New Wallpapers: It Still Takes A Candidate - Women & The 2010 Elections

Author, Jennifer Lawless & her book,

It Still Takes A Woman: Why Women Don't Run For Office

Introductory Speech by Jennifer Lawless

Thank you very much for joining us this evening. On behalf of the Women & Politics Institute, the School of Public Affairs, and American University, I'd like to welcome you to tonight's event. I'm Jennifer Lawless, the Director of the Women & Politics Institute. And I am thrilled to present to you the incredible panelists we assembled tonight. You know their names and faces. Over the course of the next hour, you will come to know their views about women, campaigns, and the 2010 elections. I assure you that you will leave this evening with new insights and thoughts about women's political leadership.

Before we begin this evening, I thought it might be fitting to take a brief stroll down memory lane. Exactly ten years ago, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, the longest serving woman in the United States Senate, hailed the results of the 2000 congressional elections. Reflecting on the electoral victories of Hillary Clinton, Debbie Stabenow, Jean Carnahan, and Maria Cantwell, Senator Mikulski explained that women candidates' successes pave the way for eventual gender parity in government: "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is now going to be Hillary, Debbie, Jean, and Maria."

Six years later, politicians remained just as upbeat about women's electoral fortunes. According to Rahm Emanuel, who served as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006, female candidates were well-positioned to compete and win in the most competitive districts: "In an environment where people are disgusted with politics in general, who represents clean and change?" Emanuel asked. Women indeed, noted professor and political analyst Larry Sabato who predicted that 2006 would be the best year for women congressional candidates since 1992 stating that he expected women to gain at least nine seats.

Even amidst Hillary Clinton's presidential primary loss in 2008, Geraldine Ferraro voiced optimism when she reflected on Sarah Palin's place on the Republican ticket and women's prospects for political success. Ferraro said, "I never thought I'd see another woman on a national ticket in this cycle after Hillary lost ... But it's like a ripple effect. Hillary's candidacy, my candidacy, they have a ripple effect far beyond the immediate results."

In the few months leading up to the 2010 midterm elections, newspapers, websites, and cable news programs implied that 2010 represented remarkable progress for women in politics. With a record number of female candidates running for the U.S. House (138) and U.S. Senate (15), at least in the primaries, pundits, pollsters, and politicians assumed it was the dawn of a new day. One in which both Democrats and Republicans understood the importance of electing women. High-profile female candidates, many with interesting personal stories and personality traits, fostered the speculation that 2010 might very well be another "Year of the Woman.”

Looking back, Barbara Mikulski, Rahm Emanuel Larry Sabato and Geraldine Ferraro were all wrong, and many of the pollsters and pundits assessing what would likely happen in 2010 were wrong. Indeed, despite women's increasing presence in the professions from which most candidates emerge, and despite the fact that when women run for office, they do just as well as their male counterparts on Election Day, both in terms of vote totals and fundraising receipts, significant gains in women's numeric representation have not materialized in recent election cycles.

The 2010 midterm elections amounted to a net decrease of women serving in the U.S. Congress, as well as in state legislatures across the country. This is the first time this has happened in 30 years. Of course, in an election cycle in which women competed for fewer than one-third of the 435 seats at stake in the House and only 14 seats in the U.S. Senate, substantial or even incremental gains for women were almost impossible. Since 77 percent of the women in the House and Senate were Democrats, women were in a particularly precarious position as they faced an anti-Democratic, anti-establishment electorate. But on the Republican side of the aisle, progress was stunted too. Although the GOP gained at least 62 seats in the House, a few races still remain too close to call, and women will still comprise only 9 percent of the party's caucuses, the same ratio as they do in the current Congress.

Why is this the case? Why do we still have so far to go on the path to any semblance of gender parity? Why, when the 112th Congress convenes in January, will 83 percent of the members of the U.S. Senate and 84 percent of the members of the U.S. House still be men? Why are 76 percent of state legislators and 75 percent of statewide elected officials men? Why do men occupy the governor's mansion in 44 of the 50 states and run City Hall in 93 of the country's 100 largest cities? Why do 89 nations now surpass the United States in terms of the percentage of women serving in the national legislature?

There are many reasons, but based on the results of a survey of nearly 4,000 lawyers, business leaders, educators, and political activists, all of whom are well-suited and situated to run for office, my co-author of the book, It Still Takes A Candidate, Why Women Don’t Run For Office, Richard Fox found that women, even in the highest tiers of professional accomplishment, are still substantially less likely than men to seek elective office.

This phenomenon is due to an array of structural factors: women are less likely than men to be recruited to run for office, less likely than men to think they are qualified to run for office, and less likely than men to have the flexibility to take on the burdens of running for office. This gender gap in political ambition has NOT improved over time. Younger women report facing the same barriers to elected office as their older counterparts. The book ultimately demonstrates that many fundamental barriers continue to confront women in politics, thereby making gender equality a remote prospect. This is exactly what we will discuss tonight. Let me introduce our panelists.

