Women Make History, for Now

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/us/14iht-letter14.html

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NEW YORK — Now that the crucial role that female voters played in the re-election of President Barack Obama and their record-breaking victories on Election Day are the stuff of history, feminist groups, activists, political strategists and future candidates are taking stock and plotting the next act.

But first, briefly, drink in what happened.

The next Congress, convening in January, will have 20 female senators — up from 17 — the most in U.S. history. It will have a record number of women — at least 81, with a couple of races involving women yet to be decided — in the House of Representatives. All six Democratic women up for re-election in the Senate won their races, and five first-timers were elected: four Democrats and one Republican. Notable newcomers include the firebrand populist Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who will become the nation’s first openly gay senator.

What’s more, for the first time, the South Carolina Senate, the only all-male legislative chamber, will include a woman. And New Hampshire is sending an all-female delegation to Congress, two senators and two representatives, and elected a female governor as well.

These breakthroughs might help the United States raise its global rank in future Gender Gap reports by the World Economic Forum. The 2012 index, which measures women’s economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment, was released in October and ranked the United States 22nd over all — a drop from 17th in 2011.

On Election Day, American women really did make their mark. Their ascendance can be laid at least in part at the door of right-wing Republicans who mounted what feminists — but not just them — saw as a “war on women,” with their opposition to unfettered abortion rights, required insurance coverage for contraceptives and aid to women’s health organizations like Planned Parenthood. At the same time, many in the Republican Party and its media-entertainment complex of strident far-right radio and television personalities denigrated Latinos and underestimated the youth vote. Women and Latinos counterattacked, voting in droves for Mr. Obama, propelling him, with strong support from young people, to a resounding victory in the Electoral College. Comprehensive immigration reform, the lost cause of Mr. Obama’s first term, is back on the front burner with a good chance of passage, and Latinos have become a key part of a new governing coalition.

But no one is resting on their laurels, least of all feminists. With post-election celebrations piping down, what’s next?

“We can be encouraged, but Tuesday didn’t really change the reality of where we are,” said Siobhan Bennett, the chief executive of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a Washington-based nonpartisan organization that promotes abortion rights. “We must have equal representation on both sides of the aisles,” she said by telephone two days after the vote. “We have been sleepwalking since 1992. We thought this problem would somehow magically solve itself after that ‘year of the woman.’ Nothing could be further from the truth.”

With gender quotas having no chance of enactment in a quota-phobic United States, Ms. Bennett wants the major political parties at least to guarantee that women will make up no less than 30 percent of their political tickets.

“We must have a common purpose, a rising national consciousness that having women elected to office is essential,” she said, “but that national will is completely and totally lacking here.”

Ms. Bennett plans to host a diverse panel of business executives, activists and advocates in December to help fire up support for female candidates. “We need a visionary male leader helping us,” she said. “If we make it just for women, like women’s organizations, it’s not going to happen. We need men assisting us to get over the 30 percent hump. We don’t have enough critical mass. We won’t get the critical mass until we get more women. But to get to that phase, we need men and women.”

Few female leaders would disagree with the need for support — from men and women — but tactics, strategies and missions might differ.

“We’ve got 20 — 20 is good, but 20 is not enough,” Stephanie Schriock, the president of Emily’s List, a 27-year-old nonprofit fund-raising organization dedicated to the election of Democratic women who support abortion rights, said by telephone from Washington. “What you see now is a perfect example of what you’ll see in the future.”

In an informal index of women’s heightened involvement, the group raised $51.2 million this year and quintupled its membership to two million.

It has been training and recruiting women, starting at the legislative level, for nearly three decades and has spotted and guided candidates like Ms. Baldwin, the senator-elect, since her early days in Wisconsin politics in the 1990s.

“We’ll be ready for the next round of senatorial candidates and gubernatorial candidates and someday, yes, the first Democratic woman presidential nominee,” Ms. Schriock said. “We have lots of rising stars, some of them senators, and particularly our secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. I believe she’s at the very top of the list.”

No doubt, the 2016 campaign is under way — and women are in the thick of it.