Students Again

Women In American Politics

 

- Focus: Empirical look at women in politics in the current times.

 

Categories of Women Voters:

- Soccer Moms (Focus on education)

- Norma Rays (Working women – Union organizers for workers rights)

- Sex In The City Girls (Young Professionals)

- Senior Citizens (Granny goose)

 

Women’s Roles: (More than ever before)

- Activists

- Organizations

- CEO’s

- Congress

- Judicial

 

- How do women respond to other candidates (especially other women)?

 

- Challenges women face:

- Running for office

Spouse:

- First Lady

Women in Office:

- Scandal (economic)

 

- Caroline Kennedy endorsed Barrack Obama:

- 1^st daughter of John Kennedy

- She is not an “in the fray” politician.

- This endorsement à independent minded, endorsed Barrack as if he was the new John Kennedy (powerful).

 

- Governor Sedelias (Kansas):

- State of the Union response

- Pelosi (Speaker of the House) behind President during address.

 

- Woman running for President of Paraguay

 

- Condoleezza Rice speaking out against violence in Kenya.

 

- Hillary Clinton campaign:

- Role of spouse as a woman candidate (public making it a double edged sword). Bill helps (she needs him), but if Bill doesn’t help (he is not supportive). “Damned if you do damned if you don’t.”

 

- Cartoons in newspapers:

- More vicious towards women candidates.

 

- Stages of Women’s Studies: (influential women)

1) Woman behind the man (ex. Abigail Adams)

2) Women who did the same thing as men (looked at as oddities)

3) Women in the same role as men but with different experiences. (ex. Rosie the Riveter)

4) More equalized role.

 

- Revolutionary War:

Common law became statutory law (early rights of women lost)

 

- Abolitionists Movement (mid-1800s):

- Formed framework to fight for women’s rights in the future.

- Transition from Abolitionists movement to Women’s movement (organizations formed)

- Natural, fight for one group rights it makes you think about your own rights (ideological).

 

- Names to know:

- Lucy Stone

- Elizabeth Cody Stanton

- Susan B. Anthony

 

- 1919 à 19^th Amendment à can’t deny right to vote based on gender. (Some states allowed women to vote prior à original Constitution allows states to decide who could vote). à The West, more of an external role à life on the frontier à established more of an equality (women could vote prior to the Amendment).

 

- Janette Rankin (Montana) – 1^st woman voted to Congress à she voted against WWI and WWII. Other women:

1 – Didn’t want her to vote against the war because of the perceived bleeding heart ideology of women.

2 – Practical à don’t be too bold, we finally got here don’t ruin it.

 

- Francis Perkins à 1^st woman in cabinet (FDR).

 

- Brenda Star

 

- Betty Daniel – Wrote “The Feminine Mystique”

 

- Geraldine Ferraro – Ran for Vice President (Democrat)

 

- 1992 – Time for Women in Politics:

- More women ran for office

- Attorney General (Janet Reno)

- Secretary of State (Madeline Albright)

- Soccer moms

- More women in Congress

- Clinton (first lady) à challenged the role of first lady (got involved in policy) à other first ladies focused on: Reagan (Drugs), Johnson (Highways), Bush Sr. (Grandma), Bush Jr. (Less of a role), Wilson (powerful when husband went crazy).

 

- 1950s à June Cleaver (T.V. dinners)

 

- 1960s:

- Anti-War

- Civil Rights

- Many movements

- Women’s Rights (Bra burning)

- NOW (National Organization for Women) à lobby Congress for women’s issues.

 

- 1972 à Equal Rights Amendment revived and passed by both House and Senate.

 

- Adoption of a Constitutional Amendment:

Two ways to Amend:

1 - Introduced in Congress and requires 2/3^rd vote in both houses to be passed, then to be ratified it requires ¾ of the states (38).

