An Interpretation of the Underrepresentation of Women In

The Pennsylvania State University

The Graduate School

LEARNING TO RUN: THE GENDER CHALLENGES OF WOMEN IN ELECTED

OFFICE

A Dissertation in

Adult Education

Shelly L. Capozzi

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Education

May 2020

The dissertation of Shelly L. Capozzi was reviewed and approved* by the following:

Karin Sprow-Fortè Assistant Teaching Professor of Teacher Education and Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, School of Behavioral Sciences and Education Professor-in charge, English as a Second Language (ESL) Program Specialist and Leadership Certificate Program Chair of Committee Dissertation Advisor

Robin Redmon Wright Assistant Professor of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, School of Behavioral Sciences and Education

Elizabeth J. Tisdell Professor of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, School of Behavioral Sciences and Education Professor-in Charge, Lifelong Learning and Adult Education, Chair of Lifelong Learning and Adult Education

Charity Fox Assistant Professor of American Studies and Gender Studies, School of Humanities

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ABSTRACT

The purpose of this qualitative research study was twofold: (1) to explore how elected women officials construct their identity as political leaders and the factors that influenced their decision to run for office; and (2) to understand their perceptions of popular culture in the process of constructing their political identity. This research focused on internal and external forces that influenced women to run for public office, and, more specifically, the public perceptions of women in politics, the role of popular culture in their decisions to run for office, and the role of women in society and politics was examined. Critical feminist theory incorporated gendered perspectives of women’s leadership and their acceptance into a male- dominated profession, and public pedagogy informed how women were and were not influenced by popular culture. The design of the study utilized a basic interpretive approach to examine what influenced women to run for political office in the U.S., as well as their formative life experiences related to popular culture and experiences upon entering and achieving elected positions. Data collection consisted of semi-structured, in-depth interviews of 11 participants, all elected women officials in a mid-Atlantic state. The findings of the study focused on four main themes concerning the experiences of the participants: (1) the persistence of gender barriers to women entering politics, (2) gender discrimination and influence, (3) their identification as politicians, and (4) popular culture influences on their development into politicians. This study is significant in adult education, women in politics, and especially for women learners.

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………..………...vi Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………viii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION……………………………...………………………………………1

A Personal Story: Contextualizing the Problem……………………………………………….1 Background to the Problem……………………………………………………………………3 Gender Differences in Perceptions of Women as Leaders………………………………….4 Popular Culture and Adult Learning………………………………………………………..5 Identity Development in Women Leaders………………………………………………….8 Structural Barriers and Gains……………………………………………………………….9 Purpose and Questions………………………………………………………………………..10 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework……………………………………………………...11 Critical Feminist Theory……………………………………………………………...……11 Feminism and Public Pedagogy……………………………………………………………12 Overview of Research…………………………………………………………………………15 Significance of the Study……………………………………………………………………...18 Assumptions, Limitations, and Strengths……………………………………………………..19 Definition of Terms…………………………………….……………………………………...21

Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW………...………………………………………………….24

Women in Politics…………………………………………………………………………….24 Women in Elected Positions in America………………………………………………….25 Gender and Political Decision Making……………………………………………………27 Perceptions of Women in Political Roles in the U.S…...…………………………………28 The Development of Feminism………………………………………………………………30 Disempowering Women…………………………………………………………………..31 A Woman’s Voice… ……………………………………………………………………33 History of Feminism………………………………………………………………………34 Women’s Movements……………………………………………………………………..34 First Wave………………………………………………………………………..…….36 Second Wave………………………………………………………………..…………38 Third Wave…………………………………………………………………….………40 Current Wave…………………………………………………………..………………43 Cultural History of Women’s Issues………………………………………………………44 The Pill…………...…………………………………………………………………….46 Motherhood…………………………………………………………………...………..49 Selections of Writing on Power and Politics……………………...………………………53 Enlightened Sexism……………………………………………………………………….58 Feminist Theory…………………………………………………………………………...59 Liberal Feminism………………………………………………………………………….61 Poststructural Feminism…………………………………………………………………...61 Socialist Feminism……..…………………………………………………….……………65 Radical Feminism……………...………………………………………………………….66 v

Feminism and Adult Education………………………………………………………………67 Feminist Pedagogy………………………………………………………….……………..68 Critical Perspectives……………………………………………………………….………….71 Critical Theory and Adult Education……………………………………………….……..72 Critical Feminist Theory and Adult Education………….………..……………………….74 Popular Culture and Public Pedagogy……….……………………………………………….76 Public Pedagogy and Adult Education…...………………………………………………77 Empirical Research in Popular Culture, Public Pedagogy, and Adult Education..………83 Perceptions of Women in Politics…………..……………………………………….……….86 Methodology of the Review……….……………………………….…………………….…..89 Empirical Research in Women in Politics………..………………………………………….89 The Influence of Power on Public Perceptions of Female Leaders………………………90 Media Coverage of Women in Politics…………...………………………………………93 Issues Covered and Time Allotted….………...…………………………………………101 Factors that May Increase or Decrease Women’s Representation………...…………….106 Summary of Literature Review…...……………..…………………………………………113

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY………...………………………………..………………...……..114

Qualitative Research Methodologies…….………………………………………………….114 Critical Feminist Research and Researcher Background…………….……………………...117 Participant Selection……….………………………………………………………………..122 Introduction of the Participants…………………………………………………………..124 Synopsis of the Participants…………………………………………………………..….128 Data Collection and Analysis Methods……………………………………………………..129 Interviews…………………………………………………………………..……………129 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………….131 Verification Strategies………………….…………………………………………………..132 Chapter Summary………...…………...……………………………………………………136

Chapter 4 FINDINGS………………………………………..…………………………………137

Data Display……………..…………………………………………………………………139 Barriers for Women……..…………………… ……………...…………………………….140 The Good Old Boys………………………………..…………………………………….140 Family Responsibilities………………………….………………………………………144 Lack of Female Role Models…………………………………...……………………….147 Future Barriers…………………………………………………………………..………152 Gender Discrimination and Influence…...…………………………………………………154 Gender Discrimination Prior to Running………………………………………………..155 Finding Her Voice…………………...………………………………….………………162 Lack of Voice…………………………..……………………………………………165 Finding Voice………………………………………………………………………..167 Leadership Skills………………………………………………………………………..169 Listening: Focus on Service vs Entitled Career…………….……………………….170 Collaboration and Compromise: Directive vs Consensus………………….……….171 vi

Identification as Politicians………….……………………………………………………175 Others Suggested They Run for Office………………………..………………………176 Understood Their Role as Helping…………...………………………………………..178 The Influence of Popular Culture…………………………………...…………………….181 Women Characters in Books and Television………………………………………….181 Inspirational People……………………………………………..……………………185 Chapter Summary………………………………………………………………………..187

Chapter 5 DISCUSSIONS, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS…………...…………..190

Findings Summary in Light of the Theoretical Framework………………………………..191 The Persistence of Gender Barriers to Women in Politics……………………………..194 Systemic Barriers………………………………………………….……………….194 Family Responsibilities…………………………………………………………….196 Lack of Female Role Models………………………………………………………198 Found Strength and Fortitude………………………………………………………….199 Developed Ways to Navigate Gender Issues………………………………………200 Understood Their Role as Helping…………………………………………...……200 Discovered Voice…………………………………………………………….……202 Popular Culture Influences and Public Pedagogy………………………….………….204 Lack of Influential Characters………………………………………….………….205 Themes of Overcoming Sexism……………………………………………………205 Overcoming Adversity and Discrimination from Famous Leaders………………..207 Influences on Women’s Decisions to Run…………………………………………………208 Impediments to Women’s Political Success…………………………………………….....210 Popular Culture Influences…………………………………………………………...……213 Implications for Theory and Practice………………………………………………………215 Critical Feminist Theory……………………………………………………….………216 Public Pedagogy and Gendered Identities……………………………………………..217 Implications for Practice……………………………………………………………….218 Increase Role Models for Women Politicians…………...... ……………………..219 Organize to Support Women Political Campaigns……………….………………219 Appointments and Further Research…………………………….……………….220 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research………………...……………….221 Final Reflections………………………………………………………….………………..223

REFERENCES…………….………………………………………………….………….…….226

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1. Percentages of Women in Elected Office……………………………………………26

Table 1-2. Participant Information…………………………………….…….…………….125,138

Table 1-3. Data Display of Themes…………………………………..………………………..139

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest appreciation goes to my dissertation committee for guiding me through my research. I am extremely grateful to my Chair and advisor, Dr. Karin Sprow Forté, for her support and dedication to this project. Dr. Elizabeth Tisdell, Dr. Robin Redmon-Wright, and Dr.

