It's still difficult for women to do well in politics. In New Jersey, which should be surprising. But isn't.
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The New York Times
September 25, 2006
Women Hit Glass Ceiling in N.J. Politics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:58 a.m. ET
SCOTCH PLAINS, N.J. (AP) -- Linda Stender is an anomaly in a state of high-achieving women in business, academia, law and more -- a woman with a decent shot at a seat in Congress.
Woman have a tough time in New Jersey politics despite characteristics of the state that should make it ripe for female representation. It's highly educated and wealthy, women make up two-thirds of registered voters and they tend to be motivated to get out on Election Day.
Yet only five women have ever been elected to the House from New Jersey, and none to the Senate. The state's 15-member congressional delegation is all male.
Besides running against GOP incumbent Mike Ferguson, Stender, a Democrat, serves on a county political committee that calls the shots at putting candidates forward for various local offices.
''I get asked this all the time, about needing a good woman candidate,'' Stender said. ''And we just don't have any.''
Despite the state's liberal traditions, an old boys' network still holds sway in local politics, the starting point for candidates for higher office, experts say.
In New Jersey's unusual political structure, each of its 21 counties has Democratic and Republican committees. Within those groups, municipal party committees decide whom to tap to run for office. And many of those people are white men.
''You don't play golf or drink beer with a woman,'' said former Gov. Christie Whitman. ''You tend to gravitate toward people who look like you.''
The divide between the sexes is striking against the backdrop of women's advancement in other fields. Women lead three New Jersey universities -- Princeton, Montclair State and the College of New Jersey. The Garden State also ranks 11th in the number of women-owned businesses.
Three of the seven justices on New Jersey's Supreme Court are women, including the chief justice, Deborah Poritz. Women account for a quarter of all judges in the state's courts -- 106 of 440.
New Jersey ranks sixth in the percentage of women with college degrees, placing it close to Colorado, Massachusetts and Maryland.
In contrast, New Jersey drops to 31st in the nation in electing women to state and federal offices, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Utah and Texas rank higher; Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee lower. South Carolina is at the bottom.
Stender, like Whitman, is an exception. She's been a city councilwoman, mayor, county freeholder and state assemblywoman. Stender was busy raising her family in Fanwood when Mayor Pat Kuran, a woman, encouraged her to get into politics in 1988.
''The only reason I was given the opportunity was because the powers that be didn't see it as a year that any Democrats could win,'' she said. ''But I did.'' Stender served on the local council, and went on to become Fanwood's mayor, then served as a county freeholder. She was elected to the state Assembly in 2002. Of the 120 state legislators, only 23 are women.
Robin Berg Tabakin, president of the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners, said businesswomen like herself are trying to redress the imbalance by joining groups such as Women Advocating Good Government.
''Many women have joined together to support other women, regardless of party,'' she said.
Jeanne Jameson, president of Business and Professional Women of New Jersey, said she is seeing more female candidates these days at all levels.
''But there's still kind of that old boy network out there and women are just not able to be elected,'' Jameson said.
Two other women are running for House seats this year in New Jersey but only Stender is thought by her party to have a good chance of defeating an incumbent.
In 1990, the little-known Whitman, a Republican, took on Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley and came close: He won 50-47 percent.
''Clearly if people had put resources in that race, she might have beat him,'' said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
In a recent interview, Whitman said that in the last 10 days of her Senate campaign, the National Republican Senatorial Committee balked at providing $350,000 she had budgeted for media buys.
''They took it away and gave it to races they thought were more competitive, and they all happened to be male, and at the end of the day, none did as well as I did,'' Whitman said. ''I was dark for those last 10 days.''
Whitman ran for governor in 1993, campaigning against two men in her party's primary. She said most Republicans were behind W. Cary Edwards, an attorney general in Gov. Thomas Kean's administration. Whitman went on to win the primary and defeated Democratic Gov. Jim Florio by 1 percentage point. She was re-elected in 1997.
Whitman has started a project that steers 15 to 20 women through a yearlong series that teaches them how to raise money and run a campaign. The Center for American Women and Politics also has a one-day program that encourages women in New Jersey to run for office.
Whitman is proud of her ''Whitman Series,'' but still a bit discouraged there aren't more women in elected office.
''I would have hoped that the experience that we had and the record we were able to accumulate would have encouraged other women to run,'' she said.
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On the Net:
Center for American Women and Politics: cawp.rutgers.edu.
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