Ratification: Who will do the ratifying and how long will they have (traditionally 7 years à can extend to 10 years, but historically if it is not ratified within 3 years it usually dies) à Legislatures (Special committees ex. Prohibition) OR Referendum (elect to vote to put it on the ballot).

2 – States petition Congress (2/3^rd)

- Congress calls a Constitutional convention à proposed amendment.

- Back to states to ratify

** Never done this way à except for the first time)

 

- Should people in office be:

- Trustees – vote their conscience

- Delegates – Vote the way they are told by constituents.

- Politicos – Knows when to be a trustee and when to be a delegate.

- Nature of the issue – if in the public eye (delegate) à if less popular (trustee). Are you up for re-election (delegate) or not (trustee)?

- Trustee Safe District – most in the district are in your party (chances of being re-elected are overwhelming)

- Delegate Competitive District – must compete to hold your seat.

- How long have you been in office à long (trustee) or short (delegate).

 

- 4 Reasons why the Equal Rights Amendment did not ratify:

1 – Needed a change in social norms in attitudes about women.

2 – The role that states play can not be underestimated (conservative or liberal).

3- Not all women supported it (what did equality mean à not all women’s opinions can be lumped together).

4 – The difficulty in getting an Amendment passed.

 

- 1973 – Roe v. Wade:

- Right to privacy

- 9^th Amendment interpreted to include privacy even though not explicitly stated.

(Decade Ago)

- In Nevada there was a movement to overturn the state statute that was introduced after Roe v. Wade.

- In the Nevada Constitution à can lock-in a statute

- Petition (initiative) question à on ballot (question #7) à “shall we lock in Nevada statute from Roe v. Wade”

- Tried to lock-in before the statute got watered down.

- If locked-in à legislature can not change the statute (only by going back to the people for a vote).

- Lock-in is unique to Nevada.

 

- 1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor à 1^st woman Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (appointed by Reagan).

 

- 1984 – Geraldine Ferraro à 1^st woman to run for Vice Presidency.

 

- 1994 – Violence against Women Act.

 

- 1997 – Claudia Kennedy à 1^st woman 3-star General.

 

- 2002 – Halle Berry à 1^st African American woman to win an Academy Award.

 

- 2003 – Nancy Pelosi à 1^st woman Speaker of the House.

 

- 1960 – Birth control pill first introduced.

 

- Political Socialization à the process by which we acquire beliefs, values, and attitudes about the political system and our role as a citizen within that system.

 

- Characteristics of Political Socialization (Agents of Socialization):

1 – Ongoing (lifetime à strongest at 18 yrs. Old)

2 – Occurs in direct and indirect ways.

- Direct à taught

- Indirect à learned through experience

3 – Beginning with concrete objects and advances to abstract concepts.

- Concrete à ex. the flag

- Abstract à ex. civil liberties

4 – Agents of Socialization:

a) Family (the strongest)

- Family is there first

- Blood bond

- Can do indirect and direct teachings.

Direct:

- Parent’s vote

- Adopt family identification

- Dinner conversations

Indirect:

- What’s right and wrong (sanction vs. reward)

- Respect for authority

- Negotiate

- Power/Force

- Sharing/Helping

b) School (2^nd Strongest Agent)

- You are a captive audience (K-12)

- Everybody basically gets the same curriculum.

Direct:

- Political themed classes’ à government, history, and literature.

- Student government (secret ballot)

- Mock trials

- Political clubs

- The flag

- Pledge of allegiance

- Classroom decorations (president silhouettes)

Indirect:

- Teacher bias

- Moment of silence

- Sanctions/Rules

- Administrative hierarchy

- Positioning of teachers vs. students in the classroom

c) Peers

- Peer pressure

- Herd mentality

Groups: (political/personal pressure)

- Church

- Organizations (special interest)

- Ethnic groups

- Professional organizations

d) Media

- Bombards our lives

- Internet, radio, newspaper, t.v., billboards, magazines, podcasts, blogs, etc.

