The New Wave: Stereotypes, Prejudices and Other Challenges for Women In Politics

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — With a record number of female candidates, there is talk of this being the year of the woman. But progress has been slow.

In this week’s segment of The New Wave: Women In Politics, Peter Haskell looks at the challenges women have faced in getting elected.

“We live in a world, in a culture where sexism exists,” said former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has seen the challenges firsthand.

Sometimes the bias is about looks, and other times it’s about knowledge.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., remembers testifying about a big defense contractor in her district.

“I finished my testimony and Congressman Lewis from California he said to me, ‘Congresswoman DeLauro, can you talk about the M1-A1 tank and the engine without looking at your notes?’ and I turned to him and I said, ‘Damn straight I can,'” she said.

“What do you make of that?” Haskell asked.

“It was just about women don’t deal with the defense industy,” DeLauro said.

She says there’s a continuing double standard.

“Women have to work harder still today. A lot of my male colleagues can stand up, and say whatever they want. They can drool on the floor of the House of Representatives and it doesn’t make any difference. Women have to know what they are talking about,” DeLauro said.

Part of the problem has been the old boys network.

“Women are far less likely to get asked to run for office by party officials, elected officials, influential community leaders,” said Jean Sinzdak, deputy director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers.

Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman points to a problematic perception.

“Women will always be looked on as primary caregivers — whether it’s for children, spouses, significant others, parents it doesn’t matter. And that has engendered this idea that somehow you can’t do that and still be effective at your job, which is just simply not true,” Whitman said.

Former New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said when she was running for the Monmouth County sheriff’s office, she was asked, “How are you going to run a jail and run a law enforcement agency when you have three children?”

“They wouldn’t ask a man that question. They would assume a man wouild be able to do it and have children,” Guadagno said. “And my answer was: ‘The same way you do. You have a family, you have a very supportive spouse, you have help and you raise your kids.'”

Liz Holtzman, a former congresswoman and former Brooklyn district attorney, said prejudices and stereotypes are still standing in the way of women.

“There are stereotypes out there that women can’t do certain kinds of jobs, particularly executive jobs. Those stereotypes are very hard to eradicate,” Holtzman said. “We made a lot of progress. When I was first elected and took office in 1973, there was no woman on the Supreme Court; there’d been no women of any prominence holding the top cabinet positions; women weren’t heads of symphonies or univerisities. We’ve seen that change.”

Although progress has been made, Holtzman said the country still has a long way to go.

“The basic attitude is still too pervasive that women can’t do this job and women can do the job and women will do the job,” she said. “I think there’s a long way to go, and I’m very troubled and a bit disheartened by the lack of progress we’ve made in terms of changing people’s attitudes about the role of women in society.”

But Brigid Harrison, who teaches political science at Montclair State University, said she is seeing some improvements.

“Women, compared to say 20 or 30 years ago, have larger professional networks. They have more net worth and so they’re better able to fund their campaigns. They’re better able to have connections to fund their campaigns,” Harrison said.

Neil A. Carousso produced WCBS Newsradio 880 reporter Peter Haskell’s multi-platform series titled “The New Wave: Women in Politics.” See the video piece of this installment here.