Charity Fox have been a great source of knowledge and inspiration. The completion of my dissertation would not have been possible without my committee’s academic instruction and constructive feedback throughout this process. Writing this dissertation has truly been a journey, and I thank my professors for teaching me throughout.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my family who encouraged me during this project. My daughter, Liza, became my technological right hand and she allowed me to practice my presentations and defenses with her. My son, Victor, who constantly challenged my patience by constantly asking me to define the term feminist. I hope he becomes a fighter for gender equality when he enters the work force. My husband, Lou, my editor, taught me everything I know about the political process and running for office. Special thanks to my Aunt Kay and

Unlce Doug, who always encouraged me to reach for the stars. Lastly, I thank all the strong women in my life, some of whom were participants for this study.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides an overview of an interpretive qualitative research study that explored how elected women officials constructed their professional political identities. It provides an opening story to give context, the background to the problem, a purpose statement with research questions, the theoretical framework guiding the research, an overview of the methodology utilized, the significance of the study, in addition to assumptions and limitations.

A Personal Story: Contextualizing the Problem

“Where are all the women?” I thought. It was 2009. “I cannot possibly be the only female elected to this school board.” When I was an elementary and middle school teacher, most volunteers in the public-school system were women, and there were many women volunteers in the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), but I was the only woman on the school board. I gazed around the boardroom. To my surprise, the administration and the attorney for the board were also male. The Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Athletic Director, Business Manager,

Technology Director, and Solicitor were all men. I was seated next to a board director who said he had been on the board for over 20 years. He looked as though he were 80 years old and resembled the fictional character Archie Bunker from the television sitcom All in the Family

(Leard & Yorkin, 1971). I later learned that his mentality matched Archie Bunker’s perfectly.

His comments to me were sexual in nature. “The last time a beautiful woman sat beside me, she put me in the hospital for two weeks. She nearly gave me a heart attack when she touched my knee.” I could tell I was in a White male world, and it was going to be a difficult atmosphere in which to work. However, I also knew I would bring an educated, experienced woman’s perspective to the governance of this school district, and I was not leaving. 2

Over the course of eight years I became the chair of three committees: education, technology, and policy. My last three years, I became Vice-President and then President of the

Board. In those eight years, I learned a great deal about how to work with men and also how to recruit women to run for the school board. This was not an easy task. Most women did not believe they could run for an elected position, and none of them knew the first thing about how to do it. Why was it so difficult to teach these women that they were qualified professionals who could win an election and serve on the school board? I knew that women learn how to become professionals and leaders through formal schooling and life experiences, yet I was still confused that women involved in local politics in my hometown were so few in number. There must be other influences in the world that affect women’s decisions to run for office or choose a political career path.

I reflected on my life in the 1970s and 1980s and wondered if depictions of women in the media could have an effect on how women saw themselves in relationship to leadership or political positions. Who were the women leaders in popular culture that were role models for women? I could only think of Farrah Fawcett from the television show Charlie’s Angels

(Spelling, 1976) and Mary Tyler Moore from The Mary Tyler Moore (Brooks & Burns, 1970) television show. I could not remember any political women leaders on television at that time. I could not remember one woman from the movies either. But, I adored Velma from Scooby -Doo

(Barbara & Hannah,1969) and Peppermint Patty from the comic strip Peanut Gang

(Schultz,1950). My favorite cartoons contained two smart women who solved problems without having to lean on men for advice. Disney created animated films that were broadcast on television during my years of growing from a young girl into a woman. I did not identify with any of those princess characters. Women had role models in television, movies, and literature, 3 but I realized that very few of these media productions contained any women in political positions.

In 2016, I found myself again contemplating why I was the only woman when appointed to the 5-member Township’s Zoning Hearing Board. Once more, the solicitor was a man. Over time, I had learned that this gender disparity in local government was the norm for my township and municipality. I thought that women had come a long way since the suffrage movement. We established equal rights in many areas like education, voting, sports, careers, and leadership. Our representatives are supposed to reflect our population, and since women consist of over half the population, and the United States (U.S.) is a democratic Republic, more than half of the members in Congress should be women; but, that is not the case, even in the 21st century. Women’s leadership issues continued to be an area of interest to me as I became a committee woman for politics in my home town and held local office in my municipality.

Background to the Problem

In the U.S., the number of women elected to public office is notably less than in many other countries in the world, including countries with democracies. In worldwide female leadership, the U.S., in 2017, was ranked 99th out of 193 countries (www.ipu.org). In recent elections, including presidential elections, women have equaled or surpassed voter turnout rates for men (Center for American Women in Politics, 2016). Despite their willingness to vote, women are not taking on political leadership roles in the same proportion to men. Running for public office and winning is not a gender-neutral opportunity in America and women are underrepresented in all levels of political governance (Preece, 2016; Fox & Lawless, 2010).

A public event in American politics highlighted women’s progress and barriers to the political spotlight. Democratic candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, ran for the office of the 4

President of the U.S. and lost the election to Republican, Donald Trump, in November of 2016.

This was the first time in American history that a woman ran for the President of the U.S. and won the popular vote. But, she lost the electoral college and, thus, the Presidency. Women have made some progress in leadership and representation in political roles, yet many obstacles exist for women who want to enter the world of politics. I explored the many factors that contributed to these obstacles and investigated how women were perceived as leaders in the U.S. I learned how popular culture served to educate and miseducate in adult education, and how women in public office developed their identity in light of these issues. In order to set up the background to the problem, I briefly considered some of the issues that appeared to affect women’s desire to run, namely: gender differences in perceptions of women as leaders; the role of popular culture in adult learning and identity development; and the additional structural barriers women may face as they run for public office.

Gender Differences in Perceptions of Women as Leaders

How women are viewed as leaders is different for men and women. Cohn and Livingston

(2016), with the Pew Research Center, report 2014 survey data from 1,835 randomly-selected adults, 18 years or older by an online research panel investigating public attitudes about gender and leadership. The survey found significant differences between how women and men relate to gender and leadership. Some of the findings indicate that women believe men have an easier path to political leadership, and that additional female leaders would improve the quality of life for women. A high percentage of women (73%) said it is easier for men to get elected to a high political office and over half (58%) of men agreed. The survey did not find a consensus on what prevents women from gaining top elective offices; however, women were far more likely than men to recognize societal and institutional factors as a main reason. More women 5

(41%) than men (27%) said women are better at working out compromises. Women were more likely than men to believe women as leaders excel in being honest and ethical, work to improve the quality of life for Americans, stand up for their beliefs despite political pressure, and are more persuasive.

While the findings of the Pew study indicate how men and women view women in leadership, it is important to consider why they might feel this way. While this will be taken up further in Chapter Two, stereotypes in gendered leadership can certainly inform how voters see women and men in political positions and their ability to govern (Dolan, 2010; Lawless, 2004).

Dittmar (2010), for example, surveyed 205 men and women active campaign consultants to probe these practitioners concerning gender stereotypes, identity, and campaign strategy in order to understand campaigns as gendered institutions. The purpose was to investigate how campaign consultants perceive gender in our processes of electoral political races. The findings indicate that campaign consultants believe that voters utilize gender stereotypes when evaluating leadership characteristics and political issues of men and women candidates. Given that campaign consultants regularly engage with the media, there are implicitly direct attempts to play on stereotypes in the media, which leads to a brief consideration of the role of media and popular culture, and their role in affecting how people think about gender and leadership, as well as how they construct their own identity and that of others.

Popular Culture and Adult Learning

Both news and entertainment media serve as a means of education and miseducation of adult learners (Sandlin, Wright, & Clark, 2011; Tisdell & Thompson, 2007). While popular culture is difficult to define in this constantly expanding media age, there is no doubt that it has a 6 powerful effect on all of us (Maudlin & Sandlin, 2015). At the very basic level, Maudlin and

Sandlin (2015) present an understanding of popular culture to be:

the broad range of texts that constitute the cultural landscape of a particular time and/or

place, as well as the ways in which consumers engage with those texts and thus become

producers of new negotiated meanings. We view a text as any artifact or experience that

we can read to produce meaning. (p. 369)

We interact and connect with these texts actively and passively through, “viewing, listening, reading, feeling, consuming, and producing, and include among other artifacts, books, periodicals, films, television shows, music, web sites, podcasts, advertisements, and consumer products and experiences” (p. 369). These interactions can reinforce or challenge hegemonic understandings, including gender stereotypes, and they act as a form of adult education or miseducation.

How popular culture operates pedagogically in shaping identity is one aspect of adult education (Guy, 2007; Wright, 2007). Indeed, popular culture can affect all of us and act as a form of public pedagogy influencing our identity and how we think. Teaching and learning occur in public spaces, museums, the internet, popular culture, social movements, public intellectualism, dominant discourses (public policy, neoliberalism, global capitalism), civic sites, commercialism, and parks (Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010). Academic scholars have termed these informal educational sites public pedagogy and proclaim that these sites may be even more influential in teaching and learning than formal education (Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010).

