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Show HINCKLEY JOURNAL OF POLITICS 2002/2003 learned how and has been successful in becoming an accepted member of her caucus by choosing her battles. She simply listens to gender based jokes and stories when they are of minor concern to her. When she feels a response is necessary or that the talk is greatly offensive, she steps aside with the person in question and expresses her position. She reports being successful in eliminating talk that goes beyond her own comfort level while maintaining her position within the caucus. The third perceptual phenomenon is that of role entrapment, where the dominant group distorts the characteristics of the tokens in order to fit them into one-dimensional preexisting stereotypes. The four roles are that of the mother, the seductress, the pet, and the iron maiden. There was abundant discussion of the "woman as mother" within every interview. Gender and functional definition centered on the notion that because women are and can be mothers, they are fundamentally different than men. Now, none of the female senators in any way implied that that made them subordinate or weak, but they each gained identity and strength from the notion of distinct difference. Words like "nurturing" and "caring" peppered discussions surrounding these issues. Sen. Peterson (D), who is not married and does not have children, did make the distinction discussed above. She saw the differences between men and women as mainly natural and inherent. She is a social worker by profession, and thusly plays a "motherly" role in the public sphere. Sen. Hale (D), who is a mother of children ranging from grade school age to college age, discussed how that vantage point allowed her a unique perspective into the lives of young families. It is a defining role in her life. Her legislative priorities are those that center on children's lives - education, health care, and public safety. She judges the effectiveness of the government by how it treats children. Her previous work experience was that of an editor of a parenting magazine. The role of mother fits quite easily. Sen. Julander (D) is a nurse and has spent a goodly portion of her legislative career working on health care and higher education issues. She is branded as a "woman's" senator because of her work on the pill bill and her pro-choice stance. She gains credibility by positioning herself as a mother and grandmother. She also discussed the differences between men and women as "inherent," but in addition she discussed the cultural implications of gender. She described the choices she and her sisters had as children. They could become teachers, nurses, clerical workers, or homemakers. Sen. Julander stressed to me that the choices women have now are much broader than those she and her contemporaries had. Sen. Walker (R) is a mother and grandmother with professional experience as a real estate agent. She talked about the differences between men and women in terms of the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Women and men inherently think, feel and communicate differently. She viewed this as strength and stressed that she liked being a woman, she did not want to become a man in the legislature. Motherly qualities like caring and compassion were important in her self-definition. She also stressed that her business experience made her a better legislator because she was able to speak the language of her male counterparts while maintaining her femininity. Sen. Evans (R) is a mother and grandmother, and she is a professional educator in the applied technology field. She represents a mostly rural area where women with college educations are fewer than in more urban areas. She described at length how her roles as a mother and wife cooled many voters' initial reactions to her. She had to overcome the notion that a caring and pleasant woman could represent the complicated issues facing the population of northeastern Utah. She did this by becoming an expert on water, gas, mining, and property rights issues in her area. She proved her knowledge at debates and public meetings, and was able to overcome the low expectations of being a family woman. It is in Sen. Evans' case that the entrapping nature of being branded a mother is most clear. She has a Masters degree and extensive work experience in her community. Yet, the first and most difficult hurdle for her in both the campaigning and legislative processes was the expectation that a motherly type could not handle the complexities of public service. Qualities hailed in the private sphere as good and community building are then seen as weak and threatening in the public sphere. Sen. Evans was able to overcome these low expectations by putting up with jokes and sometimes inappropriate comments. She was proud of the fact that when really bothered, she was able to pull the member aside that offended her and explain why it was bothersome. She said that the comments and jokes have dissipated as the years have passed. She attributes this to her quiet style and hard working attitude. In the other senators' cases, the entrapping and limiting nature of this brand is less clear. Every one of these women is proud of her abilities in both the domestic and public spheres. These experiences were used publicly and prominently during the campaigns, thereby lending credibility to the notion that playing off of the assumptions of women's innate compassion and nurturing is a political advantage in getting elected. Once in the Senate, however, it is questionable how much a female senator wants to focus on motherly experiences because this may limit her ability to address other important policy issues. Care-taking can be equated with weakness, and if women are perceived as motherly and then act otherwise (assertively, independently, or intelligently) they may be shunned for breaking expectations. Two of the senators interviewed described instances early in their senate experiences where the more senior male members of the their respective caucuses drew boundaries on this issue. The male senators used their experience with a former female senator as a lesson on acceptable behavior within the body. She was a "single issue" senator, only focusing on legislation directly related to children. She used her position as a mother as her basis for expertise on said legislation. She was described as 27 |
