"... the only thing we can change is the way women — particularly young women — see their role in politics."

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2016 beckons women into politics
By Elizabeth Greiwe, December 22, 2014

Come January, the U.S. House and Senate will have 104 women members.

On the surface, that is a huge accomplishment. It has taken women nearly 100 years — since 1916, when Montana elected Republican Jeannette Rankin to the House — to finally get into triple digits.

But triple digits mean nothing in terms of equal representation. Women make up a little more than half of the U.S. population and almost 47 percent of the workforce, but they account for just one-fifth of the members of Congress. Twenty-two years after the election of 1992, the so-called Year of the Woman, the ranks of women in Congress grow slowly.

At the polls this year, 14 female newcomers were elected to Congress. That doesn't even come close to 12 years ago, when Congress saw 24 new women take seats in the House and Senate.

State governments don't do much better. Right now, only five states have female governors, and that'll stay the same in January. Twenty-four states have never had a female governor.

The problem isn't that women can't win elections. Of the 162 women who won their primaries for the U.S. House this year, half won seats during the general election.

No, the problem is that women don't run for political office.

The aversion to politics starts early. In 2013, a study from the Women & Politics Institute at American University found that college-age women are more likely to see themselves as teachers than as mayors. Starting from a young age and carrying on through middle age, women are less likely to be encouraged to run for office, to donate to campaigns — to even talk about politics.

Women who run for office face an uphill climb because they're outnumbered. Take Illinois: There were 18 seats in the U.S. House up for election this year. Fifteen women filed to run in the March primary. Of those 15, only four won seats. That's compared with 45 men who filed and the 14 who won House seats.

Women have two things working against them: mentality and money. They see the political arena as a battleground where they'll be judged by their looks, their lifestyle and their gender, according to a 2011 American University study: When Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin took center stage in the 2008 national election, a majority of women felt that both candidates faced gender bias from voters, a strong focus on their appearance, and sexist media coverage. Those biases may not carry over into the voting booth, but the perception is enough to keep women from running for office.

Campaign money also stunts female candidates' potential. It tends to go to incumbents, who are most likely men. Money speaks louder than anything else in Washington. But because many women don't set their sights on political power, they don't fundraise as much as men do before running for office. They have less financial support from political parties — especially women who run on the Republican ticket.

Instead of encouraging young women be part of the political world, I think our hypercompetitive, negative campaign process alienates and discourages them. It's a problem at every level of government.

During a summit on women and poverty a year ago, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "If you reduce the role of money in politics and increase the level of civility in debate, more women will run for office."

Debates over birth control, abortion and equal pay need women's voices. So do discussions on national security, tax increases and trade agreements. We can't know how the country feels on these issues until the entire country is actually represented.

Money isn't leaving politics anytime soon. So the only thing we can change is the way women — particularly young women — see their role in politics. It worked in higher education. Journalism. Medicine. It can happen on Capitol Hill.

Then maybe — just maybe — 2016 could be a more convincing Year of the Woman.
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