EDITORIAL Women are running for office, but hostility lingers
In a news conference a little more than a week before he was murdered, John F. Kennedy fielded questions from the almost-exclusively male White House press corps about a trade war with what was then called Red China, the fate of tax and civil rights bills that were languishing in Congress, and the instability in South Vietnam following a coup.
He was also asked about the possibility that Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican senator from Maine, was going to launch a presidential campaign in 1964. There were some chuckles in the room before Kennedy stated, “I would think if I were a Republican candidate, I would not look forward to campaigning against Margaret Chase Smith in New Hampshire – (laughter) – or as a possible candidate for president. I think she is very formidable, if that is the appropriate word to use about a very fine lady. She is a very formidable political figure!”
Kennedy may have been many things, but he was a product of his times, and it’s hard not to notice the condescension of his response. A woman presidential candidate? In the world Kennedy inhabited, the roles women could take on in politics were pretty much limited to making coffee, taking dictation and being photogenic helpmeets.
That changed rapidly in the years after Kennedy’s death, as the women’s movement gathered steam and led more and more women into the workforce.
Other female presidential candidates have followed in the last half-century, though one has yet to ascend to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and women can readily be found on Capitol Hill, in statehouses, legislatures, county commissions and city councils around the country. The state senator for Washington and Greene counties is Republican Camera Bartolotta, and Diana Irey Vaughan, also a Republican, is the longest-serving member of the Washington County Board of Commissioners. Pam Snyder, a Democrat, represents Greene County and parts of Fayette and Washington counties in the state House of Representatives. All told, 200 women will be competing for the 435 seats up for grabs in the U.S. House of Representatives this year, and that includes Bibiana Boerio, the Democratic candidate in Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District, which includes Washington and Greene counties.
Progress has been made, and more will be made. It would be foolish to bet against a woman becoming president in the next decade or two.
Nevertheless, an article in last Sunday’s New York Times highlighted the resistance that female candidates continue to face, although “resistance” is too polite a word. More appropriate would be “ugly, crude sexist abuse.”
One of the candidates, a 27-year-old former congressional contender in California, reports that the drumbeat of misogynistic invective has continued even two years after she lost a Democratic primary race. “Another feminazi’s plans foiled!” was one recent online message. But that’s as charming as roses and a bottle of claret when compared to some of the messages she received during her campaign. One stated, “All would laugh with glee as they gang raped her and then bashed her bagel-eating brains in.”
The article notes women who pursue other lines of work are subject to harassment, as are men who are ethnic or religious minorities. And the online world is rife with bullying, especially in the age of Trump. But the animus directed toward women is particularly eye-opening – and unsettling.
To paraphrase the 1970s Virginia Slims cigarette ad, we’ve come a long way, baby. Alas, we still have a long way to go.