By Karen Jeffrey

Cape Code Times, Staff Writer

Over the course of her life, Thelma Goldstein has witnessed many changes in the status of women.

At the time of her birth, women had no right to vote. She was a toddler when the 19th Amendment was ratified.

For much of Goldstein’s life, the idea of a woman becoming president was “laughable except in the imaginations of a few,” said Goldstein, a 90-year-old Falmouth resident who now spends much of her day out on the hustings for Hillary Clinton.

“Certainly women running for office today have it better than they did in the past, but I think it is still a very tough road for women,” she said. “People tend to look at them through a microscope and men through a telescope.”

Though this is a political season in which people can point to Clinton’s run for the White House as evidence that the country has moved closer to a gender-blind electoral process, the issue is debatable, said many who work in the political world.

“I think there is far less bias against women candidates than there was years ago,” said Sheila Lyons, the Wellfleet representative to the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates. Lyons said she has not experienced gender bias in her pursuit of public office, but she doesn’t doubt it exists elsewhere.

“Listen to some of the comments made about Hillary Clinton. Much of it has nothing to do with her politics,” she said.

 

Incumbency counts

A study conducted in 1994 by the National Women’s Political Caucus found that a candidate’s gender did not affect chances of winning elections in state legislatures and Congress. Incumbency was a bigger factor, according to that study.

But some polls and studies, like those conducted over the past seven years by the Cambridge-based Barbara Lee Family Foundation (www.barbaraleefoundation.org) indicate that while gender is seldom identified as the major reason for a campaign loss, there are identifiable barriers for women running for public office — particularly for those running for executive offices.

Likability and physical appearance skew voter judgments about women candidates, according to foundation surveys. Men are able to win over voters with a combination of personality and job performance, while women are judged on these as separate categories, said Amy Green, foundation director.

Women also seldom have access to the financial networks, as men often do. Female candidates tend to rely on smaller but more numerous contributions — although that changes if a woman wins office and runs for re-election, Green said.

Looks matter

Sen. Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, who just marked her first anniversary as the president of the state Senate, said women in public office have a tougher start than most men.

“People are certainly more concerned about how you look,” Murray said. “Women have to walk a delicate balance between being tough-minded and assertive, without being perceived as strident,” she said.

Paul Cellucci, who served as governor from 1998 until his resignation in 2001 to become U.S. ambassador to Canada, said the media is much harder on woman officeholders than men in the same position. He cited the treatment of Jane Swift when she was in office.

“She was scrutinized, held to a higher standard and treated far worse by the media as our first and, as I might point out, only female governor in this state. … Why? I can’t say. But as the father of daughters, it is a very troubling issue for me,” Cellucci said.

Swift, who gave birth to twins while governor, was frequently criticized while in office for, among other things, announcing she intended to work from home in the weeks following the birth of her two daughters.

“At the same time Jane was attacked for that, the governor of Rhode Island worked from home while recuperating from an illness. No one criticized him, no one attacked him for that issue,” Cellucci said.

Swift now runs WNP Consulting, a company that provides advice and guidance to early stage education companies. She chuckled softly when Cellucci’s comments were repeated to her. She takes a more philosophical view. Under the same circumstances today, she said, “I might be more sophisticated in my response” to the criticism.

Since her time in office, however, attitudes toward women in public office have changed, she said. “The more women who are elected, the more accustomed people are to seeing women in office,” Swift said. “Attitudes and perceptions shift over time.”

Karen Jeffrey can be reached at [email protected]

The full article is available at: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/NEWS/803300325