Document 78: "Elective and Appointive Office," in Susanna Downie, Decade of Achievement: 1977-1987: A Report on a Survey Based on the National Plan of Action for Women (Washington, D.C.: National Women's Conference Committee, 1988), pp. 32-34.
p. 32
ELECTIVE AND APPOINTIVE OFFICE
NATIONAL PLAN GOALS:
• increase the number of women in office, including judgeships and policy-making positions •equal membership of men and women serving on all State boards and commissions •equal representation on the delegations to all party conventions, as well as party recruitment of women to run for office •national political parties should create affirmative action offices for women, in particular to improve financial assistance for female delegates and candidates.
MAYBE BY THE YEAR 2000….
The past decades have included many milestones for women in the quest for political power at all levels. At the highest level of elected office: in 1972. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm campaigned for the Democratic nomination for President, the first woman and the first black ever to do so. The 1984 Presidential race saw US Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro on the Democratic ticket as the first woman to win a major party Vice Presidential nomination. In 1987, US Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder seriously explored a candidacy for President — and her campaign was taken seriously by the national press, her opponents and potential voters. But it might be the year 2000 before we see a woman occupy the White House in her own right.
Although the Federal ERA was lost, after gaining 35 states (three shy of ratification), the degree of organizing and coalition building that pro-ERA groups did resulted in unprecedented numbers of women running for office. In 1982, a large number of women ran for office in the unratified states where the ERA campaign had been most intense. If the ERA had come up for a vote in Illinois and Florida after Nov. 1982, it would have passed. Nine pro-ERA women were elected to the Florida Senate that year, unseating several anti-ERA men. The ERA was "lost" by the whole country, but it was prevented from passing by a handful of white males in a few state legislatures.
In 1987, a National Women's Political Caucus Survey found that "A wide majority of voters believe women are as capable as men in handling the responsibilities of elective offices or that women will do a better job than will men. Even for the office for which voters are most willing to express a bias against women, the office of President, 57% of the electorate believe a woman would do as well or better than a man." The survey also found that voters "prefer candidates endorsed by women's rights groups to candidates opposed by such groups by a margin of 53% to 19%."
ELECTIVE OFFICE:
The total number of women in elective offices in the U.S. in 1987 is estimated to exceed 18,000. But as that and the following statistics are considered, it is critical to remember not only that many more thousands of woman have run for office-in national, state and local primaries and in general elections—since 1977, but also that increasing thousands of women have played and are playing key professional roles as campaign strategists, organizers, managers, and fundraisers. Women have created professional opportunities and taken leadership roles within the political system at all levels-out front and behind the scenes. Studies by the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) have determined that women make a significant difference by helping bring more women into office-through organizations, coalitions and PACs as well as through individual efforts.
US Congress: Women hold 25, or 4.7%, of the 535 seats—23 in the House (12 Democrats and 11 Republicans) from 17 states; 2 women serve in the US Senate-Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kansas). Any gain at all here is significant, but in 1977 women were already 4%; at the present rate, we will be well into the 22nd Century before women are even halfway to parity (25%).
Statewide Elective Executive Offices: Women hold 43, or 14.6%, of the 295 top executive statewide elective positions in 1987 (does not include women appointed to cabinet level positions, women elected by the legislature or women in the judiciary). In 1977, women held 8% of these positions. Three women serve as governors: Martha Layne Collins (D-Kentucky), Madeleine Kunin (D-Vermont), and Kay A. Orr (R-Nebraska); Orr is the first Republican woman elected governor of any state. Five women serve as Lieutenant Governors: Martha Griffiths (D-MI), Marlene Johnson (D-MN), Harriett Woods (D-MO), Evelyn Murphy (D-MA) and Jo Ann Zimmerman (D-IA).
State Legislatures: 1167, or 15.6% of the 7461 state legislators in the United States are women. The number of women serving in state legislatures has almost quadrupled since 1969, when 301, or 4%, were women.
County Government: Since 1975 the number of women at the county level more than doubled, from 456 (3%) 1975, to 1476 (8%), in 1984.
Municipal Offices: Among the 100 largest cities in the US, 11 have women mayors, including three of the 10 largest cities: Kathy Whitemire (Houston), Annette Strauss (Dallas), Maureen O'Connor (San Diego). In 1985, in the states where data was available, women held 14,672, or 14.2%, of the 102,329 elective positions at the municipal and township level. The percentage more than tripled from 1975 to 1985, from 4% to 14.3%.
Black Women: For all these position combined, black
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Overall: CAWP estimates that about 4% of all elected officials were women in 1972. Women are now (1986) 15% overall.