Biesta (2014) discusses the meaning of public pedagogy, and notes:

One way to think of public pedagogy is a pedagogy for the public – that is, a pedagogy

aimed at the public. The pedagogical form here is that of instruction. In this conception 7

the world appears as a giant school and the main role of educational agents – of public

pedagogies – is to instruct the citizenry. This involves telling them what to think, how to

act, and, perhaps most importantly, what to be. (p. 21)

Ryan and Macey (2013), in their collection of scholarly research anthologies on television, knowledge, and media representation, explain how television is a form of consumption. They point out how television can assist us in comprehending our role in this world and our identity construction and discuss how it influences each viewer differently based on their own life experiences and behaviors. Wright’s (2007) study of The Avengers (Clemens,

White, & Wintle, 1961) explored how women learned critical resistance from the character

Cathy Gale, whom they also admired, and who actively resisted the dominant gender norms.

Characters can act as powerful agents for women in learning to resist patriarchy. Researchers have also explored topics related to problematizing gendered representations related to social identity (Jubas, Taber & Brown, 2015) and how audiences relate and identify with television shows, movies, and characters in literature regarding societal assumptions, gender performance, and identity (Buist & Sutherland, 2015). More specifically, Buist and Sutherland (2015) explored masculinities, femininities, and gender roles in police dramas and found that shows like

Chicago P.D. (2014-2018), The Shield (2002-2008), and Rookies (1972-1975), portrayed policing as male centered, thus, and hegemonic masculinity is still achieved. They explain:

“These programs highlighted the importance placed on men protecting women, by strength, bravery, courage, and the embodiment of the father figure” (p. 86). Hence, television programs can teach us perspectives on masculinity, femininity, and gender roles in both positive and negative ways (Trier-Bieniek, 2015). How women leaders are portrayed within television and 8 popular culture may contribute to how women see themselves as leaders and influence their identity development.

Identity Development in Women Leaders

Constructions of identities, self-concepts, relationships, belief systems, and values are shaped by changes in an individual’s experience of making meaning and in adults’ ways of knowing themselves (Smith & Taylor, 2010). Given the underrepresentation of women political leaders, women’s leadership identity as a social construction is of considerable interest. Identity formation can be influenced through many public spaces, such as families, communities, schools, cultural contexts, and religious institutions. But as Guy (2007) points out, we also learn something about our own identity and the identities of others (e.g., gender, race, social class, and age) through media and popular culture. We learn the hegemonic understandings of race, ethnicity, and gender through such images as referred to above.

Our social world, including the portrayal of people in media and popular culture, has an effect on how and what we learn. There is a relationship we navigate between the individual and social world regarding unconscious and conscious thoughts (Weedon, 1997). Even though we live in a free society, messages exist that come to us from a myriad of sources. Weedon (1997) describes these sources:

The social institutions which we enter as individuals- for example, the family, schools

and colleges, teenage fashion and pop culture, the church and the worlds of work and

leisure – pre-exist us. We learn their modes of operation and the values which they seek

to maintain as true, natural, or good. (p. 3) 9

How these sources shape the perceptions of how women and men view each other in leadership positions can possibly influence women’s identity in assuming leadership positions and entering the political world.

Structural Barriers and Gains

Structural barriers for women to enter the political field have been the focus of some research studies, as well as a few that focus on how women gained access by breaking these structural barriers. Initially, women’s underrepresentation in elected positions is somewhat perplexing, because studies show that when women run for public office, they are not deprived the position due to gender; rather, part of the issue is the lack of female candidates in proportion to male candidates (Sanbonmatsu, 2006). In looking at the amount of money raised for campaigning in elections, male and female candidates are equally successful (Fox 2010; Lawless

& Pearson, 2008); however, men have a much greater advantage in political contributions due to the disparity in resources between men and women, which can have an enormous impact on political support (Fox and Lawless, 2010; Schlozman, Burns, & Verba, 1994). In order to run for office, a political candidate must have support from many political institutions. These institutions are powered by men. Women need these resources for endorsements and political campaigning. In addition, the gatekeepers of these political institutions that recruit candidates are mostly men and recruit candidates from male networks (Sanbonmatsu, 2006). Women have the ability and knowledge to raise money for their campaigns, however, the resources to do so are not as prevalent and easily available as they are for men candidates. As will be discussed further in Chapter Two, political science researchers offer several reasons as to why women are underrepresented and continue a slow rise into political positions. Some of these include differences in ambition between men and women (Fox, 2003; Lawless & Fox, 2010); women as 10 a group score lower than men as a group on political knowledge (Dow, 2008); fewer women are found in the professions (lawyers, executives, political activists) that lead to political careers

(Fox, 2003); and women are less likely to be recruited than men in both political parties (Fox &

Lawless, 2010; Sanbonmatsu, 2006). Despite some of the barriers that women face in running for political office and leadership positions, women clearly are making headway, yet continue to be underrepresented in proportion to their population. While there is research on the barriers women encounter running for elected positions (Lawless & Fox, 2013; Lawless & Pearson,

2008; Smith, Reingold & Owens, 2102.), there is a lack of research on what influences women to run for office.

Not surprisingly, then, the number of women political leaders in the U.S. continues to lag behind other democratic countries in worldwide political positions, and women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles, political office, and careers that feed into political leadership. As noted above, voters often utilize media-perpetuated gender stereotypes when casting ballots for political positions. Additionally, research confirms that women actually believe men have an easier path to political candidacy, citing societal and institutional factors as main reasons for this unjust access to political representation. Against this resistance, how have women political leaders made the decision to run for office, and what factors influenced their decision?

Purpose and Research Questions

To answer these questions, the purpose of this qualitative research study is twofold: (1) to explore how elected women officials construct their identity as political leaders and the factors that influenced their decision to run for office; and (2) to understand their perceptions of popular 11 culture in the process of constructing their political identity. The research questions that guided the study were:

1. How does the public perception of women in politics influence women’s decisions to

run for elected office?

2. How do their perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women in

politics influence women’s decisions to run for office?

3. How does popular culture influence the development of the self-perceptions of

women in politics?

Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

This study was primarily guided by a critical feminist theoretical framework and by popular culture as pedagogy in relation to how women learn to run for office. Since part of the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of elected female officials regarding how they envision their political leadership identity, it was important to explore their views of the family, role models, education, and popular culture in that identity development process.

Critical Feminist Theory

Critical feminist theory includes any feminist theory that addresses power. Feminist theory is a complex discourse, consisting of many threads with different emphases; however, there are certain foundational assumptions that emerge throughout the discourses. These assumptions include: society is patriarchal, structured by and favoring men; traditional ways of thinking support the subordination of women and the neglect and trivialization of issues particularly affecting women; and this patriarchal order should be overthrown and replaced with a system that stresses equality for both sexes (Tong, 2001). 12

Critical feminist researchers work with both feminist and critical theory to examine the oppression of individuals and groups related to gender, “by examining the role of social and historical contexts in shaping power relations that inform the ways in which people’s lives and identities are interpreted” (Frost & Elichaoff, 2014, p. 55). They conceptualize feminist research practice and explain how feminism and critical theory intersect and how this, “enabled feminist research to construct new theories and paradigms with which to examine and explore the lives of women” (p. 55). Feminist theory enables exploration of hegemony and relates it to how males use power for their own best interest in our culture and social structures. Weedon (1997) describes how feminism is “a politics directed at changing existing power relations between women and men in society. These power relations structure all areas of life, the family, education and welfare, the worlds of work and politics, culture and leisure” (p. 1). In the analysis, I utilized text from interviews of women who have served or are currently serving in political office. Power relations and issues of balancing family with career were evident. This theoretical approach exposed the power of patriarchy and equipped the researcher with the tools to investigate how women formed their identity to pursue a political office.

Feminism and Public Pedagogy

All of us, women and men, are influenced in how we construct our own identity and that of others by popular culture (Guy, 2007). In light of this evidence, I examined popular culture as public pedagogy. Scholarly literature explained that public pedagogy can influence identity development. Wright and Sandlin (2017), in their study of critical learning in/through everyday life in a global consumer culture, point out Peter Jarvis’ research on connecting adult learning in social context and everyday life as interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. Jarvis insists that adult learning encompasses a wide range of academic disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, 13 education, economics, communications, political science, media studies, consumer studies, and the humanities, and that they can all contribute to our understanding of identity development. In addition to these academic subjects, researchers also explain how public pedagogy can influence identity formation.

Wright and Sandlin (2017) observe that, “Having acknowledged the extensive teaching and learning happening via various public pedagogies, adult educators are exploring the significant influences these learning sites have in the formation of adult identities” (p. 80). The authors highlight that traditional adult learning theories often neglect this element of adult learning. In discussing identity, hegemony, resistance, and public pedagogy, Sandlin, Wright, and Clark (2011) insist that the relationship between adults and the wider cultures they are exposed to is absent from dominant discourses of adult learning and development. They argue that:

some of what we learn through public pedagogies such as popular culture and informal

cultural institutions are the master narratives of adult identity, both individual and

collective. That is, we learn who we are (or should be) with regard to race, class, gender,

sexuality, and so on and whose cultures and histories are considered “normal” and

“dominant” through the ways these cultures and identities are portrayed to us and

perpetuated through public pedagogies. (p. 7)

Women learn from these sites and form an identity regarding leadership, politics, and their place within the political arena.