Direct:

- News

- Endorsements

- Debates

- Advertisements

Indirect:

- Bias

- Set news agenda

- Placement of stories

- How headlines are written

- Pictures used

- Some TV programs (reality shows)

- Gay theme

 

- McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Act à Contribution restrictions, etc.

 

- Political Socialization:

- Values Are Pretty Much Set:

- Who learns

-  What learns

- When learns

-From whom à agents:

- Family

- School

- Peers

- Media à Newspaper, magazine, TV, etc.

- Movies à documentary/entertainment

- Popular Culture – reflects and reinforces societal norms.

- Things That Could Potentially Change Values:

- What might change your mind about political views?

- Anything that puts you in touch with the system. (Ex. Get sick à healthcare – Factory Closes à unemployment)

- A good outcome can reinforce your belief, but a bad outcome can make you change.

 

- Evidence of masculinity and the Presidency:

- The marriage of masculinity and the President.

- President referred to as Mr. President/he (partially historical)

 

- Views of…:

Men:

- Tough

- Competitive

- Incisive

Women:

- Considerate

- Conscience

- Flexible

 

- Nicknames:

- Condi Rice, Liddy Dole

 

- Reinforce Pop Culture:

1) Feminize your opponent (Ex. Bush Jr. à Guy you could drink beer with vs. John Kerry à prissy)

2) Can a woman be commander-in-chief?

- Can never have the same soldiering experience as a man.

3) Belief learned from an early age (separate spheres ideology?

- Women à private (caregiver)

- Men à public

- Ex. Women can do anything that men can do à what you do is not important because all you are trying to do is what he can do.

- Ex. Man is the protector/hero.

4) Objectification of women.

- Body as an object (Ex. TV à sell products)

- Girls are taught to think of their bodies as a work in progress while boys use their bodies to master their environment.

 

- Currently, 13 countries have women Presidents.

 

- Political Socialization:

- Religion: (reinforces some women stereotypes)

- Mormon

- Muslim à women wear berkas, etc.

- Bible à Eve is the bad one à Virgin Mary is the mother à not many women saints.

- Values: (process of forming public opinion when applied to politics)

- Values + Information à opinions à activities

- Ex. Courage + Candidate (war hero vs. draft dodger) à support war hero à vote for war hero.

- The stronger you feel about the value the more you are likely to do something (Ex. Campaign)

- Cross pressures à pro-choice

- Cost Benefit Analysis:

1) Weigh actions from then (ex. Draft dodger) / now (candidate)

2) Importance (Big picture consequences)

3) look at a third option to make the choice for you.

- Litmus test issues: (a person who will not vote for a candidate based on a single issue)

- Ex. à Abortion, Gun control, etc.

- Wedge Issue (Use one issue against another to drive a wedge between the populations of voters).

- Ex. à Gay marriage, immigration, etc.

 

- Rational Choice Voting: (4 irrational tactics)

1) Getting information: (news, websites, peers, music, TV, books, debates, etc. à All based on bias or imagery)

** THE ONLY RELIABLE RATIONAL CHOICE VOTING MEASURE IS à THE VOTING RECORD OF THE CANDIDATES!!!

2) Reinforcing Values (the more you hear things the more it becomes your position – Ex. Young people are for Obama à you are young à you better be for Obama)

3) Name Recognition (How do candidates get it? à ads, signs, important people who have the same name <Ex. Kennedy>, people with easy names <Ex. Smith>, 1^st name on the ballot).

4) Perception/Facts/Emotion (Words candidates use à hope, change, leadership qualities, honest, etc.)

 

- We use polls to measure all of the stuff above (rational choice voting).

