then seeing women holding high, elected office seems a natural transition. And so, today, to make the future less bleak for your mothers, sisters, daughters, cousins, nieces, and friends, go tell a woman to run. delicious | digg | technorati
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