POLITICS - Women's Glass Ceiling

"Why it's harder for women to run for office" PBS NewsHour 7/26/2016

IMHO it's male chauvinist pigs who are under the illusion that they run the world.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As Hillary Clinton makes history with her nomination Tuesday night, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff speak with two other prominent women in politics, Kamala Harris, Attorney General of California and Rep.  Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.  ), about the hurdles that remain for women running for office.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  We mark this historic night with two women who have been trailblazers in their own right.

Kamala Harris is Attorney General of California.  She is the first woman and first African-American and first Indian-American to hold that office, and she is running this year for the U.S. Senate.  And Representative Cheri Bustos of Illinois was the first woman elected to Congress from her district.  She now works to elect other woman candidates.

Welcome to you both.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Welcome.

GWEN IFILL:  I want to ask you both to think back to 1984.  We were just asking Nancy Pelosi about this idea, the big breakthrough, when Geraldine Ferraro became the vice presidential candidate for the first time.

Cheri Bustos, how different is it to be a woman candidate now than it was in 1984?

REP.  CHERI BUSTOS (D-Ill.  ):  I still think there are challenges.

I'm vice chairman of the Recruiting Committee for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  So, I recruit candidates all over the country.  And now I'm vice chair of what is called the Red to Blue Committee.

We have 38 people who are on that list of seats where we think we have an opportunity to pick those up for Democrats.  Half of those are women.  There are still challenges when we're looking at women running for office.  And I think how we're going to correct that is what's going on right here.

When we get a woman in the White House, I think that it is going to be easier to get women to run for office.  And I hope that we make some tremendous gains over the years.

KAMALA HARRIS, California Attorney General:  I agree.

I think that — and, also, there's a significance to the nomination of Hillary Clinton that actually relates to advice my mother gave us when we were growing up, my sister and me.  And she would say, “Kamala, you may be the first to do many things.  Make sure you're not the last.”

And so there is that thing about the way that Hillary Clinton has actually lived her professional life that is also about mentorship.  It's about encouraging other women to actually go forward and do it, knowing that they can succeed.

Equally important is what Michelle Obama said last night.  The significance of Hillary Clinton breaking the ceiling is the significance of telling our sons, as well as our daughters, you can do anything, unburdened by who has done it before.

And that's an important point to make to everybody, not just girls, not just women, not just people of a certain race.  It's telling everyone, anyone can do whatever they want.  It is all possible if you work hard.