I know it’s super provincial, but I don’t care: I love it when Seattle and Washington State get mentioned in the New York Times, especially for good things.
Nationwide, women’s groups point out the glaring gender disparity in public life, noting that there are only 6 female governors and 17 female senators. Across the country, women make up 23.6 percent of state legislatures, according to Off the Sidelines, a project started last year by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York. But in Washington State, women’s serving in public office has been as consistent as the rain.
“Every once in a while a note or a letter will mention it,” Ms. Gregoire said. “But mostly, it’s taken for granted.”
Courtney Gregoire, her daughter, would relay differences between Washington State and Washington, D.C., where she worked as the director of the National Export Initiative at the Commerce Department. She found herself biting her tongue when men mentioned her age (she is 32), and she started wearing pantsuits to appear older. Once, after being the lone woman in a meeting of 25, she called her mother.
The governor replied, “Welcome to how it was for us.”
There’s still a lot of work for equal representation here in Washington. A lot of women are retiring from the legislature this year. I mentioned a while ago that we might not have any women elected executive officers come November. I don’t think the Democratic party has done a particularly good job in recent years of recruiting women.
Also, the Norm Dicks quote (if it was in context) makes me glad he’s retiring.
“I think women tend to advocate for women, and I think to myself, ‘They ought to mention men, too,’ ” he said. “When I’m running, I’m not just talking about men, I’m talking about men, women and children. I think women in politics have to be a little careful not to act as if they’re just representing women.”
Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Gregoire and Ms. Murray have campaigned together, he said, and Ms. Murray in particular has focused on recruiting women to run for public office.
“All of that is great but I feel like, ‘Can’t they find a good man to run sometimes?’ ” Mr. Dicks said.
If only men would run for office sometimes.
I would never go so far as prescribing a certain Political intelligence to gender. I agree that we need more women in politics. But the reality is, some of the gnastiest, most irrational and disturbed TeaBagger types I’ve come across are females. There are some deeply psychotic people in this world, and an awful lot of them seem to be that brand of American “conservatism” that seems to be entirely about anything but conservation or maintenance.
The womenfolk that adhere to that sort of radicalism all seem to be devoutly religious, prone to weight-loss and and exercise machine fads and horribly ashamed at their own lack of decorum and modesty they themselves demonstrated when they were young, that now they’re so heavily pushing on the younger generation. That myth of that perfectly publicly chaste woman that has read the Kama Sutra twice and spotted all the mistakes.
What a fucked up election cycle this is gonna be.
A dicky thing for Dicks to have said.
Bye, bye, Norm! I’ve met him a couple of time, which is a couple of times too many. The guy’s an ass.
Norm Dicks: because being one dick wasn’t enough.
Bloody hell he does. He advocates for the neighborhood, not the district. Never has. Asshat. If women only advocated for women they would be advocating for a hell of a lot more people than Dicks ever did.
You know that obnoxious politician shoulder wrench that Rep Bachman did to Bush at the SOTU speech? Dicks did that to me once and it was all I could do not to knee him in the ‘nads.
I’ll be glad to see the last of him. Maybe we can get a representative that actually represents the entire district. Asshat.
I don’t have any doubt we need more women in positions of power. They are woefully underrepresented in government. Sure, there are Michele Bachmanns out there. But, really, how can we possibly justify the small numbers of women in state and federal executive and legislative branches? In my firm, we have a female managing partner. She does a helluva lot better job of containing egos than any of the males could do.
At one point, briefly, all of Arizona’s top elected offices were held by women.
@1
Cindy Sheehan
Medea Benjamin
Rosie O’Donnell
Janeane Garofalo
‘nuf said.
@ 8
Don’t be knockin on Jeneane. She’s a babe.
This article is bullshit and is just playing to stereotypes. Rain isn’t consistent around here.
I believe rabbits are under-represented in Congress, state legislatures, and governorships, not to mention the presidency. We wouldn’t have so many fucking wars if a rabbit was president. (But don’t look at me; I don’t want that damn job.)
@8 For nastiness and irrationality, they have nothing on:
Ann Coulter
Michelle Malkin
Sarah Palin
Laura Ingraham
Star Parker
But what would these airheads be without horny young neocons to ogle them?
http://rightwingnews.com/speci.....1-edition/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I’ll bet the guy in the link above never heard a thing any of them ever said. His eyes never made it to their necklines.