 

- Kinds of Polls:

1) Benchmark à what is the situation today (starting point)

2) Tracking à what change does occur

3) Pre-test/Post-test à impact of opinion before/after an event

4) Racehorse à how would things turn out based on today’s information (not very accurate, but can be used to build momentum and raise money)

5) Garbage Can à pulls sample ballots out of the garbage can and tally

6) Exit à ask voters as they exit from voting (replaced garbage can polls)

7) Push à dirty trick polls to push you in a direction (Ex. Phone call à who are you voting for? à would you still vote for them if they…)

8) Recordings à phone calls

 

- 4 Characteristics of public opinion:

1) Intensity (we are not very ideologies/intense in this country)

2) Flexibility (we are very flexible because we are not intense in this country)

3) Direction (for/against à if strongly opposed more likely to vote)

4) Relevance (how does it affect me now)

5) Lack of Constraint (we are inconsistent in our views and we try to rationalize that)

- Ex. Many people are for the death penalty while they oppose abortion. à Rationalize: à fetus had no choice à death row inmate had a choice.

 

- Campaign finance:

- Nevada à $5000/primary - $5000/general - $10000/total

- Contributors à corporations, individuals, PACs, labor unions.

- Individual à $2300/per election to candidate - $28500/to national party per year - $10000/to state or local party per year - $5000/to PAC per year (Individuals can contribute quite a bit).

 

- Public Opinion:

- Gender Gap à Difference between men and women (1980 in Carter vs. Reagan is when the term gender gap started)

 

- 4 Differences Centered on men and women:

1) Political knowledge and interest (men have more)

- Over the last few years this has been changing (more women in politics, women in the workforce, politicians catering to women, revised textbooks to be more neutral)

- Political Efficacy à fell that your voice is listened to… that you can make a difference. (Less efficacy à lower interest <positive correlation – moves in the same direction>)

2) Party ID and Ideology

- More women Democrats in office, why? à Personality, background, party structure (ex. Proportional representation).

3) Domestic Policy

- Women’s issues (health care, education, sexual harassment, domestic violence, child care) – Men’s issues (defense, taxes, foreign policy)

 

- Things That Affect Voter Turn Out:

- Long-Term Forces:

- Values (political efficacy, political trust, political knowledge)

- Institutional Limitations (ex. Eligibility requirements à help people or keep them from access)

- Party Identification (gained at an early age)

- Your Personality (your perception of the candidate’s personality)

- Short-Term Forces:

- A candidate that energizes you

- Is it a historic election?

- Current events (what is happening on the current political scene <ex. Economy>)

- Negative campaigns (do people like the candidate)

- Personal Circumstances (don’t feel well on Election Day)

 

- Book: Henneberger “If They Only Listened To Us”

- Journalists à Slate & Common Wheel (Catholic Opinion)

- She is liberal

- Interviewed 234 women around the country

- Conservative leaning book

- The sample is not representative of the whole female population (certain age, etc à people introduced from friends)

- The women begin and end with disclaimers (hearsay à not sure of their convictions)

- Representative of people from her home town (Mount Carmel, Illinois)

- Women are anxious to share their opinions (more rationalization rather than taking hard-line positions)

- Little focus on foreign policy

- Shout Culture à In your face shouting opinions (not like the women in this book)

Themes:

- Lack of participation

- Not politically involved (target of persuasive politicians)

- Not part of the shout culture

- Want to be Democrats, but single issues keep them from doing so. However, if Democrats changed their positions on those issues they would cease to be Democrats.

- All hated Hillary (want someone to break the glass ceiling, but not her) à they feel this way over personal issues, not policy issues.

- Katherine Harris (Florida Secretary of State à Congressional Representative à Lost Senate race) – comments about her dress.

- John Edwards and wife (liked him because of one-on-one connection and his wife à “good husbands are made not born”)

- Didn’t like John Kerry’s wife à she was too bold

- Women of the Katrina storm à anti-incumbent

- Women look to be self-reliant because they have had to for so long (government does not help)

- Abortion

- Person matters more than party ID

- Democratic Party has let women down (and are condescending)

- Easier to go from Democrat to Republican than vice versa (issues à abortion, economy, war, etc.)

