Working for more female officials

The Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus is a non-partisan organization founded in 1971 to maximize the participation of women of all ages in the political process and to increase the number of women appointed and elected to public office and public policy positions. The group only endorses women.

Sometimes that mission statement seems contrary to the organization’s own best interests. Case in point: the MWPC endorsed former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healy against Deval Patrick for governor in 2006.

Patrick won the election, and a case can be made that the Democrat’s policies have helped women more than what Republican Healy would have done had she been elected. 

Democrats at the state and national level have consistently backed a wide range of programs and services that tend to favor women, from increased funding for daycare and women, infants and children services to stronger support for Medicare and Medicaid, programs that help older women and poor women disproportionately.

Republicans are much less likely to champion these initiatives.

But in the face of these facts, the caucus exists to help further the careers of only females, and it’s hard to argue against its logic. 

The history of discrimination against women in this country is irrefutable, sad and stupid. Not only did you have to be a property owner at the time of the birth of the nation to participate in the political process, but you had to be a man.

Women didn’t get the voting franchise until the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, 144 years after the Declaration of Independence. 

And women’s suffrage went into effect 50 years after the enactment of the 15th Amendment that guaranteed the voting franchise for persons of any race and color. Unfortunately, in 1870, when the 15th Amendment went on the books, “persons” did not include women.

Congress is a good example of how far women have come since suffrage. In the Congress that ended its session in January, only 17.5 percent of the members of the Senate and House of Representatives were women.

The 50 state legislatures were marginally better, where 23.7 percent of all state legislators were women. Colorado led all the other states, with women legislators holding 40 percent of the seats. Louisiana was at the bottom, with only 11.1 percent of the seats.

And Massachusetts only had 22 percent women state legislators, lower even than the national average.

Progressive voters can’t help being torn between supporting liberal male candidates or more conservative women candidates.

Those who believe that a left-leaning public policy trumps everything else, regardless of the gender of the candidate, will likely vote for the man. Those who believe that establishing gender equality in the political system is more important than a progressive agenda will probably vote for the woman.

Healy, the former lieutenant governor, recognized this conundrum from the right side of the political spectrum and became co-chair of Political Parity, a non-partisan initiative that hopes to double the number of women at the highest levels of U.S. government by 2022. 

Last year, she told The Springfield Republican she believed leaders from the Democratic Party were promoting female candidates better than Republicans and the issue of supporting women to run for office should be bi-partisan.

It’s illuminating to note that, a dozen years ago, the MWPC established an annual “Good Guy” award, recognizing men who demonstrate a commitment to achieving equal representation for women in elected and appointed office.

And it’s ironic to note that one of this year’s winners is none other than Patrick, the man who beat Healy in spite of the MWPC endorsement in 2006. 

There’s more than one way to work for equal representation by female officials. And it should also involve men.

Posted by Bruce Garlow on April 18, 2013. Filed under Berkshire Beacon Hill Spotlight,Columns,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry