Women Not Valued Politically

1992 was labeled “The Year of the Woman” due to the large number of women who were elected to the United States Congress for the first time.  2010 has the potential of being “The Year of the Woman: Part Two” as 160 women appear on gubernatorial and congessional ballots across America.  However, gender-target slurs slung at Meg Whitman (who was called a “whore” by a Jerry Brown campaign staffer), Mary Landrieu (a talk show host referred to her as “a high-class prostitute”), Carly Fiorina, Sharron Angle, Nikki Haley…not to mention the attacks aimed at Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in 2008 could have a profound effect on who is and who is not elected in the upcoming election.  Beyond being in poor taste and low class, the effects of these gender attacks are felt by female candidates at the ballot box.

The Women’s Media Center, Women’s Campaign Forum, and Political Parity sponsored a study which uncovered that female candidates lost twice as much support when even mild sexist language was added to a political attack.  Voters in the study saw the female candidate as less empathetic, trustworthy, and effective after the sexist attacks.  Negative campaign ads and personal attacks have long been part of the political playbook but have largely been utilized with two men running against one another.  Over the years, not as many women as men have been running in high profile contests as there are this year.  Female candidates, though having faced these types of personal attacks over the years, are experiencing a new level of scrutiny due to the facts that there are more women running this year for high profile positions and the political stakes are incredibly high.   Personal attacks between two male candidates are just seen as “a tough political fight” whereas a personal attack aimed at a woman can seriously undermine her candidacy.  Voters may look at the female candidate and not only judge whether she is qualified for the position but whether a woman is qualified for the job.  The World Economic Forum just released its 2010 Global Gender Gap Report.  The WEF found that 59% of the economic outcomes gap and only 18% of the political outcomes gap have been closed. Women are being undervalued in the political process and their ability to affect positive changes in our government are diminished.

The WEF, like me, believes that in devaluing women in our boardrooms and government leads to relegating half our of best and brightest talent to the sidelines to watch while  men try to straighten things out.  With the world and U.S. economies underperforming (to say the least) we need to put to the best available minds – male and female – to work to get us out of the mess we’re in.

With Election Day a few days away, we will see if 2010 is indeed the second edition of “The Year of the Woman” and how many women are swept into office on the strength of their ideas and qualifications and how many women are pushed aside due to the politics of personal destruction and gender slurs.