Entry #5

Women: Politics, Family and Celebrity

Women have not always had the right to vote for their Senators, House of Representatives, or even the President of the United Sates. Today though we are seeing more and more women not only vote, but these women are becoming our Senators, House of Representatives and hopefully one day our President of the United States. While women have come a long way, they still have many obstacles to climb. In this entry I am going to talk about females as politicians, the family lives of these female politicians and these politicians as celebrities.

Female Politicians

Female politicians are becoming more common yet are still very uncommon. Forty-five women have been elected or appointed into office after their husband had passed away (pg. 95). Many women have come into this after having run in the campaign with their husband. They are familiar with what is going on and the voters have seen them campaigning alongside their husband and family. Some women use a different approach when getting votes. One approach woman politician’s use is to focus on issues that comply with women’s customary roles in the family such as health, and education (pg. 96). As women we are closely related with education and health because it is the most closely related to women and taking care of families. Women politicians also usually stay away from attack ads and negative advertising, because it’s at odds with voters views of the “proper female behavior” (pg. 97). When we watch female politicians campaign videos we usually see them use these approaches to gain more voters.

In the clips below each one shows two of the commercials House member Stephanie Herseth Sandlin used in her 2008 campaign. In the first one we see how she talks about health care for veterans. Once again, we have a women House member talking about an issue such as health care. In the second clip we see her talking about education and healthcare the two issues women in congress are most commonly seen supporting.

Family of Female Politicians

While it is okay for men to be politicians and fathers, it seems that there is still an issue with females being both a politician and mother. Van Zoonen explains, “The main topics for female politicians are family life (for the married ones) and love affairs (for the single ones)” (pg. 90). Whoever the female candidates is we always hear about her family and how it will affect them, never do we here how it will affect a man’s family. In the book, Entertaining the Citizen it states, “The families of female politician suffer because of the ambitions. The families of male politicians can see similarly little of them; nevertheless, their plight is constructed as heroic, and in support of the man’s political career” (pg. 91). Female politicians are often seen as having to be a mom or politician. It is hard for them to be both. We also see female candidates running at an older age, when her family has grown up, while with men we see them as younger and having families still at home (pg. 90).

In the pictures below they are of Sandlin’s family. The first one is of Stephanie and her husband, Max Sandlin, at their wedding on March 31, 2007. The second one is of Stephanie and her son, Zachary Lars, who was born December 15, 2008. Stephanie was married and had her son all while she was in the House seat. Her son is not even a year old. She has taken on the roles of politician, wife and mom. She shows us that you can do all three and still be successful.

Politicians as Celebrities

Van Zoonen, describes celebrity as being well known because of mass media exposure (pg. 93). Women politicians get tons of mass media exposure. Females get exposure for being a female, having a family if they do, and what outfit they are wearing, while men get recognition for what issues they are promoting. During this past presidential election we heard what Sarah Palin was wearing and about her family, but we never heard what Joe Biden was wearing or about his family. We heard more about the issues he presented.

When Stephanie announced she was pregnant it made news all over. Everyone was talking about her having a baby, rather than the issues she was fighting for. When I was looking for websites that announced her being pregnant I found tons. Here are couple that of websites that announced she was pregnant, making a bigger deal out her pregnancy than her political issues.

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Pregnant

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Pregnant #2

In Conclusion

While women have come a long way since the days of not being able to vote, there are still many things that we need to overcome. One day it might not be such a big deal when female politicians do have families, and people will focus more on what their issues are.