The Panelists

Dee Dee Myers is a Managing Director at the Glover Park Group. A respected political analyst and commentator, she is the author of the New York Times' bestselling book, Why Women Should Rule the World (2008). Dee Dee served as White House Press Secretary during Bill Clinton's first term, and was the first woman to hold that position. She has also worked on numerous political campaigns, including the presidential campaigns of Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale; and the California gubernatorial campaigns of Dianne Feinstein and Tom Bradley.

Dana Perino is president of the strategic communications firm, Dana Perino and Company, and a member of Burson-Marstellar's Global Strategy Team. A contributor to FOX News, Dana's commentary is often included in the Washington Post, Politico, and National Review. Dana served as George W. Bush's Press Secretary from 200772009, and was the first Republican woman to hold that position. Prior to her role as Press Secretary, Dana served as a spokesperson for the Department of Justice and as Director of Communications at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Shira Toeplitz is a politics and campaigns reporter for Politico. Formerly a staff writer for Roll Call, she covers congressional campaigns across the country. Shira was the first national reporter to interview Senator Al Franken after his election, and the last to do an extended interview with Sarah Palin before she became a vice presidential candidate. She has also covered presidential and state campaigns for National Journal's "The Hotline." A frequent guest on television news programs, Shira has offered commentary on politics for CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNBC and FOX News.

I am Jennifer L. Lawless, an Associate Professor of Government and Director of the Women & Politics Institute. I am a nationally recognized expert on women's involvement in politics, I am the co-author (with Richard L. Fox) of the books, It Takes A Candidate:

Why Women Don't Run for Office (2005) and It Still Takes A Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (2010). My scholarly analysis and political commentary are regularly quoted in numerous newspapers, magazines, and journals. I received my Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in 2003.

Women & Politics Institute at American University is a non-partisan, non-profit institute dedicated to closing the gender gap in political leadership by offering academic courses, preparing cutting edge research, and conducting leadership training programs that provide opportunities for women to excel in all facets of politics.

Before we begin tonight's panel, I'd like to recognize a few individuals without whom tonight would not have been possible. I'd like to thank Anita McBride, Executive-in-Residence at American University, for all of her help and support in putting together tonight's panel. I'm also grateful to the Women & Politics Institute's Director's Circle for their ongoing support. I'd like to recognize American University Administrators. I'd like to thank Gina Adams, an American University trustee who, through FedEx, just made a major gift in support of the Women & Politics Institute and our new summer program for high school students who are interested in women, politics, and political leadership. And I would be remiss not to thank My-Lien Le and Pamela Riis; the Institute would not run without them, and programs like this would never take place.

As many of you know, the Women & Politics Institute strives to close the gender gap in political leadership. We provide young women with academic training that encourages them to become involved in the political process. We facilitate faculty and student research so as to enhance our understanding of the challenges women face in the political arena. We give women the skills necessary to run for public office, pursue a variety of political careers, and develop their leadership capabilities. We also convene panels and discussions to discuss how women fare in the political process and why it's so important that we participate.

In that vein, I am pleased to turn the microphone over to Shira Toeplitz, who will moderate this evening's event.

Q&A:

How do we amplify voices to reach and encourage younger women to run for office?

We need to ensure that politics appears on the radar screens of high school and college students. Running for office as a student is one of the best predictors of whether someone will run for office later in life. So, getting girls and young women into the political pipeline must begin before they start their careers. Another way is mentoring directly or indirectly. In most cities like DC or NYC, powerful women are plentiful, so a young woman can see the feminization of power and see herself in powerful roles. If a woman sees another woman doing it, she will think maybe I can do it too, but if she only sees men doing it, she will assume it’s an all men territory. Also, women in office can mentor younger women and groom them for the role.

How do women fund their campaigns?

We all know that chasing money is a daunting task to anyone, more so women. However, women can accept smaller amounts of $25 and $50 donations from multiple donors which add up. However, it is essential to debunk the myth that women cannot raise money. It's simply not true. Women raise at least as much as their male counterparts when they run for office. Their donor base might be different, but their aggregate receipts are the same.

How do you recruit women to run for office?

Organizations like WELEAD at American University’s Women In Politics, the Susan B. Anthony Project, The Women's Campaign Forum's She Should Run initiative, Running Start, AAUW's Elect Her, and Project 2012 are supporting women to do so.

How do women do it all, run for office?

Women have family including spouses, children and parents who they are usually care takers of and they also have careers which affects their ability to run, but some have participated in politics like waiting till their children are older and some like our speaker do it even while they are pregnant.

There’s been a net loss of women from Congress, what does this spell for the future?