APPOINTED POSITIONS:
Presidential appointments: In the Carter Administration, women received 14% of the appointments as of January 1978. Carter was the first President to have two female cabinet members. The Reagan Administration has also has two. Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1981 by Reagan, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold that position.
Judgeships: According to the most recent data available, 7.2% of state court judges are women and 7.4% of federal judges are women.
State level appointments: In mid-1987 women held 17.9% of appointed positions in governor's cabinets; out of a total of 845 appointed state cabinet officials, 151 were women, a substantial increase from 1981 when women were 12.8% of all state cabinet appointees and 1983, when women held 15.1% such positions.
The bare numbers tell part of the story. The other part is told in other CAWP data, such as: 78% of women (94% for black women) in state legislatures are pro-ERA, compared to 51% of men. This gap is also observable among gubernatorial appointees. For women state legislators: 75% belong to at least one major women's organization (AAUW, BPW, LWV, NOW, or NWPC), 54% received campaign support from at least one women's organization, 44% worked on women's campaigns before running for office themselves. All of these percentages are higher for black women and lower for county and municipal officials.
The Center for American Women in Politics is doing long term tracking of women in elective office. It was established in 1971, as a research, education and public service unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, at Rutgers. CAWP's initial funding, $50,000 for two years, came from the Ford Foundation. It now has an annual budget of $250,000.
CAWP published the first National Directory of Women in Public Office in 1975 (updated '77, and '81). At their first conference of elected women, in 1972, there were about 50 women, and "elected women" hardly existed as a category for study. Stimulated by the CAWP conference in 1972, California sprouted the first Elected Women's Association in 1974. Twelve states now have statewide/cross jurisdictional elected women's associations.
CAWP now manages The National Information Bank of Women in Public Office, which has 18,000 elected women's names in its file. The first National Forum for Elected Women was held in 1983; the second was held in 1987, in San Diego. For information on any of the Elected Women's Associations, contact CAWP.
AT THE GRASSROOTS:
Building strength and numbers throughout the 70's and 80's, women's organizations have become a major factor in national politics: The major activist organizations promoting women in public office are NOW, NWPC, and NPCBW.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is a multi-issue organization, founded in 1966, which in 1987 has a base of over 160,000 members concerned about a long list of issues, roughly paralleling the National Plan of Action for Women. In every part of the country NOW members can be found in political parties and campaigns, sometimes even running for office and winning. NOW has created PACs at every level - in 1986 they had at least 77 federal, state or local PACs.
The National Women's Political Caucus was founded in Washington DC in 1971 by a few women who saw the need for an organization that would concentrate on getting more (feminist) women into public office. It has since become a large grassroots organization, with 77,000 members nationwide who work at all levels of politics - fundraising, working in campaigns, and sometimes winning office themselves. NWPC is bi-partisan and supports mostly women for office, but they will back a man if he's right on the issues.
The National Political Congress of Black Women was founded in 1984, in the wake of the Democratic Convention, by Shirley Chisholm, to increase the number of black women delegates at the major party conventions and to field, train, and elect more black women candidates for public office. Though only 3 years old, NPCBW already has chapters in 27 cities and 7200 members nationwide, including the leadership of most of the other black women's groups.
The Fund For the Feminist Majority: In 1987, Eleanor Smeal, under whose leadership NOW became a force to be reckoned with in American politics, has launched a massive "Feminization of Power" national political activism campaign. Called "The Fund for the Feminist Majority", its short-term goal is to double the number of feminist women in the 101st Congress. Long-term, they will be repositioning for the state and Congressional opportunities that the post-1990 census reapportionment will present.
The Congressional Caucus of Women's Issues was
formed in April 1977 (95th Congress), with 15 of the 18 women then in the House
of Representatives. Elizabeth Holtzman and Margaret Heckler were the first
co-chairs. The first executive committee included Barbara Mikulski and Shirley
Chisholm and the Caucus was bipartisan from the beginning. In 1981 the Caucus
opened its membership to male House members, the same year it began introducing
the Economic Equity Act (EEA), which it has done every year since then. In the
97th Congress, the Caucus saw 4 of the EEA bills passed, and since then 12 more
have passed. The Caucus now has 112 members, and is considering opening
membership to male Senators. The Caucus is funded entirely by member dues, and
has two paid staff. Because they did not have the staff to do research, they
founded Women's Research
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All the major official associations (National Conference of Mayors, National League of Cities, National Assoc, of Counties, National Conference of State Legislators, etc.) have women's caucuses or networks. As the number of women in these offices grows, they will increasingly be able to influence the agenda of the national conferences.
WOMEN JUDGES and LAWYERS:
In 1979, the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) was founded, with about 100 women judges. It how has 900 members. Partly as a result of NAWJ efforts, judges nationwide have started training programs for new judges which incorporate information on gender and race bias.
