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Dreary and rosy outlooks for women candidates

March 28, 2012

The March 25 front-page article “ ‘Year of the Woman’ fading” was hardly surprising. The conception that elected women would transform our governance is the feminist yin counterpoised to the misogynist yang. Each is merely a bias. And like most biases, each is superficial and usually wrong. The fact is, women are subject to the same compromises, errors, malfeasances and other disappointments brought to us in such abundance by male politicians.

This article reported that there is no apparent anti-woman vote. Female and male candidates win office at comparable rates.

The reported redoubling of efforts by “advocates of all political stripes” to elect more women this fall qualifies as just one more interest group bidding for power. After all, female advocates of all political stripes have little to agree upon beyond gender. They are left only with two equally pathetic assertions: Either women inherently produce better governance than men or there is a gender-based agenda that favors women as a class. Neither is a winning argument with the broader electorate.

Robert Tenney, Gaithersburg

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While the front-page article on woman politicians asserted that the number of women running for office has plateaued, 2012 is poised to be historic in terms of women being elected. In fact, a record-breaking number of women are running for the Senate: Six new challengers are Democratic women running strong campaigns, and the six Democratic female incumbents are in excellent shape for reelection. That means that, despite Republican retirements, the Senate could have many new women at this time next year.

And while the article was correct in stating that the number of women serving in the House of Representatives dropped after the 2010 elections, Democratic women have already reversed those losses by winning three out of five special elections in 2011.

With the field of female House candidates growing every day, it is almost guaranteed that the number of women serving will increase after 2012. And these candidates have a tremendous wave of support behind them. Since the Republicans began pursuing their war on women, poll after poll shows female voters rejecting their divisive social agenda and preferring candidates who put women and families first.

Stephanie Schriock, Washington

The writer is president of EMILY’s List.