Why Hillary Will Lead More Women To Partake in Politics

Like Kristen said in her post at Girl With Pen, “Now That The Dust Has Settled (Sort Of)”, Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for president  is still fascinating to ponder. I was recently asked to write an article on the topic for the ILF Digest, the journal of  a think tank I’ve been a fellow of (I find this terminology amusing, but have never come up with an acceptable alternative—can you?) for some years. It won’t be published for a few weeks but I’d like to share an excerpt here because takes up where Kristen’s questions were leading:

Despite many problems with sexism in the culture and media that made themselves self-evident during Hillary Clinton’s campaign, there are even more reasons to be optimistic that Clinton’s presidential run will be a net plus in motivating women to enter politics. I predict a sea change in women’s participation in politics up and down the ticket and in non-elective political roles as well, for these reasons:

1.    Seeing gives the potential for being. The message chanted at Clinton’s rallies: “Yes she can!” has clearly been delivered to younger generations.  All young girls hereafter will grow up knowing it is possible for a woman to be president.  And Clinton’s willingness to stay in the race despite all the challenges, despite constant calls for her to bow out, despite what must have been intense exhaustion and disappointment, is exactly what women of all ages with political aspirations need to see. In her speeches, she often mentioned “two groups who move me: women in their 80’s and 90’s who come out in walkers and wheelchairs and say they just want to live long enough to see a woman elected president, and families who bring their children and lean over and whisper in their daughter’s ear, ‘Honey you can be anything you want to be.’” Now they know they can.

2.    Women were energized as never before.  Rep. Carolyn Maloney said at a recent event sponsored by Lifetime Television, which along with three major women’s magazines has spearheaded a massive multimedia campaign called “Every Woman Counts”, that even though Clinton lost the primary campaign to Obama, “I think she lifted up the self esteem of women across the country, across the world.” Observing that Clinton raised $190 million in the primary race, Maloney said. “I think she helped all of us..”  One measure of how much she has helped women become more engaged in politics is that in past races, women’s financial contributions amounted to less than 30% of the total. For the first time, fueled by excitement over Clinton’s candidacy, half of the contributions to a presidential candidate came from women. And, in fact, over 40% of Obama’s contributions came from women as well, demonstrating women’s importance to the Democratic party and women’s understanding about the strategic importance of giving their fair share of the proverbial mother’s milk of politics in order to get their fair share of influence on the public policies they want. As North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue pointed out, “Everybody is involved in politics whether they realize it or not.” Since men have little motivation to change the power structure, women have little choice but to become the change we want to see. Clinton’s willingness to put herself out there will motivate more of us to try.

3.    Media sexism has been called out, and that roots it out. Rep. Maloney went on to say at the Lifetime event that there was “a big undercurrent of sexism, misogyny and stereotyping” against Hillary Clinton during her campaign for president. But the point here is Maloney made her claims at a public, mainstream media-sponsored event. That would not have happened in the past. The nonprofit Women’s Media Center mounted a campaign called “Sexism Sells, but We’re not Buying It”  in collaboration with several media justice organizations They got the attention and the responses of major media executives and producers, as well as on-air apologies from Chris Matthews, David Schuster, and others. Even Katie Couric—too late, sadly, to make a difference in this year’s primary reporting but with luck influential enough to change the way women candidates are treated in the future—finally had enough and spoke out publicly on the subject. Change will be slow and imperfect, but it will happen.

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4.    Hillary’s post-primary awakening led her to embrace her leadership role as a woman and on behalf of other women. Throughout the campaign, she downplayed the importance of her gender, saying as she did at her Beacon Theater birthday bash early in the campaign when she was still considered the front runner, “For me it is a great honor and humbling experience to be the first woman president. But I’m not running because I am a woman but because I am the most qualified. “ Since the campaign, she has been much quicker to champion women’s rights. For example, she led the charge to challenge the Bush administration’s proposed new regulations an-outrageous-attempt-bush-adminstration-undermine-womens-rights  that would redefine many birth control methods as abortion and allow medical providers to refuse to provide them. She seems to have learned a lesson about being her true self; other women will take courage from that.

At Hillary’s birthday event almost a year ago now,Elvis Costello performed to a standing ovation. Then the Wallflowers joined Elvis onstage; the decibel level elevated ten-fold, whipping this audience of aging rockers into frothy enthusiasm.

When comedian Billy Crystal came up to close the evening, little did he know just how prescient he was when he said, ““Hillary is making this campaign not so much for the old rockers but for the new ones.”

10 Comments

  1. Stacy on July 27, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    Instead of ‘Fellow’, how about Resident? Kind of like a medical Resident? It’s less gendered.

    I have to disagree with one thing, Gloria- I don’t think the dust has settled quite yet- many former Hillary supporters are actively trying to sabotage Obama and I have to wonder when I see former Hillary campaign adviser buy a domain specifically for Hillary in 2012- kind of makes ‘ya wonder, doesn’t it?

