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May

11

Trifecta of stories re: dearth of GOP female officeholders (OH’s Pryce included)


Last night, I flagged and wrote about Politico’s story on this topic.

Two more today.  First, from US News & World Report we have, “Republicans reject women when they shed moderates.” Highlight, which echoes my reaction at the end of my post yesterday:

The Republican National Committee says it’s running a grass-roots recruiting drive to get women to run for office in all 50 states. That’s fine. The problem is, that to encourage them to run, Politico reports the RNC is bringing groups of women to Capitol Hill for tours. That’s the last thing they should do! As a former staffer for a Congressman, I can tell you that Capitol Hill is one of the least women-friendly, family-friendly places on earth. It’s the original men’s club. My advice to the RNC: encourage women to run for office in order to change what they’ll find on that Capitol Hill tour.

And, from a different columnist at USNWR, “Republican Women Are Stay-At-Home Moms While Female Democrats Run for Congress,”:

I think the main reason [for the difference in numbers of office holders], however, is that Republican women are generally more traditional than Democratic women, who tend to be more progressive. Therefore, GOP women are more likely to be fulltime homemakers or to work part-time and not to pursue all-consuming careers such as politics. Republican women like former Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) have even agreed with me in conversation that this is the case.

This does not mean all Democratic women want to run for office or be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, or that all GOP women want to be homemakers. Certainly not. But the majority fall into those stereotypes and that is the main reason I believe the numbers are skewed in Democrats’ favor.

Frankly, what this also means is that Democratic women are more likely to be in relationships that involve a more egalitarian approach to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the benefit of themselves, the significant others in their lives and, when there are children, their kids.

Speaking of which, here’s a great article on how two women had babies while in Congress during the last 12 months. Both women are Democrats.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:48 pm May 11th, 2009 in Democrats, Gender, Government, Parenting, Politics, Women, Youth 

Comments

3 Responses to “Trifecta of stories re: dearth of GOP female officeholders (OH’s Pryce included)”

  1. 1 Dean of Health Insurance on May 12th, 2009 2:08 pm

    The more women the better in GOP. They are actually a pretty diverse political group in spite of their perception.

  2. 2 Cynthia Samuels on May 12th, 2009 8:23 pm

    Very interesting. There used to be many more women in Republican party politics – Margaret Chase Smith and Lynn Martin come to mind immediately and there were many more at Presidential nominating conventions as well as in Congress. I think it’s harder in lots of ways now. The mean rigidity of the ideological right at its most unpleasant doesn’t leave much room for anyone more civilized than the uncivilized Ann Coulter, I fear.

  3. 3 anastasia p on May 14th, 2009 12:05 am

    When Margaret Chase Smith was in the Senate, she was the ONLY woman in the Senate. I remember writing a paper about her in grade school! She stood out by dint of being so completely unusual. if she were around today, she’d be getting assaulted by the far-right loudmouths. Rush Limbaugh would be telling her to leave the party. (I think she’d be horrified by Limbaugh). She was about where Olympia Snowe is on the ideological spectrum.

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