03/22/99

Will Elizabeth Dole Run? Can She Win?

Two hundred and ten years have passed since George Washington was elected our first president. Since then, there have been 51 more presidential elections, all won by men. Six bold women have made bids for the White House, two of them even before women could vote, but no woman has ever run as the candidate of a major political party.

In 1872, Victoria Woodhull, stockbroker and publisher, became the first woman to run for President of the United States. A candidate of the Equal Rights Party, she campaigned passionately for women's social and political rights. Unfortunately, Woodhull became embroiled in a widely publicized scandal, was sued for libel and thrown in jail. In the end, her name did not appear on the ballot against Grant and Greeley because she was only 34, a year under the Constitutionally mandated age of 35.

Belva Lockwood, the first woman attorney admitted to argue before the Supreme Court, followed Woodhull as the next woman presidential candidate on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1884. She received over 4000 votes from six states and was nearly awarded Indiana’s electoral votes. Grover Cleveland won the election.

After the 1920 passage of the 19th amendment, which gave women the Constitutional right to vote, women became more politically involved and began to acquire influential offices in government, as Congresswomen, governors, federal judges, and cabinet members.

Not until 1964, 80 years after Lockwood's effort, did another woman seek the presidency. Margaret Chase Smith, Republican Senator from Maine, served in both houses of Congress for a total of 30 years. A voice of conscience against McCarthyism, she campaigned in New Hampshire, Illinois and Oregon presidential primaries, but her name was not placed in nomination.

Then, in 1972, Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman ever elected to Congress, was the first woman to receive delegate votes for the presidential nomination by a major party, the Democrats. She received much media attention but little support from the general electorate. A teacher and consultant to the New York Department of Social Services before entering politics, Chisholm returned to teaching and writing after her retirement from Congress.

The woman who has received the most recognition and public scrutiny in U.S. presidential politics is Geraldine Ferrarro, who accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president in 1984 as Walter Mondale’s running mate. A congresswoman from New York for three terms, she had won wide public attention as head of the Democratic Party’s platform committee. The Mondale-Ferrarro ticket was defeated, and Ferrarro returned to private life. In 1992, her bid for a Senate seat failed.

The next serious contender for the presidency, Pat Schroeder, made her bid for the White House in 1988, only to drop out of the primaries due to insufficient capital to mount a competitive national campaign. As a long-standing and influential member of Congress, she had the credentials to compete for the presidency, but lacked the power base to gain the nomination.

In 1992, Dr. Lenora Fulani, psychologist and civil rights activist, ran for President as the nominee of the New Alliance Party, a group known as ultra-liberal and supportive of Louis Farrakhan. Dr. Fulani is now the chairperson of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP), which seeks to unify independent forces in U.S. politics.

Clearly, history teaches us that the first presidential victory for a woman will be the hardest to achieve. Yet women outnumber men in this country and have enormous untapped power and financial resources. Look around you. Brilliant, dynamic, charismatic women lead many of our communities, corporations, school systems, states, foundations, and government agencies.

According to a recent Virginia Slims poll, 64% of American men and women believe that a woman will be elected President of the United States within the next 20 years (New Woman magazine, September, 1996.)

Who do you think will be our first woman President? If Elizabeth Dole runs as the Republican nominee for President next year, how do you assess her chances of winning the election?

Please send questions or comments to bbruno@snet.net.