Is This Election Day Good for Women or Bad for Women?

OK, so this is a little blatant self-promotion, because I’m very honored to have been quoted extensively by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz in her column “On Balance, Progress for Women” today.

Connie called me Sunday evening fretting about the Gawker kerfluffle about Christine O’Donell’s sexual and shaving practices. Personally, I said, I’ve declined to write or talk about it because I don’t want to make either Gawker or O’Donnell more important than they are.

So we quickly moved on to how this election day will reflect upon women in politics and impact progressive women’s agenda priorities. Here’s our conversation as she reported it, quite accurately:

“Gloria,” I said. “Gloria, Gloria.”

Patiently, she waited for a verb.

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“What do we make of this sexist coverage of women? Why does it persist — even from supposedly liberal guys? How do we change this?”

I could hear Feldt take a deep breath.

“Connie,” she said. “There’s good news here.”

Her list:

No. 1: Women candidates are no longer on their own.

“We learned from Hillary Clinton’s race,” Feldt said. “There are so many organizations watching the media now. Each time this happens, they call it to the public’s attention.” [NB: of course, I mentioned the Name It Change It Campaign specifically but Connie was wise to me promoting some of my favorite organizations]

No. 2: Women candidates are increasingly fearless.

“They don’t let the attacks stop them,” she said. “And because of that, we now know that leadership comes in a turquoise pantsuit with changing hairdos and a higher-pitched voice. We’ve seen women become secretary of state and speaker of the House. We know what women can do.”

No. 3: Threaten power, and power attacks.

“I tell women all the time, ‘If they’re attacking you, they’re paying attention to you. They’re telling you that you’re important.'”

As Feldt and I talked, it became clear that this column should end with a call to action for women and the men who love them. So, here it is:

Get moving.

It takes action to create a movement, and you don’t have to run for office to make a difference in the lives of women who do.

Feldt suggests that each person make a list of 10 media outlets and put it next to his or her computer. The goal is to send two e-mails a day: One to a news organization or blog that got the story right, and another to one that got it wrong.

It’s a lot to ask, I know, when most of us are so busy. But it could change the lives of women we haven’t even met yet.

Feldt said she often tells women, “What you do is going to be somebody’s else’s history.”

So, think about it.

What kind of history will you make today?

I especially love Connie’s last line. I am in awe when a columnist comes up with such a perfect ending that delivers exactly the punch she intended.

But please read the full column and tell me what you think: is this election good or bad for women? Where do you see the balance? Am I too optimistic? What do you think? How would you answer Connie’s questions?

It’s critically important that women who are politically progressive have this conversation now. Because while the election will be history tomorrow, the future is still ours to shape.

Gloria Feldt

GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”

As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.