Sandlin et al. (2011) reexamine theories of adult learning and adult development through the lens of public pedagogy and explain that it is partially within these spaces of public pedagogies that our identities are formed. Sandlin et al. (2011), in citing the work of other 14 authors, assert that, “Others (Brookfield, 1986; Graham, 1989; Taylor, 2010; Tisdell, 2008) also argue that our identities in large part are shaped through the process of interacting with popular and media culture as well as with cultural institutions such as museums” (p. 5).

Most of the women I interviewed were educated and had been exposed to popular culture in childhood and as an adult, therefore my investigation probed how these women interacted with popular culture, and how it related to their path to becoming a political leader. Inequality and gender issues appeared in their development process and my questions attempted to get at these gender issues. In order to study women’s issues regarding inequality and how popular culture influenced their decision to run for political office, a feminist perspective on popular culture as pedagogy was implemented.

As discussed above, inequality and gender issues are reflected in our media. Trier-

Bieniek (2015) explains the function of a feminist outlook on popular culture:

The juxtaposition of feminist theory and popular culture has an inevitable impact on the

consumption of culture mainly because popular culture has the power to put up a mirror

to our lives and show connections between media, socialization and identity. Pop culture

is generally the images, narratives and ideas that circulate widely in contemporary

culture. (p. xiv)

While the dominant culture is prevalent within these narratives, Brookfield (2004) points out that popular media can portray counter-hegemonic messages. Cultural consumption has the ability to educate and according to Tisdell and Thompson (2007) “miseducate.” Part of my research pertained to how women deconstructed messages from popular culture, and how they navigated these perceptions. A paucity of scholarly literature exists on how women political leaders learn from cultural consumption, how they navigate through these messages, and how they became 15 leaders. Henry A. Giroux (2004) is considered a pioneer in public pedagogy and a theorist of critical pedagogy. He has led the way for researchers to explore the connections between neoliberalism, education, cultural studies, and the media. Biesta (2014) informs how Giroux (2004) describes his version of interest in public pedagogy as being concerned with, “the diverse ways in which culture functions as a contested sphere over the production, distribution and regulation of power and how and where it operates both symbolically and institutionally as an educational, political and economic force” (p. 16). This power can influence how women and men form perceptions about female leaders and how women identify with elected leaders.

Researchers identified feminist constructions as a part of popular culture and everyday life within public pedagogy. Sandlin et al. (2011) explain that feminist scholars link public pedagogy with popular culture in the 1990s and refers to Luke’s (1996) edited volume of

Feminisms and Pedagogies of Everyday Life to emphasize how gendered identities can be influenced and negotiated by public spaces. Because I focused on women and gender issues within the political realm, my data provided insight for how gender issues affected women in public office, and how popular culture shaped their identity.

Overview of Research

As I discuss further in Chapter Three, this research was a qualitative interpretive study.

Merriam and Associates (2002) note that the purpose of qualitative research is to understand how people make meaning of their lives in their social worlds: “Learning how individuals experience and interact with their social world, the meaning it has for them, is considered an interpretive qualitative research” (p. 4). Merriam and Tisdell (2016) further assert “Qualitative research is based on the belief that knowledge is constructed by people in an ongoing fashion as they engage in and make meaning of an activity, experience, or a phenomenon” (p. 23). I was interested in 16 how meaning was constructed by and what influenced these women to run for a political position. I explored how women formed their identities as political leaders in their social world and how they made meaning from these experiences.

Hess-Biber (2014) explains how qualitative researchers select their participants for a study based on what resources are available and their research questions. I utilized this type of purposeful sampling “based on the assumption that the investigator wants to discover, understand, and gain insight therefore must select a sample from which the most can be learned”

(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 96). I selected criteria that was pertinent to my study and participants that possessed those qualifications, in order to explore the purpose of the study.

While the criteria is discussed further in Chapter Three, I interviewed women that served or are currently serving in an elected position about what influenced their leadership path towards a political position.

The most common means of data collection in qualitative research are interviews, observations, and the analysis of documents and artifacts (Creswell, 2014). The primary means of data collection in this study was interviews. Interviews enabled me to collect a wealth of information and provided insight into the issues I wanted to examine and scrutinize. The participants were encouraged to share their stories of how they got into politics, the construction of their identity, and their perceptions of how the media shaped their identity. Structured interviews are rigid and would not have given me the flexibility to expand on questions that needed further probing. My goal was to develop themes within the data and to tailor my questions to fit my interviewees. I was able to obtain more information using an open format with an interview guide in order to cover topics of interest, thus the interviews were semi- structured. I asked follow-up questions as appropriate to elicit additional information. 17

Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. As a researcher, I interpreted the meanings of the participants’ experiences based on that moment in time and in a particular context. My questions discussed their pasts, and how they felt at those times of their lives, as well as how popular culture influenced them during their decision-making process. Following each interview, I made field notes about my thoughts from the interviews and process.

I also used documents and artifacts as part of the data collection. Merriam and Tisdell

(2016) describe documents and artifacts:

Document is often used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of written, visual,

digital, and physical material relevant to the study (including visual images). Artifacts

are usually three-dimensional “things” or objects in the environment that represent some

form of communication that is meaningful to participants and/or the setting. (p. 162)

I asked each participant to bring an item with them to the interview to explain how the item represented their decision to run for office.

As discussed above, data analysis was based on the theoretical and conceptual framework that informed the study and drew on the insights of critical feminist theory in relation to popular culture. Data analysis in qualitative research is usually done inductively, where data are coded and then gathered into themes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). An unacknowledged philosophy of language underpins the approach: language is a direct and unambiguous route to meaning. I used a linear approach and an interactive process, described in Crewswell (2014) as: “a hierarchical approach building from the bottom to the top” (p. 196). I followed the process of Creswell’s data analysis model starting from raw data (field notes and interviews, transcripts), organized and prepared the data, read through the data, coded the data by hand and organized the codes into themes and descriptions, interpreted the meaning of the themes and descriptions, and validated 18 the accuracy of the information. I also summarized the responses within each answer of the interview and checked with my participants for accuracy during the interview itself. This ensured that my interpretations were similar to their own.

Significance of the Study

This study emphasized the lack of women’s representation in American politics, with a focus on how a select few achieved a political position, by investigating what influenced them to pursue a political office, and how they perceived the influences of popular culture. As such, it is significant in that it provided insight into how women are shaped by and can shape the political process in a democracy. Given that the literature on women in politics is relatively sparse, the study promised to make a contribution to what we know about women elected officials’ perceptions of what has shaped their identity and the role of popular culture in that process.

Current literature addresses the myriad challenges and confrontations women must confront when entering or serving in a political position and presents many of the advantages women in politics can bring to the betterment of society. The weakness of the current literature does not suggest or address how women learn to overcome these challenges society creates for women to enter the political realm, nor does it present studies that show how other women can learn and benefit from these experiences in order to gain direction towards a political career.

The study is also significant to the fields of adult education, political science, and public administration. Learning the process that women undergo to attain a leadership position in our political system is especially valuable to adult education. In adult learning theory, gender differences in teaching and learning have not been given enough attention (Hayes & Flannery,

2000). Western societies, such as the U.S., utilize curricula based on patriarchal 19 epistemological views of academia and learning theories (Letherby & Stevi, 2003). This research contributes to women’s knowledge as scholarship. In addition, there is a body of literature on news media shaping messages, yet the role of popular culture influencing women in leadership is generally not considered.

Adding to the literature on women leaders, women’s ways of knowing, and filling the gender gap in our government and elections are just a few of the ways in which the study is significant. Women have an uneven playing field to start with when they enter politics. This research can help level the playing field and possibly shed light on how successful women beat the odds in their decisions to consider a political career. Examining the learning processes these successful women attributed to their aspirations and decision to run for office provided insight into how women learned to believe in themselves, navigated through the adversity within popular culture and the media, and identified themselves with becoming a political leader.

This study is also significant to me personally. As indicated in the opening story, it is indicative of my own life struggles, experiences, and education. It reflects my own political aspirations, failures, and successes. I am an elected official and I can relate to the lack of knowledge and direction as well as the obstacles that these women faced when they ran their first election. The pathway for women to become more engaged in political organizations and to have the desire to do so is undeveloped in curriculum. This research may enable more women to learn how to navigate through the hardships associated with obtaining a political position and possibly steer more women towards an entry into this male dominated field.

Assumptions, Limitations, and Strengths

All research is based on certain assumptions and has both strengths and limitations. This research contains the following assumptions as they relate to women learning and acquiring an 20 elected position.

