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A mixed bag for women this election year
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Bright spots in some states
Women's groups do see bright spots: In North Carolina, Beverly Perdue was elected the state's first female governor — and the state retained a female senator when Democrat Kay Hagan unseated Elizabeth Dole. In New Hampshire, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen defeated Republican Sen. John Sununu.
But overall growth has been very slow, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Which is why she calls it both an extraordinary year and an ordinary one, too.
The problem, Walsh says, is that when it comes to female candidates, "the bench is very small." And that's significant because Clinton and Palin didn't come from nowhere: one's a senator, one's a governor. "We need more women in the pipeline," Walsh says — especially governors, since so many presidents come from those ranks.
Promising faces in the pipeline
Who are the most promising faces in that pipeline? Among Democrats, Napolitano and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, who chaired the Democratic convention, have dramatically increased their profiles, and there's the just-elected Perdue, as well as Shaheen. Among Republicans, for now, Palin seems to be the new face of the party.
One troubling aspect to this year's race: the perception among so many women that sexism, particularly in the media, is alive and well. They point to caricatures of Clinton as a nutcracker and references to her voice as chalk on a blackboard. They are still galled by the memory of MSNBC host Tucker Carlson saying that when he sees Clinton he reflexively crosses his legs.
As for Palin, she was denigrated, many feel, by references to her looks and descriptions of her as "hot" — though her opponents argue she helped feed such characterizations by winking at audiences, as during her debate with Sen. Joe Biden.
On the other hand, this may turn out to be the year that launched a real psychological shift, with young people, especially, seeing that a woman can run a hugely competitive campaign for president.
Changing perceptions with this election
Such an effect is, as yet, incalculable, as is the effect on young blacks of seeing the nation elect its first black president. But there are hints of how this election year may have changed perceptions: In June, two-thirds (67 percent) of adults felt America was ready for a woman president, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll.
That's up from a CBS News Poll in January 2007, a year before Clinton's New Hampshire win, when 54 percent of adults felt that America was ready to elect a woman president.
Also energizing women is the sight of important national security posts going to females — Clinton as the top diplomat, Susan Rice as U.N. ambassador, Napolitano as homeland security chief. What global changes, women wonder, might be in store under their influence?
That's partly why Eleanor Smeal, one of the nation's most prominent feminists, is so optimistic.
"It's a lot more than those 18 million cracks," says Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. "It's the perception that women can be anything."
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