 

- Representative Democracy – we elect representatives to vote on policy (called a Republic)

 

- Direct Democracy – You vote directly on policy (ex. Ballot initiative)

 

- Public Policy:

- Democracy (Representative or Direct) – Public Opinion ßà Public Policy – Elections

 

- Public Policy Definitions:

- Harold Lasswell à government is “who get what, when, and how much”

- Theodore Lowi à Expansion of government sovereignty

- An interaction among three things: political culture, political institutions, and political regime. (Political culture à morals, values, history) (Political institutions à courts, legislatures, states) (Political Regime à who is in power at any given time makes a difference in policy)

- These three things have changed:

1) Culture à educational system, books in schools exclude sexists texts, civil activists.

2) Institutions à term limits (allows more people to run)

3) Regime à More women CEOs

 

- How policy is formed:

1) Identify a problem or a need (news, individual, or candidate à brings to attention of government) à Ex. Women – Abortion – women were dying from back alley abortions.

2) Define the problem in a way that government can deal with it (setup a test case à ex. Roe v. Wade, Plessey v. Ferguson) – Ex. Poverty – Family of four making less than $20,000 per year.

3) Find representation within the system (internal) to get the issue on the agenda (a representative can introduce the bill) – Ex. Poverty of women à Equal Pay Act, minimum wage, Family and Medical Leave Act.

4) Organizations (1 – hype the issue 2 – lobby for the issue 3 – member bloc votes 4 – endorse candidates in line with the issue)

5) Formulate a solution (negotiate, compromise, make sure no unintended consequences)

6) Legitimize (court rules, President Sign’s bill)

7) Get implemented (states usually do this à may be fast or may be slow it depends on the state)

8) Evaluation (Did the policy solve the problem? Did it have unintended consequences?)

 

- Policy is evolutionary à it grows à gradual improvements.

 

- Interest Groups:

- AKA à Pressure groups or Special Interest Groups

- Two Groups in Politics:

1) Primary (belong just because of circumstance ex. Family, generation X, and geographic location)

2) Secondary (formal organizations that you make an effort to join to represent interest of primary groups ex. NOW, NAACP, etc)

 

- Interest groups influence policy and elections:

- Resources are necessary for success

Policy Side:

1 - Money (membership dues – if no dues “free riders” (Mancur Olsen term) ex. NRA gets automatic weapons put in law à everyone can have them not just the group. Need to minimize free riders (offer benefits): social benefits (offer discounts with membership), psychological benefits (feel like you are contributing to something good)

2 – Lobbyist (Influence peddlers) à broker deals, get information, provide testimony.

3 – Backing of the interest group (ex. Celebrity endorsements)

4 – Effective structure and respected leadership (both internal and external)

5 – Access to information (to get policy changed)

6 – “Juice” (access to people in power and people with money)

7 – “Wining and Dining”

8 – Broker deals and put together voter majorities.

Election Side:

1 – Campaign contributions (PACs)

2 – Independent expenditures (for candidates when contributions are maxed out)

3 – Provide information about candidates

4 – Breeding ground for potential candidates

5 – Bloc voting

6 – Grass roots activities (ex. Door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, ask members to volunteer, etc.)

 

- Common traits of interest groups to help women:

1 – Serve as mentors to women and help train women leaders

2 – Provide camaraderie (social function)

3 – Contribute to self awareness (consciousness rising)

4 – Perform needed services (ex. Planned Parenthood)

5 – Help channel participation (ex. Bloc voting, get out the vote)

6 – Help develop communities (ex. League of women voters)

7 – Social (ex. junior league, Red hat ladies)

 

- Why join interest groups?:

- Incentives (material ex. Tax deductions, business network)

- Solidarity (satisfaction of joining)

- Purposive (commitment to a cause)

 

- EMILY’s List – “Early Money Is Like Yeast” à invests early in campaigns à Democratic pro-choice women.

 

- WISH – “Women In the Senate and the House” à Republican equivalent to EMILY’s List.