1. People learn from popular culture and from their own experiences.

2. Popular culture can contribute to shaping a woman’s identity regarding women’s

roles in American culture.

3. Beliefs about traditional role responsibilities held by society have impacted women’s

aspirations to become political leaders.

4. Women have found ways to overcome the gender barriers within politics to develop a

political identity that is strong enough to run for elected office and win.

5. Women who run for office face obstacles related to the patriarchal power and have

made adaptations in order to succeed.

Like any research study, there are some inherent limitations to this study. Some of these include:

1. These women in the interviews share their own story; they are not

necessarily reflective of all women acquiring or aspiring to be an elected official.

2. Due to my geographical location and political access to women leaders in political

positions, the women studied were not representative of all ages, races, and

political parties or political positions in American culture.

3. I am a woman in a political position, and I do campaign work for some of the women

interviewed. Therefore, I may have made certain assumptions based on my knowledge

of these women regarding interpreting the interviews. This could have affected my

data analysis. Hence, I was aware of the relationship I had with my participants

regarding the insider/outsider status and my positionality, discussed in detail in

Chapter Three. 21

Despite the limitations, there are also strengths to the study. Qualitative studies allow the researcher to study an issue in-depth. Through semi-structured interviews, I was able to explore what influenced women to run for a political office and contributed to women’s ways of knowing and identity construction of women leaders. I was able to include women of different political ideologies as I involved local elected officials as my participants and several who cross- file in order to run for a position. People cross-file when a candidate needs both democratic and republican signatures to run for an election. Therefore, the candidate is not running on the party name. It was important to include different political ideologies in order to gain a wider perspective of women’s experiences in the political realm. Women may have different experiences being recruited for an election and for party endorsements considering there are more women Democrats in elected positions than Republicans.

Definition of Terms

The terms in this section are important to understanding the study and the theoretical framework that guides it.

Critical Theory: is a predominant belief in adult education and learning. Hess-Biber

(2014) defines critical theory in research: “Critical theory seeks to understand how

cultural dynamics interact to construct social systems. Above all, critical theory aims to

change practices by challenging assumptions and biases that obscure difference and

diversity through the development of power relations” (p. 54).

Feminist Research: situates gender at the center of the inquiry and throughout the

process of the investigation. Feminist researchers utilize quantitative, qualitative, and

mixed-methods with gender as the focus for social issues. Women’s lived experiences

and voices are highlighted (Hesse-Biber, 2014). 22

Feminist Theory: certain foundational assumptions emerge from feminist theory. They are “society is patriarchal, structured by and favoring men; traditional ways of thinking support the subordination of women and the neglect of trivialization of issues particularly affecting women and this patriarchal order should be overthrown and replaced with a system that stresses equality for both sexes” (Tong, 2001, p. 5484-5485).

Gender: Connell and Pearse (2015) define gender in their book Gender in World

Perspective as, “the structure of social relations that centers on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices that bring reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes” (p. 11).

Hegemony: According to Brookfield (2005) hegemony is “the process by which we learn to embrace enthusiastically a system of beliefs and practices that end up harming us and working to support the interests of others who have power over us” (p. 93).

Popular Culture: Maudlin and Sandlin (2015) explain that this term continues to expand in the age of digital media, and contains a multitude of goods, products, and experiences, text messages, social media networks, and mobile apps, however, define popular culture at a basic level as, “the broad range of texts that constitute the cultural landscape of a particular time and/or place, as well as the ways in which consumers engage with those texts and thus become producers of new negotiated meanings.

Public Pedagogy: teaching and learning occur in public spaces beyond formal schooling.

These public spaces include museums, the internet, popular culture, social movements, public intellectualism, dominant discourses (public policy, neoliberalism, global capitalism), civic sites, commercialism, and parks (Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010). 23

Qualitative Research: utilizes words, texts, and images throughout the data analysis and,

“is based on the belief that knowledge is constructed by people in an ongoing fashion as

they engage in and make meaning of an activity, experience, or a phenomenon” (Merriam

& Tisdell, 2016, p. 23). How people make sense of their lives is the primary goal. The

researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. This is an inductive

process and words and illustrations are used for a rich, thick description.

In the next chapter, I present an in-depth literature review on women in political positions in the U.S., the factors related to running for office, and a brief history of feminism. I explored how people learned from popular culture regarding the power and influence of our media. I related women’s identity development to public pedagogy and explained how these factors played a significant role in the decisions women make to run for office. In Chapter

Three, I explain my research methodology.

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of this research study was to explore how elected women officials constructed their professional political identities. The research questions that guided this study were:

1. How does the public perception of women in politics influence women’s

decisions to run for elected office?

2. How did their perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women

in politics influence women’s decisions to run for office?

3. How does popular culture influence the development of the self-perceptions of

women in politics?

This body of literature focused on five major areas related to my purpose and research questions: a) a brief background of women in political positions in the United States (U.S.) with historical highlights pertinent to women’s progress; b) feminism and how it relates to adult education; c) critical perspectives followed by critical feminist theory and adult education; d) popular culture as public pedagogy in relation to adult learning; and, finally, e) the public perceptions of women in power, as well as empirical research on women, power, and public perceptions.

Women in Politics

The U.S. has fallen behind other established democracies, such as countries in Western

Europe, the United Kingdom, and Nordic countries, with respect to women representation in politics (Brechenmacher, 2018). Even though women are making progress in gaining political seats in the U.S., there continues to be a lack of gender equality at every political level. 25

Women in Elected Positions in America

Table 1 illustrates the slow growth of the number of women in elected offices in state and congressional positions from 1971 to 2019 (The Center for American Women in Politics, 2019).

At the time of the report’s publication, of the 535 members of Congress, only 127 were women:

25 in the Senate and 102 in the House of Representatives. Eighty-six women were serving in state-wide elected executive posts, such as Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General,

State Controller, Commission of Labor, Chief Education Official, Public Service Commissioner,

State Treasurer, State Auditor, Commissioner of Public Lands, Railroad Commissioner, Public

Utilities Commissioner, and Secretary of State, and 28.8% of those serving in state legislatures were women.

Table 1 Percentages of Women in Elected Office (Center for American Women in Politics, 2019)

Year U.S. Statewide State Year U.S. Statewide State Congress Elective Legislatures Congress Elective Legislatures 1971 3% 7% N/A 1999 12.1% 27.6% 22.4% 1973 3% 8% N/A 2001 13.6% 27.6% 22.4% 1975 4% 10% 8% 2003 13.6% 26.0% 22.4% 1977 4% 10% 9% 2005 15.0% 25.7% 22.4% 1979 3% 11% 10% 2007 16.1% 24.1% 23.5% 1981 4% 11% 12% 2009 16.8% 22.6% 24.3% 1983 4% 11% 13% 2011 16.8% 22.1% 23.7% 1985 5% 14% 15% 2012 16.8% 23.4% 23.7% 1987 5% 14% 16% 2013 18.5% 23.0% 24.2% 1989 5% 14% 16% 2014 18.7% 22.6% 24.3% 1991 6% 18% 18% 2015 19.4% 24.7% 24.6% 1993 10.1% 22.2% 20.5% 2016 19.6% 24.0% 24.5% 1995 10.3% 25.9% 20.6% 2017 19.6% 22.8% 25.1% 1997 11.0% 25.4% 21.6% 2018 20.0% 23.7% 25.4% 2019 23.7% 27.6% 28.8%

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was first woman Speaker of the House and is now

Majority Leader. Nine women are Governors and 15 women are Lt. Governors. However, women serve in local government in higher numbers than in state and federal elected positions

(Center for American Women in Politics, 2018). Local government can be a starting point for women who want to learn about political service. Fox (2003) and Rombough and Keithly (2010) suggest women are more likely to focus political interest in elected public service at the local level. For example, The National School Board Association (2018) reports that 44% of elected board positions are women. Even though there are more women in local government than in state or federal positions, this percentage is still troubling, given that the current female population in the U.S. is 167,023,851, and the current male population is 162,849,920

(http://www.countrymeters.info). When in actuality women dominate teaching positions, 27 administration, and support staff in compulsory education (K-12), they are not dominating positions like those on school board. Women politicians remain underrepresented at local, state, and federal levels in the U.S. For example, women occupy only 23.4% of the House of

Representatives seats and 25% of Senate seats (Center for American Women in Politics, 2019).

Hess et al. (2015) noted that over the last decade, female representation in elected posts has barely increased. Looking at the current progress rate, women will not attain full legislative parity in Congress for another century (Hess et al., 2015). This slow rate is troubling, considering women are over half the population, have different perspectives to add to public policy and legislation, and are a vital part of any democracy.

Gender and Political Decision Making

Norton (1999) studied the dimensionality of gender voting and found that women legislators are more likely than men to vote for reproductive rights and legislation involving challenging traditional roles such as equal pay, sexual harassment policies, and childcare issues.

