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Must Be Present to Win (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)

4 min read

Susan Collins has represented Maine in the U.S. Senate for 21 years. Last week, the Republican was quoted by the Portland Press-Herald in a story about the record number of women, in Maine and all across the country, who have announced their candidacy for public office this year.

Recruiting women candidates used to be much harder, Collins said — not because women weren’t interested in politics or public service, but because they questioned their own qualifications in ways that men simply did not:

“It used to be the joke among those of us who make these recruiting calls that for a woman to talk international trade, she feels like she needs a master’s degree. A man just feels he needs to drive a Honda.”

It’s a great line.

This kind of “confidence gap” has been documented, most famously in a Hewlett-Packard management report that was cited by Sheryl Sandberg in her 2013 best-seller, “Lean In.” Women at HP, the report concluded, applied for promotions only when they believed they met 100 percent of the qualifications listed for the job. Men, meanwhile, would apply if they thought they met about 60 percent of the requirements.

There’s been some pushback on those statistics, which may have been anecdotal rather than scientific, and generalizing can be dangerous. But I do think there’s a lot of truth in the observation that women tend to set higher standards for themselves — and it’s a darn good thing, because they will be held to higher standards.

Can you imagine any woman with zero government experience, five children by three spouses, a foul mouth and a history of adultery, fraud, racist lies and profiting from charitable donations being considered the finest representative of Republican values and presidential qualifications? See what I mean?

There are any number of reasons a woman might shy away from politics. Motherhood is a pretty big deal, even with an engaged and helpful spouse, and women still end up doing more household chores no matter how much they earn or how much they work. (Emptynesterhood is fantastic, by the way.)

Women, especially younger ones, also tend to compare themselves with the ideal while men tend to compare themselves with the status quo. She’ll hesitate because she’s not nearly as good as the voters deserve, while he’s certain that he’s better than the last yahoo they elected. And while no one enjoys failing, a failure really can be more of a setback for women — in the workplace and in politics — than for men. That’s in part because women tend to blame themselves when things go wrong while men tend to blame outside influences.

What’s more, others tend to do the same — blame the woman while giving a man the benefit of the doubt. Here’s a recent example: Some Republicans blame Hillary Clinton for the fact that Republicans nominated Donald Trump and she failed to beat him in the Electoral College.

He’s president because she’s so bad, the theory posits, not because the men then leading the Republican Party allowed an unfit man to steamroll better Republican candidates.

Meanwhile, the last presidential loser — and there’s always one — was not personally blamed for losing both the popular vote and Electoral College vote. On the contrary, the GOP concluded that demographics were the problem, not Mitt Romney. (The Republican National Committee is now chaired by a woman, Mitt Romney’s niece Ronna McDaniel.)

The good news is that women are becoming more aware of these tendencies and are being encouraged to overcome them. More businesses are making deliberate efforts to mentor women. More corporations are seeking out women board members. (See Gender Diversity on Company Boards Accelerates in Arkansas.) And more women have seen what can get elected in this country and finally started recognizing that, even with imperfections, they could be better than the incumbent yahoos.

Emily’s List, a training and fundraising organization for Democratic women candidates, told the Portland Press-Herald that it had been contacted by 26,000 women since the 2016 election. (The number after the 2014 election was 920.) I haven’t seen a comparable statistic on Republican women candidates, but we have one running for governor here in Arkansas.

Every woman’s story and path is unique, but when it comes to achieving an ambition, here’s a mantra that applies to everyone (even men): Must be present to win. Looks like a lot more women are planning to show up.


Gwen Moritz is editor of Arkansas Business. Email her at GMoritz@ABPG.com.
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