cross posted from Our Word
It appears that the men and women of Iowa have a problem with women holding elected office. It is the only state besides Mississippi to have never elected a woman to the governorship or congress.
from the LA Times (registration required)
Since 1920, when women gained the right to vote, only 11 women have won statewide election in Iowa. All told, 21 states have elected women as governors, and eight states have a woman in the statehouse today.
It looks like women, particularly older women, are being blamed for this situation:
Among the possible explanations is Iowa’s predominantly senior population and their deeply held views on the role of women as well as the tendency for urban areas to elect more women than rural states.
Iowa ranks fourth in the nation in the percentage of its population 65 and older and is heavily rural. The city of Des Moines is the state’s largest, with close to 200,000 residents.
Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for the Study of Women in Politics at Iowa State University, said surveys “show that older women tend to be less supportive of other women than younger women.”
Ann Hutchinson, who recently ran for Congress from Iowa and lost, has this to say:
“There are barriers in attitudes, particularly among women,” Hutchinson said. “Why is it that women don’t want other women to succeed?”
Joy Corning, a republican and one of the few women to hold statewide elected office in Iowa, served as lieutenant governor for 2 terms. Although her race for governor never took off, she says:
“I had never felt I was discriminated against because I was a woman. But, you know, there may have been some subtle things that I missed,” Corning said. “I don’t know the answer.”
California hasn’t elected a woman governor either, and to the best of my spotty knowledge, hasn’t elected a woman lieutnenant governor either.
But in the case of California, it may just be that the women for some reason aren’t running for the post; we’ve got two women US Senators, and they’ve both been elected (and re-elected) relatively easily.
Could that be the same case in Iowa — more a lack of candidates than actual discrimination?
Just asking…
California has TWO women senators, and women in Congress out the wazoo. (At a couple of different times, every legislative representative I had–from city council, up through state house and senate, through US House and Senate were all women–and Democrats, of course.)
Iowa’s never sent a woman to Washington, apparently. That’s a HUGE difference.
We almost had a woman Gov in California, when whatshername… Kathleen Brown? ran. She was running ahead, but that’s when Wilson pulled the racist vote out of his hat, with Prop 187, if I’m remembering correctly.
Other than her, I don’t know of any higher profile women running for Gov in recent times. DiFi is always mentioned, but hasn’t run.
Iowa does have two women in statewide office: Lt. Gov. Sally Petersen, and Sec. of Agriculture Patty Judge, both of whom are Democrats. As the article mentioned, the Republicans have also run women at that level. Democrats have nominated two women for Congress recently, but neither was able to win.
It’s hard to say what’s going on in Iowa’s elections. Back in 1998, the state passed a constitutional amendment to grant equal rights to women, and it passed with more than 90%, so I don’t think it is traditional chauvanism.
I come across this sometimes… among all sorts of women. Not even the “woman’s place is in the home” type people, always… but women who have been convinced, by whatever method, that women just aren’t “temperamentally suited” to run for higher office, or to be CEOs and so on.
“They are fine in a support role, in government or business”.
Very strange and sort of difficult to break through, no matter how many facts you present. Luckily, in CA at least, they are nowhere near the majority.
I think it’s pretty obvious that women are better leaders than men, simply because they’re better at listening. Successful strategic leadership absolutely requires the ability to take correction, and male egos are generally not well suited to that.
Men can, however, be fairly effective as tactical leaders, where the context is already defined, and listening skills are not so critical for success. But here’s the rub: with our glass-ceiling society we’ve got things set up so that most women leaders are stuck at the tactical levels of leadership, where their greatest advantages cannot be fully realized. And because of that, we continue to under-estimate what they could accomplish given more prominent roles.
In the private sector, a lot of women have simply left corporate employment that failed to promote them, and have started their own businesses. But there is no clear parallel in public officeholding.
Being an Iowa Woman I have been thinking about this diary for a while and trying to figure it out. And I don’t think that people just reject women because they are women. We have them in the state house. I really think they just don’t or won’t run. And I can’t say I blame them as it is a long and often dirty road. My mother-en-law who is in her 80’s has often mentioned she wish more women would run for office and I really do not know any “older” women who are not supportive of women. Women are very active in their parties but do they get encouragement from the party to try?? Perhaps with Dean in power we will see some new faces and names?
from the article, it appears that women are running for statewide or national office in iowa, but that they are losing.
even Joy Corning, who served 2 terms as lt. governor found little or no support for her to hold the state’s highest office and her campaign fizzled before it really got started.