 

- Examples of Interest Groups:

- WOW (Wider Opportunities for Women)

- Women Under 40

- Liberty Bells

- Axis of Eve

 

- Political Action Committees (PACs)

- Harder for women to raise money than men.

- Not true when controlled for constants.

- Things that make it harder:

1 – Incumbents (if challenging) (especially outsider candidates claiming “not to be a politician”)

2 – Lack of contacts (to make it easier to raise money)

3 – Don’t have the personality to make the sale.

- Thing that made it easier for women to be viable candidates

1 – Women are harder working candidates that bring volunteers to help with the campaign.

2 – Candidates less prone to scandal

3 – PACs (specific to help women ex. EMILY’s List)

 

- Finance Reform: Hatch Act à Most important of the 1970s, had the most teeth

 

- Public Money (1970-71): (Box on tax forms $3)

1 – No strings (not tied to public interest)

2 – Can spend time campaigning

3 – Level the playing field (not just wealthy candidates can run)

 

- 1970s à Federal Election Commission

 

- Mid-1970s à more disclosure and limitations

- Disclosure à important for transparency. Know who is giving, know the money is being used wisely (or the way intended), if you can’t manage your own money… how can you manage the public’s money, can assess the candidates strategy (how much money to signs, direct mail, etc.)

- Limitations à Contributions can be capped. Valeo v. Buckley à cannot cap expenditures (unless public money)

- Loopholes à Soft money (money contributed to the party, voter registration), independent expenditures (no limitation on what I can spend on my own ex. TV, ads, mailers against an opponent but the candidate/opponent cannot know – plausible deniability – Ads with out “I am ___ and I approve this message”

 

- Bundling

 

- Ellen Malcolm

 

- PACs strategy to focus contributions and maximize electoral results:

1 – Pick your battles (how likely is it that the candidate will win)

2 – Invest money early (increases credibility, discourages other candidates, money breeds money)

3 – Let them fly (once you become an incumbent you are on your own)

 

- Difference between interest groups and political parties:

- Interest Groups

- Single issue

- Endorse candidates

- Come and go depending on the issue

- Serve other functions (Social, professional regulation of their industry, charity, protects economic interest of members)

- Political Parties

- Broad platform

- Run candidates

- Last long

- Strictly politics

 

- Role of women and political parties:

- 4 stages:

1 – Both major parties were opposed to suffrage.

2 – Both parties supported suffrage to get votes once it was certain to pass.

3 – Once members of the party they were restricted from doing anything.

4 – Genuine active membership

 

- Role of women in the party organization:

1 – Women as voters

2 – Women in the party leadership

3 – Women as elected officials (Gender Gap in Democratic Party à more women party leaders and elected officials.)

 

Essays:

 

• How has women’s political role changed through the course of history? Why?

 

Women’s Roles: (More than ever before)

- Activists

- Organizations

- CEO’s

- Congress

- Judicial

 

- Stages of Women’s Studies: (influential women)

1) Woman behind the man (ex. Abigail Adams)

2) Women who did the same thing as men (looked at as oddities)

3) Women in the same role as men but with different experiences. (ex. Rosie the Riveter)

4) More equalized role.

 

- These three things have changed:

1) Culture à educational system, books in schools exclude sexists texts, civil activists.

2) Institutions à term limits (allows more people to run)

3) Regime à More women CEOs

 

• How has popular culture developed and how have the agents of socialization affected the roles of women?

 

- Popular Culture – reflects and reinforces societal norms.

 

- Reinforce Pop Culture:

1) Feminize your opponent (Ex. Bush Jr. à Guy you could drink beer with vs. John Kerry à prissy)

2) Can a woman be commander-in-chief?

- Can never have the same soldiering experience as a man.

3) Belief learned from an early age (separate spheres ideology?

- Women à private (caregiver)

- Men à public

- Ex. Women can do anything that men can do à what you do is not important because all you are trying to do is what he can do.

- Ex. Man is the protector/hero.

