Much has been said of Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the White House.
But on the question of what comes next for the traditionally uneasy marriage of women and politics, the conversation has only just begun. Today, in Denver’s Buell Theater, 4,000 women are gathering for the first major public conversation on women and politics since Clinton announced her candidacy.
The event, called “Unconventional Women,” will offer a long-overdue chance to discuss opportunities for women’s leadership in this election cycle — and in the long term.
A collective five decades of experience in training women to lead has convinced us that what happened to Clinton in the primary was not primarily a failure. Rather, her candidacy provided a firing of the imagination for many Americans — it offered a clearer articulation of a vision that had, until then, been soft-focused.
It’s now unremarkable that a woman can be seen as commander-in-chief. That shift is one has repercussions up and down the political food chain.
Women who’ve been leading parent associations are now planning to run for school board. Women who are state senators are eyeing Congressional districts. Senators and governors are in play for the vice presidential slot. On and on, and up the ladder it goes, all the way to the top.
But let’s not deceive ourselves; we’ve got a long way to go. The U.S. still has only nine woman governors. Some 88 percent of our state legislators are male. And with 16 percent women in Congress, our nation ranks 71st in the world in women’s political representation.
This means, among other things, that when we conduct trainings in other countries, we have to add, “Do as we say, not as we do.” Most Americans are shocked by these statistics when they hear them, believing somehow that American men and women stand on level ground. It’s time for reality to catch up with perception.
There are multiple reasons it’s hard to get women into political office. For one thing, for most of our history, politics has been considered a man’s job. (Many women in American politics have had powerful fathers or husbands, and 79 of the 244 women who have served in Congress came to office through appointment, not election.)
Consequently, researchers Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox say men are 34% more likely than women to have been recruited to run for office.
Raising money remains an obstacle for many women, and the idea of media negativity and ridicule can be daunting, whether it’s calling out a voice too shrill or décolletage too low.
Finally, politics is viewed as blood sport — but “niceness” remains the only socially acceptable strategy for women when they negotiate – and lining up voters requires big time negotiation.
Is it any surprise, then, that American women are twice as likely as men to describe themselves as “not at all qualified to run for office,” even when their credentials are equivalent? Or that only a quarter of the women imagine themselves as winners, compared to 37 percent of the men?
To increase the likelihood that women run, we have to help women believe that there is a place for them in this arena by inviting them to take their place at the head of the political table.
And we must push for policies that make it possible for women to participate — including access to day care, flexible office hours, and limits to late meetings. (When the Norwegians reached about 40% women in parliament, they started to shut down at 6PM, noting that evening was parenting time.)
The parties have already seen the wisdom of this approach: as a result of a drive to give women an equal voice, Democratic women candidates are now approaching a 50-50 balance with men in a number of states, including Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
What difference will it make when women sit equally at the table with their male peers? We only have to cast our eyes around the globe to see. In countries where political women get to “critical mass,” spending priorities shift away from weapons and towards education and health care.
Women legislators receive more requests from constituents than male colleagues and are known to be more responsive to these requests. Some 77 percent of Americans rate their female governors as “honest and ethical,” compared to 60 percent in states with male governors.
Across cultures, women put new issues and fresh solutions on the political agenda, especially when it comes to social questions and the needs of the marginalized. They are, for instance, more likely to view crime as a societal, rather than individual, problem.
At the turn of the last century, suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked that it was a wonder the country had done as well as it had while using only half its resources.
Now, when that same country is facing enormous challenges both domestically and internationally, it’s hard to understand why we would not use the half of our resources represented by our nation’s women.
It’s time to change our attitudes about women and politics and invite them fully into the process. It is, in fact, the only solution we haven’t tried.
wanee Hunt is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. From 1993 to 1997, she served as ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states. Marie Wilson is president and founder of the White House Project.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