The National Conference of Women's Bar Associations formed in 1981, uniting hundreds of women's bar associations, with a combined membership of about 70,000. NCWBA's purpose is to strengthen and support women's bar groups on a local and state level; they distribute information on how to do gender bias studies and effective candidate review. There is a correlation between the strength of women's bar associations and e.g. the number of women judges in a state, or whether that state passed the ERA.
In 1983, NCWBA asked their members groups to do local surveys to accumulate evidence of gender bias in the profession, covering not only women lawyers in the corporation and the courtroom, but also women as litigants - their experiences in sentencing, alimony determinations, etc. Task Forces on Gender Bias have formed in New Jersey and New York and are in formation in at least six other states.
FUNDRAISING:
Fundraising for women candidates has also taken a leap forward in the last ten years. In addition to NOW's PACs (federal, state and local), other national feminist PACs are those of Voters for Choice, NARAL, and BPW.
There are two major organizations that are solely concerned with fundraising for women candidates:
The National Women's Campaign Fund was founded in 1974 as an independent PAC for women candidates. It is the oldest and largest of the women's PACs, is bipartisan, and supports women candidates who are progressive (pro-ERA, pro-choice, etc.). In 1986, they distributed $450,000 (cash and technical services) to 118 candidates in local, state, and national races in 31 states.
EMILY'S List (Early Money is Like Yeast - it raises the dough!) was organized in 1985 as a donor network whose members agree to give $300 or more to women candidates (Democrats only) chosen by EMILY in any given election cycle. Candidates must be pro-ERA and pro-choice and complete a questionnaire on their other positions so that EL can develop a profile of them to distribute to the network. In 1986, with 1200 donors, Emily's List channeled $200,000 to Harriet Woods (Missouri) and $150,000 to Barbara Mikulski (Maryland), both running for Senate. They have about 1400 donors now, are aiming for 1800 by 1988, and expect to support 5 or 6 candidates for the Senate in 1988.
The Gender Gap: No account of the past decade for women and politics would be complete without some mention of the "gender gap". The gender gap was discovered by NOW, in 1981, when the leadership was sitting around mulling over exit poll data from the 1980 elections. Suddenly it became clear: women voted for Carter about 8% more than men did. The gap was up to 15% among college graduates.
The gender gap varies depending on how clearly differentiated the candidates are on several issues, particularly Peace and the ERA, and with demographic facts such as ethnicity, age, and education, 8% is more than enough to swing an election, and women (and blacks) can be credited with turning the Senate over to the Democrats in 1986. Exist poll data from the '86 Senate elections show that the gender gap created the winning margin in nine races, including those of Adams (D-WA), Wirth (D-CO), and Fowler (D-GA). The gender gap is likely to become an enduring feature of American politics, as more women than men are registering to vote, and more and more women become active at all levels of politics.
— Becky Burdick and
Susanna Downie, with help from Kathy Klecman and Ruth Mandel (CAWP), Ellen Malcom (Emily's List), Kathryn Larson (Hardworking Women Project). Helen Seager (NWCF), Laurie Loeb (Congressional Women's Caucus), Loretta Ross (NOW), Charlene Snow (Women's Lawyer's Assoc. of Michigan), and Mim Kelber (co-author, with Bella Abzug, of The Gender Gap (Houghton Mifflin, 1984).
RESOURCES:
NATIONAL WOMEN'S CAMPAIGN FUND, 1725 Eye St. NW Ste. 515, Washington DC 20006, (202) 638-3900
EMILY'S LIST, 2000 P St. NW, Washington DC 20036, (202) 887-5697.
NATIONAL WOMEN'S POLITICAL CAUCUS, 1411 K St. N.W. Washington DC 20005, (202) 898-1100
NATIONAL POLITICAL CONGRESS OF BLACK WOMEN, PO Box 411, Rancocas, NJ 08073, (609) 871-5128. Contact: Portia Dempsey.
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN, 1401 New York Ave. NW Ste. 800. Washington DC 20005-2102, (202) 347-2279.
CENTER FOR AMERICAN WOMEN AND POLITICS, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers - State Univ. of Jew Jersey, New Brunswick NJ, 08901, (201) 932-9384.
THE FUND FOR THE FEMINIST MAJORITY, 8105 West Third St., Los Angeles, CA 90048, (213) 651-0495.
CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS ON WOMEN'S ISSUES, 2471 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington DC 20515, (202) 225-6740.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF WOMEN'S BAR ASSOCIATIONS, 113 West Franklin St., Baltimore MD 21201, (301) 752-3316.
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