Two days ago, I flagged and wrote about Politico’s story on this topic.
Two more articles about this slap on the forehead today. First, from US News & World Report we have, “Republicans reject women when they shed moderates.” Highlight, which echoes my reaction at the end of my post yesterday:
The Republican National Committee says it’s running a grass-roots recruiting drive to get women to run for office in all 50 states. That’s fine. The problem is, that to encourage them to run, Politico reports the RNC is bringing groups of women to Capitol Hill for tours. That’s the last thing they should do! As a former staffer for a Congressman, I can tell you that Capitol Hill is one of the least women-friendly, family-friendly places on earth. It’s the original men’s club. My advice to the RNC: encourage women to run for office in order to change what they’ll find on that Capitol Hill tour.
And, from a different columnist at USNWR, “Republican Women Are Stay-At-Home Moms While Female Democrats Run for Congress,”:
I think the main reason [for the difference in numbers of office holders], however, is that Republican women are generally more traditional than Democratic women, who tend to be more progressive. Therefore, GOP women are more likely to be fulltime homemakers or to work part-time and not to pursue all-consuming careers such as politics. Republican women like former Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) have even agreed with me in conversation that this is the case.
This does not mean all Democratic women want to run for office or be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, or that all GOP women want to be homemakers. Certainly not. But the majority fall into those stereotypes and that is the main reason I believe the numbers are skewed in Democrats’ favor.
Do you agree with that suggestion – that Democratic women are more likely to be in relationships that involve a more egalitarian approach to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the benefit of themselves, the significant others in their lives and, when there are children, their kids?
Speaking of which, here’s a great article on how two members of Congress were pregnant and had babies while in Congress during the last 12 months.
Cross-posted from Writes Like She Talks.