Thursday, September 14, 2006
So sue me
Think women have it easy when it comes to running for office? If so, what planet are you from? *Grin*
Anyway, Claudia Elqiust, who ran for County Attorney in Pima County AZ has written a short piece about what it's like for female candidates. Take a peek behind the "Read more!" link because, well, we need a lot more female candidates, and Ms. Elquist's words are from the most valuable teacher: experience. Hit the link to get her pearls of wisdom...
As another woman who has run for office, let me add more points.
1. women candidates feel a need to be more welcoming, in the way they run, and, at the same time,
2. have personal safety issues that male candidates do not encounter, or encounter in a different way.
3. Women candidates have a harder time raising money, because they are taken less seriously, and because the folks who take them seriously have less money. More fundraising mailings need to go out, because fewer, smaller checks will come back in. Also people will feel free to tie their generosity to whether you, as a woman candidate, take their advice, in a way they would not consider doing with a male candidate.
4. Women candidates need to carefully word critiques of their opponents, because an audience/ the press will interpret criticism from a woman in a more personalized way than criticism between men. (As "emasculation," if aimed at a man, or as "a catfight," if aimed at a woman.) At the same time, others, obliviously, will complain if she does not "go for the jugular."
5. A woman candidate has a narrower candidate wardrobe, with more changes, and has to fend off "well-meaning" advice to radically change her appearance. This will be disguised in societal norms ("Where do people get their ideas about what a woman prosecutor should look like? From TV! You have to use the TV standard if you want to get elected.")
6. Women candidates are stereotyped about the issues on which they have expertise. The kinds of experience they put on resumes will, usually, be different. For example, they may know a good deal more, as a former volunteer for an agency, than a person who occasionally sat in on it's board and received reports, but the words "volunteer" and "board member" will carry different weights.
7. There is a societal assumption that she was recruited "as a woman" and that this means that she is, somehow, not as qualified as a man, who, presumably, is recruited on criteria other than being male. At one point, on this very list, Greens began brainstorming a list of women who might make good candidates for the GP-US presidential team, and, sure enough, even here, some delegates felt a need, apropos of nothing, to remind us all to look for the "most qualified" candidate. If Greens, at this level, can make that jump of disconnect, then many others will, because we are all trained by our society to do so.
8. The realization about these things can help a woman candidate to be more intentional and reflective as she designs her campaign, and can lead to some very creative and positive campaigning.
9. Men can educate themselves to be sensitive to all of this, as they award money to campaigns, etc. And women have not necessarily unraveled the whole ball of twine in thinking it through. We are taught to be sexist against women, just like you men are, and it gets internalized in us as well. But we have the disadvantage/ advantage, that every day, we wake up female, and get reminded. When women look at how women's campaigns should be funded, and run, it is not just a theoretical justice
issue-- it is intrinsic to the core. And it is sometimes hard to tell men that without getting their backs up.
--claudia ellquist, AzGP
2004 Green candidate for Pima County Attorney, 23,028 votes
Anyway, Claudia Elqiust, who ran for County Attorney in Pima County AZ has written a short piece about what it's like for female candidates. Take a peek behind the "Read more!" link because, well, we need a lot more female candidates, and Ms. Elquist's words are from the most valuable teacher: experience. Hit the link to get her pearls of wisdom...
As another woman who has run for office, let me add more points.
1. women candidates feel a need to be more welcoming, in the way they run, and, at the same time,
2. have personal safety issues that male candidates do not encounter, or encounter in a different way.
3. Women candidates have a harder time raising money, because they are taken less seriously, and because the folks who take them seriously have less money. More fundraising mailings need to go out, because fewer, smaller checks will come back in. Also people will feel free to tie their generosity to whether you, as a woman candidate, take their advice, in a way they would not consider doing with a male candidate.
4. Women candidates need to carefully word critiques of their opponents, because an audience/ the press will interpret criticism from a woman in a more personalized way than criticism between men. (As "emasculation," if aimed at a man, or as "a catfight," if aimed at a woman.) At the same time, others, obliviously, will complain if she does not "go for the jugular."
5. A woman candidate has a narrower candidate wardrobe, with more changes, and has to fend off "well-meaning" advice to radically change her appearance. This will be disguised in societal norms ("Where do people get their ideas about what a woman prosecutor should look like? From TV! You have to use the TV standard if you want to get elected.")
6. Women candidates are stereotyped about the issues on which they have expertise. The kinds of experience they put on resumes will, usually, be different. For example, they may know a good deal more, as a former volunteer for an agency, than a person who occasionally sat in on it's board and received reports, but the words "volunteer" and "board member" will carry different weights.
7. There is a societal assumption that she was recruited "as a woman" and that this means that she is, somehow, not as qualified as a man, who, presumably, is recruited on criteria other than being male. At one point, on this very list, Greens began brainstorming a list of women who might make good candidates for the GP-US presidential team, and, sure enough, even here, some delegates felt a need, apropos of nothing, to remind us all to look for the "most qualified" candidate. If Greens, at this level, can make that jump of disconnect, then many others will, because we are all trained by our society to do so.
8. The realization about these things can help a woman candidate to be more intentional and reflective as she designs her campaign, and can lead to some very creative and positive campaigning.
9. Men can educate themselves to be sensitive to all of this, as they award money to campaigns, etc. And women have not necessarily unraveled the whole ball of twine in thinking it through. We are taught to be sexist against women, just like you men are, and it gets internalized in us as well. But we have the disadvantage/ advantage, that every day, we wake up female, and get reminded. When women look at how women's campaigns should be funded, and run, it is not just a theoretical justice
issue-- it is intrinsic to the core. And it is sometimes hard to tell men that without getting their backs up.
--claudia ellquist, AzGP
2004 Green candidate for Pima County Attorney, 23,028 votes
// posted by Gregg Jocoy @ 9:30 PM 