4) Objectification of women.

- Body as an object (Ex. TV à sell products)

- Girls are taught to think of their bodies as a work in progress while boys use their bodies to master their environment.

- Characteristics of Political Socialization (Agents of Socialization):

1 – Ongoing (lifetime à strongest at 18 yrs. Old)

2 – Occurs in direct and indirect ways.

- Direct à taught

- Indirect à learned through experience

3 – Beginning with concrete objects and advances to abstract concepts.

- Concrete à ex. the flag

- Abstract à ex. civil liberties

4 – Agents of Socialization:

a) Family (the strongest)

- Family is there first

- Blood bond

- Can do indirect and direct teachings.

Direct:

- Parent’s vote

- Adopt family identification

- Dinner conversations

Indirect:

- What’s right and wrong (sanction vs. reward)

- Respect for authority

- Negotiate

- Power/Force

- Sharing/Helping

b) School (2^nd Strongest Agent)

- You are a captive audience (K-12)

- Everybody basically gets the same curriculum.

Direct:

- Political themed classes’ à government, history, and literature.

- Student government (secret ballot)

- Mock trials

- Political clubs

- The flag

- Pledge of allegiance

- Classroom decorations (president silhouettes)

Indirect:

- Teacher bias

- Moment of silence

- Sanctions/Rules

- Administrative hierarchy

- Positioning of teachers vs. students in the classroom

c) Peers

- Peer pressure

- Herd mentality

Groups: (political/personal pressure)

- Church

- Organizations (special interest)

- Ethnic groups

- Professional organizations

d) Media

- Bombards our lives

- Internet, radio, newspaper, t.v., billboards, magazines, podcasts, blogs, etc.

Direct:

- News

- Endorsements

- Debates

- Advertisements

Indirect:

- Bias

- Set news agenda

- Placement of stories

- How headlines are written

- Pictures used

- Some TV programs (reality shows)

- Gay theme

 

• What are the long and short term factors that determine participation and to what level?

- Things That Affect Voter Turn Out:

- Long-Term Forces:

- Values (political efficacy, political trust, political knowledge)

- Institutional Limitations (ex. Eligibility requirements à help people or keep them from access)

- Party Identification (gained at an early age)

- Your Personality (your perception of the candidate’s personality)

- Short-Term Forces:

- A candidate that energizes you

- Is it a historic election?

- Current events (what is happening on the current political scene <ex. Economy>)

- Negative campaigns (do people like the candidate)

- Personal Circumstances (don’t feel well on Election Day)

 

• What tools affect policy and what are the major women’s issues on the agenda today?

 

Policy Side:

1 - Money (membership dues – if no dues “free riders” (Mancur Olsen term) ex. NRA gets automatic weapons put in law à everyone can have them not just the group. Need to minimize free riders (offer benefits): social benefits (offer discounts with membership), psychological benefits (feel like you are contributing to something good)

2 – Lobbyist (Influence peddlers) à broker deals, get information, provide testimony.

3 – Backing of the interest group (ex. Celebrity endorsements)

4 – Effective structure and respected leadership (both internal and external)

5 – Access to information (to get policy changed)

6 – “Juice” (access to people in power and people with money)

7 – “Wining and Dining”

8 – Broker deals and put together voter majorities.

 

• What are the different types of women in the electorate (soccer moms, etc.)

