Regression after 'Year of the Woman'

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The number of women seeking office in state legislatures declined over the last election cycle, continuing a 12-year pattern that women's advocates and political analysts say could quickly erode the unprecedented number of women in the 109th US Congress and accelerate a recent drop in the number of women holding statewide offices.
...
"It is troubling to see this declining trend. If anything, the trend should be increasing," Snowe said. "It's the 21st century. I didn't expect it to be taking a U-turn."

Compared with the 1990s, specialists on women in politics say, the importance of national security issues and continued perceptions among some voters -- as well as some potential female candidates -- that women should be caring for their families have limited participation.
...
Women comprise a record 14.8 percent of Congress, with 79 seats, and have risen to leadership positions in recent years. But analysts say no female challenger won a US Senate seat last year, and the percentage of women holding statewide elected office, such as governors, attorneys general, and US senators, has dropped since 1999, from 27.6 percent to 25 percent this year.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/us_senate/articles/2005/01/30/regression_after_year_of_the_woman/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News+%2F+Politics+%2F+Recent+Globe+coverage

[fortyfeetunder]

1. The irony of reading that is

I saw on CNN this morning that one of the criteria for the new Iraqi government was 25% of the governing body had to be women...

[Triana]

2. We have an anti-woman regime in power...

...women have been kicked out of the workplace first with all the job losses and they will be last to be hired back, if ever.

The FIRST thing bu$hit did when he squatted in Gore's chair was to close the Office of Women's Initiatives and re-instate the Global Gag Rule. Don't think for a millisecond that attitudes just like Lawrence's comments at Harvard are not wholly sanctioned by the bu$h regime, either. They prevail in this gov't and in this country but have been somewhat reticent with woman-friendly administrations such as Clinton's.

However, now that the IBMs and Halliburtons know that they have a gov't that supports their anti-woman attitudes, they are much more blatant about it now.

As long as regressive neanderthals like bu$hit and the Xtian fundies are at the helm - WOMEN WILL LOSE. They'll lose control of their bodies and their lives, their jobs, their financial independence, their representation in gov't, their ability to achieve decent lives for themselves and they'll lose the opportunity to even try.

Welcome to the American Taliban, ladies. It's going to get a lot worse unless we get those guys OUT - and KEEP them out of our gov't.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. You only have to watch Laura for a few minutes....

and it's clear she's a Stepford wife...
Compare to Kerry's wife. She's a spitfire! No matter your opinion of her, Kerry is obviously not threated by strong women. The Shrub obviously is.

my $0.02.

[TahitiNut]

4. I'm lucky.

I moved back to Michigan (with a female Governor and one female Senator) from California (with two female Senators) just before they "Terminated" good sense.