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What
Will It Take For A Woman to Win the White House?
A Conversation with Carol Moseley Braun, Eleanor
Clift, Judith Shapiro and Marie Wilson
From
Left: Barnard President Judith Shapiro, Ambassador Carol
Moseley Braun, Marie C. Wilson, Eleanor Clift |
When
former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun campaigned as the only
woman among the nine presidential candidates this year in
the Democratic primaries, she was told by enthusiastic voters
that it was "about time" a woman was running. Speaking
at a recent Barnard forum on women's progress in the political
arena, Braun said she is optimistic about the public's attitude
toward a woman serving in the highest office but believes
more work needs to be done before this milestone can be achieved.
Ambassador
Carol Moseley Braun |
Braun
joined President Judith Shapiro and two of the nation's leading
thinkers on women and politics for a conversation about "a
woman in the White House" on March 8, International Women's
Day. The discussion included Marie Wilson, co-founder and
president of The White House Project and author of a new book,
Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help
Run the World, and journalist Eleanor Clift of Newsweek
magazine and the popular TV political show, The McLaughlin
Group who wrote a groundbreaking book, Madam President:
Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling.
Braun told an audience of 400 students, faculty, alumnae and
guests that she encountered a disconnect between voters around
the country and Washington political leaders, who do not seem
quite as ready for a woman in power.
She ended her campaign for the presidency before the first
caucus votes were cast in Iowa earlier this year because she
could not raise the funds necessary to continue.
Judith
Shapiro |
After
congratulating Braun for stepping up to become a candidate,
Shapiro began the discussion with an overview of women's achievements
during the past two decades, while acknowledging progress
has been slow in the political arena
"As
Americans we seem to want to believe -- when it comes to the
question of women's achievement in society -- that this is
no longer even an issue," said Shapiro. "The fact
is there is an overwhelming population of men in Congress,
and only eight women serve as governors of our 50 states.
If we are ever going to achieve real political parity, we
must be willing to emerge from this information denial."
The United States lags behind other countries in political
representation by women, Shapiro said, noting that according
to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm),
the United States ranks 57th among 181 countries in the number
of women serving in Congress, behind Cuba (7), Vietnam (18),
Pakistan (31), Angola (54) and Israel (55). Although women
in the United States have enjoyed new political success as
Supreme Court justices, leaders in national security and foreign
policy and as top strategists in this year's political campaigns,
the goal of gender equality in the political arena is not
clear. Of the 435 representatives in the House, 59 are women
and of 100 Senators, only 14 are women.
"At the rate we're going, the National Women's Political
Caucus predicts it will be another two centuries before women
achieve political parity," Shapiro said.
She said women must be encouraged to run for office at all
levels of government to feed the pipeline for higher office,
noting that four of our last five presidents have been governors
and all of the last five vice presidents served in Congress.
"We can't possibly hope to move to the head of the class
unless we are doing what it takes to get there," said
Shapiro.
Shapiro then turned to the panelists to discuss how the political
culture in the United States affects opportunities for women.
Marie
C. Wilson |
"Like
Ambassador Braun, I'm optimistic because a large percent of
Americans polled say they'd love to vote for a woman for president,"
Wilson said. "They just don't know what women are out
there largely because the media have not shown them the kind
of authoritative women already in leadership." And while
many women leaders are not visible in the media, Wilson believes
that when they are, they are often seen through the lens of
gender, that is, analyzing their hair, clothes and how they
interact with their husband. Wilson suggested this is largely
because it is more difficult in a democratic society for women
to achieve critical mass in politics because it is a "winner
take all system and there is more at stake."
"People joke that if this were India, Chelsea Clinton
would be president because many women leaders around the world
are there because class and family line trump the traditional
politicking we have in this country," said journalist
Eleanor Clift. Nonetheless, in today's political landscape,
according to Clift, there will be pressure on the Democratic
Party to put at least one woman's name on its list to run
with John Kerry as the vice presidential candidate. Clift
mentioned Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Arizona Gov. Janet
Napolitano as possible names for the list, although she said
it is unlikely they will get the nomination.
"Gender
is a tricky issue in this race-as we saw with (New York Congresswoman
Geraldine) Ferraro -and both parties are still feeling burned
from that experience," she said. Ferraro was the 1984
Democratic candidate for vice president on the national ticket
with Walter Mondale, which was overwhelmingly defeated by
Ronald Reagan.
Braun suggested that women are held to different standards
and so are still relegated to second class status in politics.
From
Left: Barnard President Judith Shapiro, Ambassador Carol
Moseley Braun, and Marie C. Wilson |
"The
opinion has to develop that women are held to the same kind
of standards as any man would be," she said. "As
long as we allow our voices to be muted by the sense that
we are not entitled to function and perform in the same way
as men, we will never see a change," Braun said. In fact,
Braun suggested there is a disincentive for women to pursue
a political career because the standards are different.
Clift responded: "I think women don't go into politics
because raising money is hard, they have family responsibilities
and the political climate in general is rough on anyone because
of the public scrutiny. It's not easy."
Wilson believes personal attitudes also come into play. "As
a rule, we're ambivalent about women who show such ambition,"
Wilson said. "New research says that it's not just money,
work, and family that keeps a woman from running for office.
It's the dampening of their political ambition when they look
at male candidates; they often don't think they can run well
against a man. That's why we need to encourage each other
to run and to get involved."
Women also must learn from their failures and continue to
move forward, Clift said, suggesting that women candidates
too often take defeat personally and abandon hope for a political
career while men tend to shift the blame to the voters and
try again.
"For women, politics are personal, which leads
to the fundamental point: why have women in government at
all?" Braun asked, noting her belief that women bring
unique perspectives and skills to the political process, regardless
of party affiliation. They tend to be more practical in terms
of problem solving as well as collaborative and inclusive
by nature and these attributes contribute to successful leadership.
"That's why it's important for the whole community to
tap this huge reservoir of talent [in women]. Over half of
the population is relegated right now to the sidelines of
decision making on issues that affect all of us," Braun
said.
Eleanor
Clift |
While
women's presence tends to help expand men's attitudes and
perceptions, it is important, cautioned Clift, not "to
veer down the road that women are better. Women simply bring
a different perspective; for instance, if we had more women
in the Senate, our health care system would be different."
Research does show that women in legislative positions tend
to be concerned about a diverse range of issues, Shaprio said,
many of which are now at the forefront of national concern,
such as health issues.
"The whole idea of democracy is that government improves
when you expand the decision making to the whole population,"
Braun said. "When you don't have equal representation,
you have a flawed democracy. So getting women involved is
the ultimate patriotic act because it improves the system
of government."
—Jo Kadlecek
For more information, please contact: Suzanne Trimel, 212-854-2037,
strimel@barnard.edu
Photos
by Lou Rocco.
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