Poggione (2004) researched gender differences in state legislators’ policy preferences and found that women have more liberal preferences on welfare policy than men. These findings correspond with data from The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), which reports that 35% of women are more likely to live in poverty than men (nwlc.org).

The mere presence of female legislators is critical to moving forward legislation on women’s issues. Congressional districts receive more federal funding when they are represented by women; Congresswomen secure 9% more from federal discretionary programs than

Congressmen; and women sponsor and cosponsor more bills than their male counterparts (Anzia

& Berry, 2011). Scholarly studies on the subjects of bill sponsorship by female legislators report that issues pertinent to women, children, and the family are focused on more often by women 28 than men legislators (Bratton & Haynie, 1999; Reingold, 2000; Swers, 2002; Thomas, 1994).

Furthermore, when increased gender equality appears within legislatures, under some circumstances, the potential to affect the daily lives of women increases (Bratton & Ray, 2002;

Crowley, 2004).

Gender also affects how men and women view our national security. Research on national security reveals that men and women observe national security and interstate conflict differently. Men are more likely than women to approve the use of military force to resolve problems at an international level (Eichenburg, 2003). These findings confirm the importance of voting more women into political positions and encouraging more women to run.

Perceptions of Women in Political Roles in the U.S.

Gender stereotypes influence the public’s views concerning the policy strengths of candidates (Dolan, 2010; Eichenberg, 2003; Sanbonmatsu, 2003;), and research confirms the influence of gender on decision making (Bauer, 2013; Bratton & Haynie, 1999; Howell & Day,

2000). Filla and Larimer (2011) examined public attitudes toward women as public leaders and the need for government intervention to ensure gender equality in appointed positions. They found that gender stereotypes have an impact on citizens’ evaluation of candidates and, in effect, shape their desire (or lack of) to promote gender equality in decision-making. These researchers surveyed voters in Pennsylvania and Iowa to find out voters’ attitudes towards women in government. Poor representation of women exists in both states on the national and state levels, but their approach to promote inclusion of women in politics is different. Iowa has adopted women’s interest legislation to help ensure women are represented, whereas Pennsylvania has no women’s interest legislation. Pennsylvania established the Pennsylvania Commission for

Women in 1974, which claims to help women network and teach them leadership opportunities 29 at statewide conferences. Filla and Larimer (2011) sought to understand how public opinion was impacted by these two approaches. They concluded that women will be more likely than men to support gender equality in appointed, elected, and policy-making government positions and governmental interventions that establish equal gender representation. These researchers report that more positive evaluations of the qualifications and importance of women serving in government positions came from Iowa compared to residents of Pennsylvania, and that residents in Iowa were less likely to express a need for government intervention to ensure gender equality than residents of Pennsylvania. Their findings suggest that states that promote women’s interest legislation also appear to initiate positive public attitudes for gender representation compared to states that do not. Public opinion can also be impacted by gender stereotypes, such as male and female characteristics assigned to government issues.

Bauer (2013) reviewed research pertaining to understanding the connections between female candidates and gender stereotypes. One of the topics of research Bauer reviewed is that female leaders are perceived by the public to have feminine characteristics, such as concern for education, childcare and caring for the disadvantaged. Oftentimes, women are viewed as leaders who are better at making decisions on issues related to social welfare, education, and families, while men are better suited at making decisions on defense, foreign affairs, and crime (Dolan,

2010; Koch, 2000). This view continues to see women as caretakers and men in leadership roles, which fuels existing patriarchal structures and allows men to keep control of policies and decision making. Our daughters, wives, and mothers go to war; women have held leadership roles in our government, including in foreign affairs; and women continue to be crime victims.

The perception of women being incapable of making decisions on these topics is persistent albeit illogical. Feminist movements have tackled gender issues and stereotypes, even as false 30 perceptions continue to affect how people view the leadership of men and women. The continued failure to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution adds to cultural perceptions of women as other, not deserving of equality; this affects voter decisions.

The Development of Feminism

An issue concerning women’s voice in politics in American culture is the Brett

Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. On September 4, 2018, Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing turned into a sexual assault hearing. America began to pay more attention to how men in powerful positions within our court system and our government responded and reacted to sexual assault. The timing of this hearing came several months after the previously-beloved actor Bill

Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault, and almost one year after Harvey Weinstein was fired from his company and banned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a result of sexual abuse allegations from over 80 women. Likewise, Senator Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, resigned after sexual harassment allegations in 2017. Additionally, Roger Ailes, the American television executive and former CEO of Fox News, resigned for similar accusations from former journalism anchor, Gretchen Carlson.

Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were in high school in 1982, and Kavanagh’s Supreme Court nomination hearing was postponed. The Senate

Judiciary committee, consisting of 21 members and only four women, and Rachel Mitchell, a criminal prosecutor from Arizona, questioned Blasey Ford on September 27, 2018. Kavanaugh was questioned by members of the committee, but he refused to answer some of the questions, denied the accusations, and claimed it was the Democrats conspiring against him. Republicans used their allotted time to defend him instead of asking important questions. President Donald

Trump did not withdraw his nomination. Even though the Committee voted along party lines 31 and the hearings were interrupted several times by protestors, Kavanagh was confirmed by the male dominated decision makers, similar to the outcome of the Clarence Thomas hearings from

1991. However, the public heard Blasey Ford’s testimony, and the subject of women’s sexual assault again became a national topic of discussion. For real change to take place for the number of women sexually assaulted in all areas of the workplace, more women are needed in political positions. Sexual assault accusations are now being heard more often throughout news media outlets. Patriarchal institutions like film production, acting, and the judicial branch of government are now being held accountable to sexual assault allegations and taken seriously by the public. The fact that Kavanaugh was confirmed for the Supreme Court despite strong public resistance illustrates how all institutions in society are influenced by particular ideological beliefs portrayed by those in power and accepted as the norm.

Disempowering Women

In the U.S., we live in a civil society and operate in a democracy. Yet, how women’s roles are viewed throughout society is not only surprising, but alarming and damaging to women, relationships, children, the nation, and, ultimately, our progression into a fair and just democracy. At the very root of this interminable problem lies a tenet that existed in ancient cultures and early governments that continues to thrive. This tenet is evident in the lack of women in public leadership roles and in political positions.

The earliest democracy recorded in history, the ancient Greeks, carried this credence.

Simply put: women should not have a public voice. Western cultures and many religious groups silenced women for thousands of years (Beard, 2017). Beard (2017) describes how a relationship exists between the voice of a woman and speaking in a public forum. She demonstrates this relationship through examples in Greek and Roman literature. The Greeks 32 placed women in subservient roles throughout society. Women could not obtain political roles, and women of wealth were rarely seen outside of their abodes (Beard, 2017). The Greeks wrote stories and myths that portrayed women as crazy, monstrous, and abusers of power. These stories were painted in artwork and on pottery and presented women as the focus of problems in their society.

Beard (2017) points out negative messages about women in leadership within Homer’s poem, The Odyssey. She gives examples of literature that portray women as feeble minded and unable to think through leadership decisions. These stories were replicated onto artwork, in order to promote the belief that women were makers of problems in society and should not be heard in important matters concerning government. Beard (2017) points out the character,

Telemachus, who tells his mother to go to her room and finish her loom as men come to visit the home, because discussion and public speaking is men’s business. Beard (2017) gives another example in the early fourth century in an Aristophanes comedy, Assemblywomen.

The play is about women possibly taking over the government. Women characters behave inappropriately by referencing sexual body parts. Women cannot hold a proper or intellectual conversation concerning politics, hence, women do not have the voice necessary to carry on intelligent conversations. Metamorphoses, a mythological epic, also silences women characters. One woman is turned into a cow, so she can only utter a moo, while another has her voice taken away as punishment and can only repeat what she hears. This message is also found in Western literature today. For example, Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel, The Handmaid’s

Tale, tells the story of a group of women in the Republic of Gilead. Women are valued if they can produce children for the Republic. They are not independent, cannot hold jobs, and are not permitted to read. Beard (2017) affirms that these messages continue to support the 33 subordination of women in government in our present-day society and are reflected in the treatment of women all over the world.

A Woman’s Voice

Women cannot speak in public with authority without a voice. In 2014, in the U.S., there are 87,000 rapes, a woman was beaten every nine seconds, husbands killed three wives a day, and the leading cause of death among pregnant wives was death by a husband (Solnit, 2014).

Violence, lack of credibility, and silence are all ways that women are denied a voice. Solnit

(2014) asserts this perfectly, “At the heart of the struggle of feminism to give rape, date rape, marital rape, domestic violence, and workplace sexual harassment legal standing as crimes has been the necessity of making women credible and audible” (p. 6). Throughout history all over the world women have been restricted, talked over, discredited, and quieted by men. The term mansplaining appeared to the public in conjunction with Rebecca Solnit’s website Academic

Men Explain Things to Me, which was a site for women to exchange narratives on this very topic

(Solnit, 2014). Women are mansplained when they are patronized, talked over, or talked to in a condescending manner, by men who do not have knowledge or accurate information in the subject they are trying to simplify for women, who do not need the information explained to them. The term is now widely used among women and used in magazines, websites, television and talk shows, movies, radio, political journalism, and more. Taking away a woman’s voice is taking away her power.

