Tea Party Women Could Change the Score, Long Term

By Corinna Barnard

WeNews editor

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

GOP women are coming out of the woodwork and challenging Democrats' double-X dominance. But the game for political women is still more noise than transformative numbers. Corinna Barnard's editorial kicks off Women's eNews' upcoming campaign coverage.

Corinna Barnard (WOMENSENEWS)--It could be the way Republican billionaire Meg Whitman is spending record millions of her own money on her gubernatorial campaign in California and attracting attention to her domestic-worker employment practices.

Or maybe it's the upset victory by Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Republican primary that has everyone--including late-night TV comedians and GOP strategist Karl Rove--going ga-ga.

Or maybe it's the way Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, is seriously worried about Tea Party upstart Sharron Angle.

Everywhere you look, Republican women are popping up this election cycle. Animated by Sarah Palin-brand politics, they are also juxtaposed to two women from Maine--Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins--cast in the role of leading party moderates.

The Center for American Women and Politics, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University of New Jersey, runs the mother of all Web sites and research operations on the state of the U.S. female franchise.

Two weeks ago the center said yes, it has been a record campaign season for Republican women. But many apparently did not win their primaries, which means that the final number of women in congressional races--Democrat or Republican--is a bit lower than high-water marks reached in 2004. And while Democratic women ran for election at lower levels than in the past, more won, leaving Democrats with the edge on female leadership.

More Noise Than Numbers

All that means some women are lending higher notes to the current howl of national discontent. But our actual leadership participation is somewhere between unchanged and slightly down from peak levels. More noise than numbers.

The female candidates of either party who are still on the field want to join a U.S. Congress--in both the House and Senate--that is still only about 17 percent female.

That's below the magic tipping-point figure for women's political representation, which the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva sets at about 30 percent.

A select group of 20 or so countries have achieved this level, providing evidence, in the case of Nordic countries in particular, that it promotes economic growth and support for social amenities such as health care, day care and environmental care. Nurturing policies, in other words.

Social architects recommend governments emerging from civil war to draft or redraft their constitutions to include 30 percent of women in their parliaments. It's considered both stabilizing and a step to economic development. Rwanda currently leads the world in female representation, with women now more than 50 percent of its legislators.

The attention-getting Tea Party female candidates seem to defy the social expectations of women-sensitive social planning.

Many are incensed by what they call the federal welfare state. Some want to undo the national health care vote. Palin hunts animals from a helicopter.

Angry at the Wall Street bailouts, some of these women are similarly outraged by government regulation of a financial system that just finished running completely amok.

They oppose one of the mainstays of women's autonomy--full reproductive choice.

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4 COMMENTS | Login or Sign Up to post comments

Increasingly the lines are no longer being drawn along "gender" lines but along the issues. At a Pro Choice rally there are men and women on both sides of the aisle. We cannot assume that being a woman means supporting "our" issues. We need to acknowledge, support and work with men who support women's issues. The "feminist" agenda of the future will become the "humanist" agenda.

Submitted by 16andRising (not verified) (2 years ago)

Just posted today about the fact that in New York state, the story on women candidates is very different--and far more progressive. http://16andrising.com/post/1249098751/new-yorks-year-of-the-democratic-...

Submitted by Gail (2 years ago)

This article proves one thing to me: stupidity is not gender-specific. Nor is wisdom: I'm more impressed by Rachel Maddow than by any of these women, the so-called "Tea Party Activists" - and by the way, thanks a heap, "Tea Party", for ruining what used to be a term that brought back sweet memories of my grandmother and our lunches at the Overbrook Tea Room!

Submitted by VOICES of Conse... (2 years ago)

The problem has been the lack of support for Conservative Women running for office. The Left has done a great deal of work creating a series of PACs, networks where Liberal ladies can go for electoral support. Whereas, Conservative Women have had historically no network. For example in the last 15 years Liberal women in Minnesota have increased their number by 30 to 50 % in the State Legislature whereas Conservative Women's numbers have remained FLAT.

Women are CEOs, small business owners, moms balancing their checkbooks and the young woman looking for her first job. We want to talk about the economy, taxes, business issues. We feel all women benefit in a growing economy and there is consensus on these issues. It's about time more women spoke up and make their VOICE heard. We are looking forward to election day.

VOICES of Conservative Women was formed to support Conservative Women running for office who support fiscal responsibility, limited government and the free market. We are helping our candidates win and redefining who speaks for women today. We have also raised the largest war chest every raised to help Conservative Women win in Minnesota. We are continuing to raise the funds our women need to win in November and beyond.

To learn more about us visit
www.voicesofconservativewomen.org
www.twitter.com/voiceswomen
www.facebook.com/voiceswomen

Jennifer DeJournett
VOICES of Conservative Women
info@voicesofconservativewomen.org