The ‘army of female candidates’ in US politics

One of the most striking features of this year’s US mid term elections is the huge number of female candidates that are standing. It’s still not 50 per cent. And I wish that even if 60 per cent of the candidates were women we’d think it was unremarkable. But compared to the British general election a few months ago it is really striking how this election seems to be an equal opportunity poll.

One of the most conspicuous features of this army of female candidates is how many of them are from the right. In many cases the pretty far right. And that has left many left-wing feminists rather confused.

“They represent an immense constituency that establishment feminism forgot – or disdained.” Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post

Conservative women

Prominent right wing columnist Charles Krauthammer says in the Washington Post that the most important socio-demographic trend is the rise of Conservative women. He describes the “coming of age of a whole generation of smart, aggressive Republican women,” adding “they are not only a force in themselves, they represent an immense constituency that establishment feminism forgot – or disdained.”

That remark grabbed the attention of plenty of feminists who insist they never forgot or ignored these women – they just don’t like them. Very few women who would call themselves “feminists” have been able to welcome all these female candidates onto the political stage. Not just because so many of them are Republicans but because often they are on the more extreme Tea Party edge of the party. Like Sarah Palin, most of them don’t believe in abortion rights or any of the other polices that are usually considered to be “womens’ issues”.

‘Mean girls’

Maureen Dowd has always been outspoken on women’s issues in her New York Times Column. But she is not celebrating all these female candidates. Rather bitchily describing them as “mean girls” saying that they are like the kind of girls in who, in high school, “would steal your boyfriend, spray-paint your locker and, just for good measure, spread rumours that you were pregnant”.

“An emerging, conservative, feminist identity” Sarah Palin

When the former White House press secretary Dana Perino weighed in to criticise Dowd for being “stereotypical and ignorant” the blogosphere immediately screamed “Cat Fight”. Proving that even if the candidates are moving into a post-feminist era the commentariat have yet to join them.

‘Momma grizzlies’

When Hillary Clinton ran for the Democratic presidential nomination just two years ago there was endless discussion of whether the country was ready for a female Commander in Chief and far too much criticism of her fashion sense. Sarah Palin gets very different reception. Maybe it’s because she always has something controversial to say that the press don’t have time to obsess about the fact that she is a woman. She coins her own idiosyncratic phrases to describe this army of women and mothers who are at the vanguard of the Tea Party. “Momma Grizzlies” she calls them as she talks about “an emerging, conservative, feminist identity”.

Everything Sarah Palin says is closely scrutinised to see if it affords any hints about whether she intends to run for President in 2012. And whether she might become the first woman ever to win the presidential nomination from a major political party. If she does she will benefit from this army of Momma Grizzlies who she will have helped get into office – and who between them are putting more cracks in what Hillary Clinton called “the highest, hardest glass ceiling” than any Democratic woman has ever managed.