Every night when I go to bed I look at a personalized bumper sticker that sits above my head board. Future West Virginia Senator : Ashley Hawkins. It is a constant reminder of my goals and ambitions. This week I dove more into the book The Political Consequences of Being a Woman by Kim Fridkin Kahn. My project is dealing with helping run a successful Gubernatorial campaign for a female candidate. Because of this while reading the book, I focused on the overall political situation women face in a Gubernatorial race. In doing my research this week I found out some interesting information about successful statewide political races. And came to the realization that maybe my sticker should say future WV Governor.
Plain and simple the numbers show that it is easier to become a female Governor than a female Senator. But neither of these offices are easy to get elected into as a woman. West Virginia has never had a female Senator or Governor. In the history of this country there has only been 35 female governors ever and 39 female senators. But of the 39 senators 13 were appointed and 7 of those were appointed to fulfill the terms of their deceased husbands. So honestly there have only been 26 elected female senators. This threw me. I mean they are both state elections what would make the difference. What it comes down to is the issues and stereotypes.
There are certain stereotypes about what women are good at and the positive traits they posses. Women are supposed to be warm, understanding, emotional and compassionate. Unfortunately it is very hard to get around these stereotypical beliefs of a women’s character. Even more sadly is all women who are trying to be competitive in the political arena must posses these traits or they will get no where. Lacking these will make you too “ manly” and will make voters uncomfortable voting for you. These trends of “ soft “ traits lend themselves to such issues and platforms as education and healthcare more than say defense and fiscal/economic issues. This is where the split for Governor and Senator arises. A Gubernatorial campaign focuses on the needs of the state on the state level. It will deal extensively on issues such as educational and healthcare. Things women are supposed to be good at. At the Senatorial level the view is a bit more nationwide. You represent your state but the outcome is for the best of the nation. These issues range more to the defense and economic issues. Women are “not” supposed to be good in that arena. There are ways to try and overcome these issues through your campaign but that is another topic for another day.
Overall sadly even in the political world stereotypes are throwing women into the roles they feel they could play best. It’s ironic that we feel as if we have come so far even though we have so much farther to go. This being said I feel as if the Senator sticker will stay. There maybe a Governor one to join it someday. You never know where life will take you.
Photo used with a creative commons liscense:http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/3631547119/sizes/m/in/photostream/
I'll vote for you Ashley.
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