Is the GOP prejudiced against women? According to the statistics, it appears so.
By Erika Lovley
Women make up almost 51 percent of the U.S. population but less than 10 percent of the House and Senate GOP - a gender disconnect that could make the Republicans' climb back to power even steeper than it would be otherwise.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) notices that she's part of a shrinking minority every time she heads to the Senate floor for a vote.
Republican women in the House say they feel the problem - literally - when their male colleagues nudge them to the front of GOP press conferences to break up the solid lines of middle-aged white men in neckties.
Indeed, Rep. Kay Granger - the first and only Republican woman to represent Texas in the House - says Republican women have to work to make sure they're even represented at public events in the first place. "We pass the word to make sure we're there at this ceremony or that photo-op, because there are fewer of us and we're spread more thinly," Granger said. "We're working in a very successful manner, and we want to make sure that's shown."
The numbers make that difficult.
Out of 435 members of the House, just 17 are Republican women. Of 99 sitting senators, just four are Republican women.
Of course, there are fewer Republicans than Democrats of either gender in the two houses. But even on a percentage basis, Republicans suffer a gender gap. Twenty-two percent of House Democrats are women, but only 9.5 percent of House Republicans are. In the Senate, nearly 23 percent of the Democrats are women, but only 10 percent of the Republicans are.
The problem isn't new; former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) remembers being struck that no Republican women were on stage while President George W. Bush signed a ban on partial-birth abortions in 2003. "I looked at the stage and said, 'You've got to be kidding me,'" said Musgrave, who was sitting in the audience.
But the imbalance seems to be getting worse. While the Republicans had Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on their presidential ticket in 2008, Democratic women far outnumbered Republican women as general-election candidates for the House in November. There were 96 Democratic women on the ballot - but only 37 Republican women.
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Comments: 34
What an apt observation, dear Peter... I wonder if any of these conservative women ever stop to think about this. ;-)
Blessings and best wishes - S.
Besides all can see the kind of women repugs like and support , hookers and sarah palin (cougar;-p).
Carla - I just saw a stat on the news today that 7 out of 10 women either have no health insurance or are grossly un-insured. I suspect that this is because of workplace inequalities and the fact that many of the women in the group counted are single moms. I suspect that concerns liberals more than to conservatives.
How sad is that? It should CONCERN everybody.
Really, if you're a woman to you want to be associated with a party that backs Moosekiller Palin, Ann Coulter, and that batsh*t crazy-eyed woman from Minnesota?
Tod is also in the shadow of his wifes power, but the manipulating that he is doing is obvious to all. He like most men is driven by competition not compassion.
Mrs Palin. is typical in that men and women are equally devoid of a solid historical perspective of the practical human struggles that were so bitterly fought for..
I think Palin et al is simply self serving. period.
Subsistence Hunting and Fishing.
I know guys who voted for Palin simply based on the size of her (.) (.)... to bad, but then again what do we want... ??
"most mouths on this thread have no sense of history"
most every were.
you don't get the credit you deserve.
the whole country needs to turn off the T.V. and at a minimum spend that time in wiki.
"Power-whores are a dime-a-dozen. "
you said it. thats way we all should be concerned about the Palin prototype. two (.) (.) and nothing to support them.
I do like that comment, Darren: "two (.) (.) and nothing to support them."
We're fine, Carla. If I were you, I'd worry more about the mouthy women Democrats in Washington. Someone needs to put a muzzle on Pelosi.
Marilyn, she is the Speaker of the House...so she is expected to use her mouth, don't you think?
Thank you Carla, Speaker - Mouth As a comm major it seems, well...pretty obvious to me.
(Breathlessly awaiting the Monica joke from Tom or Christopher...)
Nope. Tom. Wrong. We treated Hillary like Hillary--a person, a politician, a human, and a vet of the political / media wars. Most of us damned dems don't treat women different than we treat men. Obama was as tough with her as he needed to be. He was cautioned not to treat Palin the same way. Palin was "guarded" and restricted from speaking in public...like she was "hiding her light under the bushel" after her idiotic public comments. And I'm still waiting for her to see the light...
Wilka
And THEN, they were crass enough to ask for the clothing back, after she didn't perform so well for them, according to THEIR expectations---to give them what they wanted...
She was a dancing bear for the party---well, maybe a dancing caribou...
Yeah--that WAS her nickname, wasn't it? Caribou Barbie...
Tacky, tacky, tacky.
W