 

Categories of Women Voters:

- Soccer Moms (Focus on education)

- Norma Rays (Working women – Union organizers for workers rights)

- Sex In The City Girls (Young Professionals)

- Senior Citizens (Granny goose)

 

Extra Credit:

 

• Caroline Kennedy - Caroline Bouvier Kennedy (born November 27, 1957) is an American author and attorney. She is the daughter and only surviving child of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Endorsed Barrack Obama.
• Madeline Albright - was the first woman to become United States Secretary of State.
• Barrack Obama - is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.^[
• Kathleen Sebelius - is currently serving as the 44th Governor of Kansas.^[1] She is the second female governor of Kansas, the 2008 respondent to the State of the Union address ^[2], and chair-emeritus of the Democratic Governors Association.
• Condoleezza Rice - is the 66th United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush to hold the office. Rice is the first black woman, second African American (after her predecessor Colin Powell, who served from 2001 to 2005), and the second woman (after Madeleine Albright, who served from 1997 to 2001 in the Clinton Administration) to serve as Secretary of State.
• Hillary Clinton - is the junior United States Senator from New York, and a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to Bill Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
• Bill Clinton - was the forty-second President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president, older only than Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
• Lucy Stone - was a prominent American suffragist. She was the wife of abolitionist Henry Brown Blackwell (1825-1909) (the brother of Elizabeth Blackwell) and the mother of Alice Stone Blackwell, another prominent suffragette, journalist and human rights defender. Stone was best known for being the first recorded American woman to keep her own last name upon marriage and being the first woman in Massachusetts to receive a college degree.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton - was an American social activist and leading figure of the early woman's movement. Her Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the first women's rights convention held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, is often credited with initiating the first organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in the United States. ^[1]
• Susan B. Anthony - was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to secure women's suffrage in the United States. She traveled the United States and Europe, and gave 75 to 100 speeches per year on women's rights for some 45 years. Susan B. Anthony died in Rochester, New York in her house at 17 Madison Street on March 13, 1906, and is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.
• Janette Rankin - was the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives and the first female member of the Congress.
• Francis Perkins - was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and the first woman ever appointed to the US Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition.
• Geraldine Ferraro - is a Democratic politician and a former member of the United States House of Representatives. She is perhaps best known as the first and only woman to date to represent a major U.S. political party as a candidate for Vice President.
• Ann Romney - is the wife of former 2008 United States presidential election candidate Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007 she was First Lady of Massachusetts.
• Judith Giuliani - (born December 16, 1954)^[3] is a United States medical sales representative, fundraiser, and the wife of former New York City Mayor and former 2008 U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
• Cindy McCain - born Cindy Lou Hensley on July 29, 1953 in Los Angeles County, California^[1]) is the wife of United States Senator and 2000 and 2008 presidential candidate John McCain of Arizona. She is chair of Hensley & Co.,^[2][3] one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors in the nation.
• Elizabeth Edwards - on July 3, 1949, in Jacksonville, Florida) is an attorney. Her husband, John Edwards, is a former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, the 2004 United States Democratic vice-presidential nominee, and a former candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
• Michelle Obama - is an American lawyer and the wife of Illinois senator Barack Obama, who is a candidate for the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for U.S. President.
• Sandra Day O’Connor - is an American jurist who was the first woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served from 1981 to 2006.
• Claudia Kennedy - Kennedy is the first woman in the U.S. Army to hold a three-star rank.
• Nancy Pelosi - is currently the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Before becoming Speaker in the 110th Congress, she was the House Minority Leader from 2002 to 2007, holding the post during the 107th, 108th, and 109th Congresses. With her election as Speaker, she is the first woman, the first Californian, and the first Italian-American to hold the Speakership.
• Katherine Harris - is a former Secretary of State of Florida and a former member of the US House of Representatives. Harris won the 2002 election to represent Florida's 13th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. She held that post from 2003 to 2007. Harris lost the November 7, 2006 election to represent Florida in the United States Senate.
• Theresa Heinz Kerry - is an American philanthropist, the widow of the late U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III, and the wife of Senator John Kerry.
• Harold Lasswell - was a leading American political scientist and communications theorist. “Politics is who gets what, when, and how.”
• Theodore Lowi - is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. His area of research is the American government and public policy.
• Mancur Olsen - was a leading American economist and social scientist who, at the time of his death, worked at the University of Maryland, College Park. Among other areas, he made contributions to institutional economics on the role of private property, taxation, public goods, collective action and contract rights in economic development.