Read Online What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power by Marianne Schnall - Free Book Online
Authors: Marianne Schnall
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parity. Why is that?
DB : You know, right after women gained the vote in 1920, there were articles out like, “Why has it taken so long?” Well, first of all, women had to, like everybody else, figure out the political process. They had to register to vote, they had to join a political party, they had to begin to identify andbuild political resources. Again, we’ve made terrific progress since 1920, and why has it taken so long? Because, first of all, it still takes a candidate—incumbency is still a major obstacle. If you look at the years that women have won, made some significant gains in Congress, they coincided with years following redistricting or years where we saw a lot of retirement, big election years. Those years tend to be presidential years, but there have been a lot of nonpresidential years where women have made gains, so why has it taken so long? It still takes a candidate. It still takes motivating women to run for office and then following that with supporting those women candidates so that they have a good chance of winning.
MS : Speaking of which, I keep running into these studies saying that women have to really be actively coaxed and convinced to run for office. Why do you think that is?
DB : Political socialization is still a factor. Most girls don’t grow up thinking that they want to be out there in the rough-and-tumble of politics. Politics is not, as they often say, for the fainthearted, but it is part of our culture to try to encourage people to seek public office in some capacity. . . . You have to go out there and encourage women. You’ve got to give women the tools they need in order to believe that they can be successful when they get there. Some women believe that it’s important to run after they’ve finished their so-called child-rearing years, if that’s still a matter of interest to them. Some women believe that they have to have a solid education and this, that, and the other. What they simply don’t know is that most men wake up in the morning or wake up in the middle of the night, and decide, Why not? They feel very passionately. When you look at the number of women who are serving today and you go back and look at the reasons why they decided to run, often they have to do with raising their kids and wanting a better education in their community, or fightingfor environmental issues. So it takes all kinds of reasons. But the good news is that I think we’ve turned the corner; we just can’t see as far as we want to see down the road.
MS : Sometimes this is framed as almost a competition between men and women—an equality thing, as if we just want parity for parity’s sake—but why is it important? Why is this not a “women’s issue” but something that men should also support?
DB : Because every time that women have made progress, typically it’s because some woman stepped up and stood up and said, “You know what? This has to change.” Because the progress we’ve seen in our lifetime happened because of women who dared, women of courage—women like Olympia Snowe and Pat Schroeder and others. Because they spoke up and we got Title IX, because they spoke up and they were able to change the Family Medical Leave Act, they were able to make advancements on so many other fronts—assuring that women had access to credit cards, as my home-state congresswoman Lindy Boggs did. So it’s important that women continue to see that when women run, they make a difference in our lives. They tend to be more collaborative. There was a study recently, in The New York Times , I believe, about the women in the United States Senate—they want to get along, they want to work across the aisle, they don’t have this macho thing that they can’t compromise or they can’t find common ground.
MS : Regarding leadership positions, the numbers are low not just in Washington but across the board in terms of CEOs and Fortune 500 companies, as Sheryl Sandberg’s book has been
DB : You know, right after women gained the vote in 1920, there were articles out like, “Why has it taken so long?” Well, first of all, women had to, like everybody else, figure out the political process. They had to register to vote, they had to join a political party, they had to begin to identify andbuild political resources. Again, we’ve made terrific progress since 1920, and why has it taken so long? Because, first of all, it still takes a candidate—incumbency is still a major obstacle. If you look at the years that women have won, made some significant gains in Congress, they coincided with years following redistricting or years where we saw a lot of retirement, big election years. Those years tend to be presidential years, but there have been a lot of nonpresidential years where women have made gains, so why has it taken so long? It still takes a candidate. It still takes motivating women to run for office and then following that with supporting those women candidates so that they have a good chance of winning.
MS : Speaking of which, I keep running into these studies saying that women have to really be actively coaxed and convinced to run for office. Why do you think that is?
DB : Political socialization is still a factor. Most girls don’t grow up thinking that they want to be out there in the rough-and-tumble of politics. Politics is not, as they often say, for the fainthearted, but it is part of our culture to try to encourage people to seek public office in some capacity. . . . You have to go out there and encourage women. You’ve got to give women the tools they need in order to believe that they can be successful when they get there. Some women believe that it’s important to run after they’ve finished their so-called child-rearing years, if that’s still a matter of interest to them. Some women believe that they have to have a solid education and this, that, and the other. What they simply don’t know is that most men wake up in the morning or wake up in the middle of the night, and decide, Why not? They feel very passionately. When you look at the number of women who are serving today and you go back and look at the reasons why they decided to run, often they have to do with raising their kids and wanting a better education in their community, or fightingfor environmental issues. So it takes all kinds of reasons. But the good news is that I think we’ve turned the corner; we just can’t see as far as we want to see down the road.
MS : Sometimes this is framed as almost a competition between men and women—an equality thing, as if we just want parity for parity’s sake—but why is it important? Why is this not a “women’s issue” but something that men should also support?
DB : Because every time that women have made progress, typically it’s because some woman stepped up and stood up and said, “You know what? This has to change.” Because the progress we’ve seen in our lifetime happened because of women who dared, women of courage—women like Olympia Snowe and Pat Schroeder and others. Because they spoke up and we got Title IX, because they spoke up and they were able to change the Family Medical Leave Act, they were able to make advancements on so many other fronts—assuring that women had access to credit cards, as my home-state congresswoman Lindy Boggs did. So it’s important that women continue to see that when women run, they make a difference in our lives. They tend to be more collaborative. There was a study recently, in The New York Times , I believe, about the women in the United States Senate—they want to get along, they want to work across the aisle, they don’t have this macho thing that they can’t compromise or they can’t find common ground.
MS : Regarding leadership positions, the numbers are low not just in Washington but across the board in terms of CEOs and Fortune 500 companies, as Sheryl Sandberg’s book has been
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