Is There Glass Ceiling For Women Running for Office?
Do women in Massachusetts face obstacles to being elected for office that men don’t? A reporter for the Daily Hampshire Gazette asks the question.
In the article “Elizabeth Warren tries to break political glass ceiling in liberal Massachusetts” reporter Ben Storrow asks Timothy Vercellotti, associate professor of political science at Western New England University in Springfield about the differences in the Massachusetts Senate race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren.
“Warren was challenged to cite the names of Red Sox players,” Vercellotti said. “How many men get asked that? The assumption is that they know.”
Storrow also asks Shannon O’Brien who ran against Mitt Romney for governor in 2002 and lost, about perceptions that play against women running for office. O’Brien thinks there is a double-standard that plays against women who come across as too “tough” during campaigns. She cites a debate performance against Romney.
“I hammered him on that issue and he, in a mock-genteel way, referred to me as unbecoming,” O’Brien said. “He was trying to come off as this old-fashioned, patient gentleman and that this feminist was too tough for mixing it up with him.
“I had a reputation for being a pretty tough legislator and treasurer,” said O’Brien, who now works as a business adviser in the Boston area. “Romney turned that around on me.”
It’s a great to see some in the media picking up what Name It. Change It. has been trying to spotlight—the gendered ways women are treated differently in the media. Check out the rest of the article.
Published by Kate McCarthy on 04/26/2012