Women are perceived as entities lying outside the walls of power (Beard, 2017). If power is male dominance, power is the underlying theme of Congress, and power is behind positions in political leadership, how do women fit within this ancient structure? Since the birth of the nation in America, women have fought for their voice. 34

History of Feminism

Feminism is shaped by women’s successes, failures, struggles, and their quest for gender equality. Feminism is the idea or assumption that men and women have the same capacities, while patriarchal rule is rejected. In order to change laws and customs, social movements must be enacted (Freedman, 2007). The early term feminism, found in 1890 in the Oxford English dictionary, held negative connotations (Walters, 2006). The Feminist Movement in the U.S. has occurred in waves, aligning with the events and development of American society. Each wave, however, leaves a new unfinished agenda for women to tackle. Rosen (2000) asserts this eloquently: “It is for a new generation to identify what they need in order to achieve greater equality” (p. 344). Although these historical facts in American history are past events, they are crucial in looking at the present issues women continue to battle in the political realm.

Highlights of the first, second, and third wave of feminism follow.

Women’s Movements

The first-wave occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries and focused more on legal issues, such as property rights, education, and women’s right to vote. In New England, during the time of the Revolution, 50% or fewer White women could write, while 90% of White men were literate (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). After the Revolution, primary public schools became available for White men and women, with the understanding that women needed education in order to serve the public by educating their children and raising sons to be good citizens (Dubois

& Duminil, 2016). Women had few choices or opportunities to excel in a profession or to better themselves through higher education in the nineteenth century. Only women from wealthy families had the privilege of higher education and, even then, the curriculum was very limited.

Most poor and middle-class women were taught only basic literacy skills for the purpose of 35 domestic life, as people believed that too much education could make a woman lose her femininity (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016).

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, physician, and medical professor, wrote an essay from a speech he gave in 1787, to the Board of Visitors of the Young

Ladies Academy of Philadelphia. His essay, titled Thoughts Upon Female Education, stated that women should be taught geography, bookkeeping, reading, and arithmetic, but no advanced courses, as these advanced courses were only for men (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). The low- paying choices for professions for women included teacher, seamstress, or housekeeper (Dicker,

2016). Welter (1966) describes a code of conduct that included four characteristics a woman should follow in the period of 1820-1860: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. These four characteristics were assigned as gender roles for women, and any woman that deviated from these characteristics was considered an outcast and viewed as immoral. Women had to take on the roles of domesticity, sexual purity, and religious sainthood. They gave up their last names to take on a man’s name after marriage. Women had to defer to their husbands. Furthermore, women had no legislative representation. Black women were often raped by the White men who owned them and separated from their children. They could not marry and were only used for manual labor. Most were illiterate, as education was not an opportunity open to them (Dicker,

2016). The social constraints placed on Black women gave them little or no hope towards gaining equal citizenship. White middle-class women began to gain power and public acceptance within some churches and used this power to help the poor and the abolition movement (Dicker, 2016). This led to public speaking and experience in activism. Women with social privilege and economic status began to question their constrained duties and roles within society in the first wave of feminism with the struggle for the right to vote. 36

First wave. The Seneca Falls Convention, in July of 1848, was recognized as the beginning of the women’s rights movement, led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who met at a World Anti-Slavery Society convention in London eight years prior (Dicker, 2016).

Spurred on by a rule made by the convention’s organizers that stated that elected female delegates were not allowed to sit with male peers, Mott and Stanton agreed to address this injustice in the future (Dicker, 2019). Martha Coffin Wright, Jane Hunt, Mary Ann M’Clintock,

Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met in an area around Seneca Falls to have tea at Jane

Hunt’s home (Tetrault, 2014). From that meeting, they decided to write an announcement in a local newspaper, advertising a Convention to address civil, social, and religious issues concerning women (Tetrault, 2014). Afterwards, Stanton and M’Clintock drafted a document within eight days, protesting woman’s condition. They modeled the document after the

Declaration of Independence and called it The Declaration of Sentiments (Tetrault, 2014). They outlined the injustices that women encountered in society, such as the absence of representation in government, and not being able to vote (Dicker, 2016). Along with the Declaration of

Sentiments, Stanton also composed resolutions. Three hundred people, including 40 men attended. Every year between 1850 and 1860, women held these conferences in order to promote reforms pertinent to education for women, property rights, and employment (Dicker,

2016).

The Civil War interrupted women’s organizations, activism, and goals towards equality.

However, women gained a new self confidence in the roles they played throughout the war.

Women performed voluntary and paid jobs which helped transform their identities into public citizens (Tetrault, 2014). Victoria Woodhull advocated for women’s equality in her lecture to the House Judiciary Committee on January 11, 1871, as she proclaimed that women were 37 included in the rights and protections of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments (Tetrault,

2014). Women were not invited to speak in front of Congress, and this was considered an accomplishment for the movement. In 1873, the movement collided with another organization that wanted to help women and the family stay safe from violent drunk men. The Women’s

Christian Tolerance Union (WCTU) formed and still organizes today (Tetrault, 2014). This religious organization propelled women into an education on politics and changing legislation. It also brought more women into activism and political involvement (Tetrault, 2014).

Activism for women’s rights started to become powerful with a revised Married

Women’s Property Act of 1882, which passed in New York state (Dicker, 2016). This allowed women to make wills, inherit property, keep their wages, and gain joint custody of their children.

Even though the Civil War interfered with women’s progress, at the end of the war, the

American Equal Rights Association formed. Abolitionists and women’s rights activists came together to gain civil rights for women and Black people, yet the Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship rights only to men. The Fifteenth Amendment, ratified in 1870, continued the exclusion of women in society and permitted Black men to vote (Dicker, 2016). Women had to wait until 1920, for the Nineteenth Amendment to be ratified to gain the right to vote.

Oppression for women existed in a myriad of ways even though they gained the right to vote in 1920. White women formed the League of Women Voters (LWV) in 1920, with the mission of educating women on voting and citizenship (DuBois & Dumenil, 2016). The

National Women’s Party, led by Alice Paul, focused on passing an Equal Rights Amendment promoting equal rights for men and women. Women were still seen for the most part as wives and mothers, and these roles were considered low level status (Dicker, 2016). During the Great

Depression of the 1930s, women were expected to continue making the family and home the 38 center of their responsibilities, yet an additional role gave women an opportunity to work outside the home (DuBois & Dumenil, 2016). Rosie the Riveter was an image of a cheery woman in overalls, taking on the work left behind by men who fought in World War II. However, political power remained non-existent even though women proved their independence and capabilities outside the home. Childcare, childbirth, housework, and working outside the home were issues feminists had to soon address, as many women had to deal with all of them, and sometimes simultaneously (Walters, 2006). The traditional gender role of woman as caretaker and homemaker persisted.

Second wave. Second-wave feminism began in the early 1960s and lasted into the

1980s, as women struggled with employment, reproductive rights, family, and sexuality (Rosen,

2000). The second wave held interest in gender socialization and questioned the learned behaviors assigned to their biological sex. During this time, women gained social acceptance if they worked in jobs concerned with beauty standards, cooking, sewing, laundry, childcare, and domestic chores. Women also, though, battled issues such as domestic violence, birth control, gender-stereotypes, and divorce rights during this period. The New York Radical Women

(NYRW) was an activist group made up of mostly White, middle class, educated women, who met to discuss and analyze their lives, seeking personal transformation which could lead to political action (Dicker, 2016). In 1968, the NYRW marched into Atlantic City with 200 protestors protesting the Miss America Pageant and the beauty standards placed on women.

Only 44% of women worked outside the home in 1970. Many obstacles existed for these working women, such as: earning 52 cents to the dollar men earned, finding few childcare facilities, seeking permission from their husbands to get a credit card, and obtaining a credit rating. In the mid-sixties, Title VII of the of the Civil Rights Act was passed, which prohibited 39 workplace discrimination. Congresswoman Martha Griffins led a coalition to fight for its passing. On August 26, 1970, women’s rights activists, consisting of liberal and feminists coordinated a Women’s Strike for Equality, publicly announcing their rights to equal opportunities, such as safe abortions, childcare, and equality in employment and education. The

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was passed by Congress in 1972 but not ratified by all of the states (Dicker, 2016). Even though it was not ratified, it was a great gain for women and would prove to be a catalyst for future policies, executive orders, and legislation for women’s rights.