    Obama has made a huge tactical error in moving to the Right and virtually ignoring women’s rights- how in the world does he think he can attract a majority of the 18 million who voted for Hillary if he doesn’t even see/understand the importance of the reproductive rights issue? And that makes ME wonder.

  2. Stacy on July 27, 2008 at 9:04 pm

    Sorry, I forgot to provide the link to the above-mentioned domain purchase:

    http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/07/hrc_campaign_aides_buy_2012_we_1.php

  3. Gloria Feldt on July 27, 2008 at 9:05 pm

    Stacy-
    It’s always a question in politics how much of an action is designed to achieve the straightforward goal it appears to be about and how much of it is strategy to get someone else, in this case Obama, to be influenced by fear of the action. Obama is a long way from setting forth an agenda that women who’ve supported Hillary can get really exited over. If these pro-Hillary actions get Obama to move his health plan proposal closer to hers, and to take more action on Lilly Ledbetter Act, Freedom of Choice act, etc. it would be a good thing as Martha Stewart would say. If on the other hand, it’s just positioning or an attempt to sabotage Obama, it’s a bad thing. I really believe the next steps though are in his hands to reach out substantlively to Clinton’s constituents who could become his best allies if he does that effectively.

  4. Stacy on July 28, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    I agree and Obama has yet to really even attempt to reach out to women in a concrete way, which surprises me- it certainly is a missed opportunity and I hope he is not taking the woman’s vote for granted.

    I would like to see more of Hillary around campaigning with Obama. Unfortunately, the dream ticket seems to be just that- a dream as it is looking less and less likely she will be on the ticket as VP. And it is too bad because this election would basically be over if he chose her.

  5. Stacy on July 30, 2008 at 9:08 pm

    A lot of women who supported Hillary may sit at home on election day unless Hillary (and Bill) get out there and actively campaign for Obama, instead of what they are doing currently, which seems to be a whole lot of nothing- and that in itself sends a message to Hillary supporters that it’s ok to sit back and wait for 2012 when the Clintons will have a chance to rule again.

  6. Gloria Feldt on July 31, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    Am I missing something? I thought Hillary was doing whatever he asked her to do. She was at the big NY fundraiser for him. Today I got an e-mail from the Democratic Senate fundraising arm signed by Hlllary with lots of supportive language about Barack. On the other hand, apparently his supporters aren’t chipping in to retire her campaign debt.

    Right now I am more worried about his apparent consideration of VA’s anti-choice Gov. Kaine for VP. That would totally deflate Clinton supporters and be devastating to his campaign. Polls are too close to risk alienating women who are the base of the Democratic party.

  7. Stacy on July 31, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    Well, I heard reporting that she had not actively campaigned with him for several weeks and it might be a few more until she does. Have you noticed she is not in the news so much- even Bill, who couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut during the campaign, has now become strangely silent.

    I know Hillary has pledged to help Obama in anyway she can, but tongues are wagging about how her support seems lukewarm- fueling the rumors that the clintons are essentially waiting for 2012.

    I think this back and forth right now is a good example of the rift that still exits- one group thinks hillary is not doing enough and others are resentful that Obama [and his followers] isn’t/aren’t doing more to pay off her debt. My guess? This rift wil continue until 2012.

    I think it’s a very good possibility that Obama might pick Kaine or someone like him and that would be disasterous- not just with respect to Hillary supporters, but other members of the base.

  8. jaime on August 1, 2008 at 9:13 pm

    i have to disagree on one point. I really feel like we are still not quite there on the fact that our daughters now know that they can “be” anything. I know several young girls who yes now know that they can run for president, but also saw the woman get beat by the man and still not actually get to run in the general election and be elected president. So i think in the eyes of many young girls they still do not believe the phrase, “you can be anything you want.” I do agree that seeing a woman be a viable candidate for president and having our girls be able to campaign for her and support her was a giant step forward but i feel the total celebration is a little premature. I just do not feel that we have made it all the way just yet.

    • Gloria Feldt on August 1, 2008 at 9:14 pm

      aime-
      You are right that we won’t have a total celebration until we do have a woman president, and as fas as I am concerned, until we have a woman president who is a feminist and a progressive (regardless of how she labels herself–I’m referring to her policies). Still I do think young girls today can at least see the possibilities, which wasn’t true in the past.

      I just wrote a piece for Elle magazine on why women do and don’t run for office–watch for it to hit the stands next week and presumably the web also. I learned so much about women’s internal barriers as well as the external ones. Women do have a way to go yet, but thanks to Hillary and many other courageous women, at least the path is visible.

  9. Mike Meneus on June 9, 2013 at 1:28 am

    Birth control, also known as contraception and fertility control, are methods or devices used to prevent pregnancy.[1] Planning and provision of birth control is called family planning.Safe sex, such as the use of male or female condoms, can also help prevent transmission of sexually transmitted infections.,*^;

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