Women's vote could tip close Va. contest

By Lisa Rein

updated 10:37 a.m. ET Oct. 23, 2006

WASHINGTON - Their biographies exude machismo: James Webb, the Marine firing his M50 antitank rifles in the jungles of Vietnam, and George Allen, the tobacco-chewing cowboy who as governor once stirred GOP delegates with this line about Democrats: "Let's enjoy knocking their soft teeth down their whining throats."

But Webb, the former Navy secretary, and Allen, the first-term Republican senator, are trying to soften their tough-guy personas as they appeal to the 1.9 million women who represent more than half of Virginia voters. The candidates are virtually tied among likely female voters, a recent Washington Post poll shows.

Allen put his Democratic challenger on the defensive early in the campaign over a magazine article Webb penned 27 years ago that questioned a woman's place at the U.S. Naval Academy and on the battlefield. Webb, who led a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam, has tried to convince Virginia women that his controversial words reflected a turbulent era, not personal hostility.

Webb has hesitated to address Allen's record on women. But in Allen's 23 years in politics, some votes and policies have dogged him. As governor in the 1990s, Allen said he would accept an invitation to a males-only country club but changed his mind amid criticism. He also opposed coeducation at the Virginia Military Institute. In Congress, he opposed federal legislation giving women unpaid leave after the birth of a child.

Changing times
Both candidates say their positions have evolved. Webb says that he opened up doors to women as President Ronald Reagan's Navy secretary in the 1980s and that his policies in that era have had a lasting -- and positive -- effect on women's role in the military. Allen argues that when the courts ordered that women be admitted to VMI, he ensured that women were welcomed at the state institution. He also says his policies on crime, education and other issues appeal to women and families.

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Whoever can move female voters onto his side may very well win the race, which recent polls show is virtually even. Successful Virginia Democrats, such as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and his predecessor Mark R. Warner, have held leads among women heading into Election Day, according to preelection polling. Webb might have to win over more women than recent polls suggest he has if he is to win his challenge against Allen.

In a race in which traditional women's issues such as abortion have been largely absent, controversy has instead centered on Webb's past writing and Allen's past votes and policies. Webb is trying to convince voters that he's changed. Allen is arguing that his emphasis on family values appeals to Virginia women.

Webb's history
Records and interviews show that Webb did increase opportunities for women as Navy secretary, but some critics argue that he did so under pressure from superiors.

Webb's article, "Women Can't Fight," appeared in Washingtonian magazine in 1979, three years after women entered the Naval Academy. He questioned their place at an institution whose primary function was to train men as combat leaders. "By attempting to sexually sterilize the Naval Academy environment in the name of equality, this country has sterilized the whole process of combat leadership training, and our military forces are doomed to suffer the consequences," he wrote.

The article has haunted his career. Navy women in the late 1970s were limited to traditional career fields of nursing, administration and communication. Few shipboard assignments were open to them. They were fighting for credibility in nontraditional roles. And many said Webb's words subjected them to hostility.

"It was the talk of the Navy," recalled Linda Postenrieder, a retired surface warfare officer who graduated in the third class to include women at Annapolis. "Even guys who were supportive were asking us why were we there."

A turnabout
Postenrieder denounced the article at an Allen news conference last month and asked Webb to apologize. He did, and she now supports him.

Webb's defenders say his words should be seen in the context of a generation of Vietnam veterans who had endured grueling combat conditions.

"The environment he saw was not one women belonged in," recalled Leon "Bud" Edney, who was chief of naval personnel under Webb. Edney said Webb "had a deep, visceral feeling" that if a man saw a wounded woman, it would be "completely destabilizing."

Edney was commandant of midshipmen at Annapolis after the release of "Women Can't Fight." He would not let Webb speak there because of the furor. Nevertheless, he said, "It's difficult to take someone's actions coming out of a failed war in Vietnam and fast-forward 27 years to say he is hostile to women."

Webb called the article an "overreach" and said he is now comfortable with the combat roles of Navy women, who today are restricted only from submarines and service as Navy Seals.

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