It’s a setback that spells less women’s views being represented. It's clear evidence that the problem of women's under-representation will not solve itself. Women now have the career paths and credentials we tend to look for in candidates. But they're still less likely to turn those qualifications into candidacies. Without active recruitment, nothing will change.

Younger women often don’t want to run for office, why is that?

You can refer to my book, It Still Takes A Candidate; Why Women Don’t Run For Office, but the same barriers exist for the 25 - 35 year olds as they do for the over 60 cohort; the gender gap is just as big, too. They may also not believe the opportunity is available to them or they see the negative issues and obstacles that sometimes occur to the women that do and don’t want to go through the same issues or face the same obstacles.

Why should women run?

Women should run so that there are more women in politics and women’s views can be more adequately represented.

Will women be taken seriously even if they do?

When women run for office, they fare at least as well as their male counterparts, so there is no question that they are taken seriously. Also, it depends on how they present themselves. If they present themselves as knowledgeable, intelligent candidates who know what they are saying and doing, and have a track record of getting things done, they will be taken seriously.

What’s the best strategy is best for a woman to employ when running for office?

It depends on your constituency. If you are in Upper East Side of NYC the Mama Grizzly role won’t work for you, but if you are Sarah Palin from Alaska, it will.

What can we learn from Hilary Clinton’s campaign?

Initially when it appeared that she had a sense of entitlement, with an “I am woman, hear me roar” demeanor, when people thought she thought she was a sure win on the democratic ticket, it didn’t work for her. However, later on when, when she softened up by having a “choked up emotional moment” in front of the media, she was perceived as nurturing, like she was in a “mama bear” role and was being protective of America.That propelled her to a win in New Hampshire. People believed this mama bear role to be a realistic and authentic role for her because she had been protective of her only daughter, Chelsea in the same way. That’s her bringing her real self to the role in a way people responded to. So there’s no one way to run for office, however, there’s a way to be authentically who you are that’s consistent with the office, your own history and who you are.

The US is the 89th country in terms of numbers of women in politics. Can quotas be applied to increase the numbers?

1/3 of the countries that have more women in office than the US have quotas, while 2/3 of the countries don’t. So it should be more of a cultural shift in the perception of women.

How does Sarah Palin get so much media coverage?

She probably has a good publicity team that makes it happen. Also, she's now a media celebrity, so anything she does is news.

Summary by Susan Majek

It’s a man’s world and it will continue to be if women don’t step up and run for office. To cause change, one often must have the power and influence to effect that desired change, and being an elected political official is a position of power where one can do so.

Though women are already underserved, we often don’t do much about it by not running for office. We know there are many reasons hindering women from running including the fear factor of running against the “big boys” in their territory with their “boys club” solidly behind them, but we women must still endeavor to find places for ourselves in politics and other leadership positions where we can make a difference. Whether it is overcoming our fears and taking a leap of faith or just believing the opportunity is available to us, women must begin to run for office. Then people will come out in our support. When both Hilary Clinton and Barak Obama were seeking the Democratic ticket to run for President, an African American woman expressed her joy by saying, “I don’t know what to do with myself and who I’m going to vote for with two minorities running for president.”

Another challenge is that we women often put ourselves down and play down our accomplishments. We can be very self depreciating, which isn’t a good trait in any sphere, least of all in politics where exuding confidence and optimism is a requirement.. Even Jennifer Lawless displayed this negative trait when another speaker was speaking so highly of her; and she started to put herself down. She was quickly reminded that she was exhibiting the self depreciation we were discussing. Old habits die hard, but that is something women need to be cognizant of and work on.

As I write this, I am telling myself what I am telling other women, we must do what we can in our own little ways to become super citizens. We must be women who are about something and do something. There are gaps where we are that need to be filled by women who can get things done so we can get to where we need to be as a nation. We must become women who do more than vote, because our responsibility goes beyond voting. Our roles don’t end on Election Day. We must be the people who represent the hopes and dreams of the nation and prepare the nation for the next generation.

Thanks to all the women who participated in this enlightening event to inspire women to take leadership roles and run for office.

In this season of giving we must remind everyone that WELEAD, the bipartisan leadership training program run by the Women & Politics Institute at American University, which is the only training in the country that works to increase the number of women working in politics and running for office needs financial support. This event occurred because of generous donor contributions. It is a 501C3 organization so donations are tax deductible, so please consider making a donation to the cause. Your donations will be greatly appreciated.

For more information on Women In Politics at American University, visit http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/
For more information on WELEAD, visit http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/welead.cfm

To purchase a copy of the book, It Takes A Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office, visit
http://www.reiters.com/index.cgi?func=show&isbn=0521179246

For more information on the Susan B. Anthony Project, visit http://www.sbaproject.org/

The Book Signing