Even though Ronald Reagan appointed the first woman justice, Sandra Day O’Conner, to the Supreme Court, he approved a pro-life amendment against abortion. The Reagan

Administration cut public funding for poor women who wanted abortions and redirected that funding to pregnancy clinics. These clinics established counseling sessions for women to carry full term pregnancies (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). Women found it much harder to find safe abortion clinics due to antiabortion activists and changes in laws. In 1989, a Missouri Law upheld by the Supreme Court made it even harder for medical staff to provide abortions. This law denied public employees the right to perform abortions in public facilities. Other states began to adopt similar laws. Three years later, a woman’s right to abort a pregnancy resumed in

Planned Parenthood Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (Dicker, 2016).

However, Planned Parenthood has been defunded over the years by conservative lawmakers, like the Reagan, Bush, and the Trump administrations (Belluck, 2019). Feminism spread through other veins in society in the 1980s and 1990s.

In religious organizations, women began to see gains in leadership positions. In 1989,

Barbara C. Harris was elected the first African American female Bishop of the Episcopal

Church. Activism and political organizations led by women brought attention to areas within 40 society that uncovered inequality. Ellen Malcolm, former Press Secretary for the National

Women’s Political Caucus, founded EMILY’S List, Early Money is Like Yeast. The goal is to work with women early on in their campaigns to run for office, in an effort to provide women with fundraising and campaign funds. Seven women who used EMILY’S List were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives between 1986-1990, and two gubernational campaigns were also successfully funded by EMILY’S List in 1990 (Dicker, 2016). According to emilyslist.org, the organization reports that, in the 2018 midterm election, it had broken the record for helping the most women ever to win elections, fundraise for their campaigns, and endorse candidates.

The Guerilla Girls, an activist group established in 1985, exposed the discrimination of women and people of color in art museums, politics, film, and culture. This group became famous for its 1989 poster of a woman in a guerilla mask posing as a nude model for art work.

This poster was aimed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to bring attention to the fact that only 3% of women artists were in the museum’s art work, yet 83% of nudes were women

(Dicker, 2016).

Third wave. The third-wave of feminism began in 1991, with the confirmation of

Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Thomas was accused of sexual harassment of several women he had worked with at the Department of Education, and the Economic Opportunity

Commission reported the sexual allegations to the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing sexual harassment into public consciousness (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). Anita Hill, a law professor, was the only one allowed to testify in a hearing before the committee. Both Thomas and Hill were African-Americans, which brought the interplay of race into the depths of gender and power within the political realm (Wares, 2015). Nevertheless, Thomas was nominated to the 41

Supreme Court by an all-male, all-White, Senate Judiciary Committee. Douglas (2010) explains why women were enraged:

The spectacle of a loan woman, and a black one to boot, sitting across from a patronizing

tribunal of rich white guys who seemed to think that sexual harassment was a figment of

the female imagination got women’s blood boiling. (p. 25)

Anita Hill did bring sexual harassment in the workplace to the public’s attention. The outcome also brought hostility towards feminism (Dicker, 2016). This led women to question who women are and what is good for them in society and brought in terms like intersectionality and conflicting identities to the feminist discussions. Gender and gender identification were no longer considered binary and the exploration of transsexual identities began during the third wave. As part of the aftermath of the Clarence Thomas hearings, Congress passed the Civil

Rights Act of 1991: sexual-harassment victims could now sue their employees for back pay as well as damages (Solnit, 2014). The 1992 election was called The Year of the Woman, because more female senators and congresswomen were elected than in previous years (Solnit, 2014).

Yet, the result yielded an increase in women in the U.S Senate from only three to seven (Dubois

& Dumenil, 2016).

In the 1992 Presidential election, women voters helped Bill Clinton get elected and, during his first term, women saw political gains. Clinton appointed Madeleine Albright to

Secretary of State and a women’s rights litigator, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to the Supreme Court.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was the first woman to become First Lady who had a full-time job and worked for a living. She wanted to enact political change and sought to pass legislation for national health care. Even though Bill Clinton had a sexual affair with 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, in 1998 and lied about it, feminist groups supported him in the interest 42 of his support for abortion rights and other feminist concerns (Dubois & Deminil, 2016). He was tried and convicted by the House of Representatives on articles of impeachment, yet finished out his Presidential term. Numerous past Presidents have been adulterers without having any consequences. Feminism questioned this nonliability and revealed how men in power abuse their position for extramarital affairs and sexual favors.

When Bill Clinton nominated state prosecutor, Janet Reno, for Attorney General in 1993, it brought public attention to gender stereotypes. The media began portraying her as having manly traits. She was reported in the news as someone who enjoys spending time in the swamps of the Everglades, smoking a pipe, and living like a spinster. Reno was 6’2, 54 years of age, never married, and towered over some of the men with whom she worked. She also had to explain to the media on several occasions that she was not a lesbian. Furthermore, she became the brunt of jokes on television from comedians Dave Letterman and Jay Leno regarding her shoe size and height. Reno’s image as a dangerous woman in power came with her decision to approve the raid on the Branch Davidians’ compound in Waco, Texas. This came at a time when

Amy Fisher and Lorena Bobbitt made the news for emasculating their lovers (Douglas, 2010).

When women achieve power, they are seen as dangerous to men by the public resulting from hegemonic messaging in the media. Hence, the patriarchy thrives.

George W. Bush was elected President twice and served from 2001-2009. He limited abortion rights for women by eliminating funds from United Nations family planning programs.

On the other hand, he appointed women to high positions, including Condoleezza Rice as his

National Security Advisor. This was a significant appointment considering that this was the first national political position held by an African American woman (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016).

The 2008 Presidential Campaign placed Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, as John McCain’s 43 running mate for the Republican Party. Hillary Clinton became the front-runner for the

Democratic Party’s nomination. However, Barack Obama challenged her and became the first

African American President. Clinton and Obama were both Senators, yet Clinton was critiqued in sexist attacks in the media for her clothing choices and either showing emotion or lacking emotion. Fortunately, President Obama went on to create many advances for women. He filled many high-level positions with women and appointed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act which allows women to sue based on equal pay. If a woman does the same job as a man and has the same qualifications, she must be paid the same (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). Yet, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 still needs updating in order to give workers the enforcement tools needed to ensure equal pay (aclu.org). Even though

52% of the population are women, men continue to hold positions of power (Adichie, 2012) and be paid more than women.

Current wave. Feminist issues of the 21st century incorporates social media and online sites that increase the spread of feminist ideas to fight women’s oppression concerning sexual harassment, violence against women, misogyny, and the presence of sexism in the mass media and popular culture (Dicker, 2016). During this time, feminist theorists continue to write and research on the subjects and issues women struggle with in patriarchal societies, such as family, culture, religion, the workforce, and the military, and feminism is a framework for making sense of women’s history and a tool for looking at current changes taking place for women.

The labor force is changing for women. According to Dubois and Dumenil (2016), full- time women workers saw an increase in their wages from 59% of a man’s earnings in 1970 to

80% in 2013, a ridiculously slow rise in 45 years. Equal treatment, better career opportunities, and better pay are still a struggle, yet women are seeing gradual gains: medical degrees increased 44 from 7% in 1966 to 48% in 2014; law degrees increased to 53% from 4% in the same time periods; and the graduates of veterinary and pharmacy programs are now populated with women

(Dubois & Dumenil, 2016).

However, the population of women compared to men is still unequal in the military.

Less than 20% of women are in active duty; however, women are now accepted in combat roles in the military as a result of their performance in the Persian Gulf War and Desert Storm (Dubois

& Dumenil, 2016). Yet, setting gender-neutral standards for combat roles is an extremely slow process. News reports developed in the spring of 1992 that suggested the Navy tried to hide information about an event at the Tailhook Association in Las Vegas. Women were trapped in a gauntlet by male Navy aviators while they removed their clothes and sexually assaulted them

(Douglas, 2010). This led to further investigations into the military. Reports that 1/3 of women serving in the military have experienced or felt at-risk of an unwanted sexual encounter came to surface (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). Most recently in the news, Senator Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, reported to Congress in a hearing in March 2019, that she was raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force (Associated Press, 2019).

Discrimination and sexual assault continue to be obstacles for women. Oftentimes, women do not want to report these assaults for fear of retaliation and loss of employment. The struggles for women within American culture and the cultural attitudes toward feminism are explored next.

Cultural History of Women’s Issues

Although laws change for women, culture takes longer to change. Even though women could divorce in the 19th century, it was extremely difficult, as was financial survival without male support. Married women were property of their husbands, and if women did successfully divorce, their children were also considered property of the husband. Divorced women would 45 have few job opportunities and very low social class. If a woman married an abusive man, she was subject to mental anguish, physical danger, and no possibility of freedom. When a wife was beaten or raped by her own husband, she did not have any legal rights and, in addition, did not have the right to control her reproductive system (Harding, 2017). The right of women to have control of their own bodies came through feminist organizing and activism. The average mother in 1800 had seven children (Dicker, 2016). That number declined in 1900 to about half of that, due to condoms, suppositories, abortion, and the barrier method (May, 2010). Reproductive choices also have implications for economic freedoms. Crystal Eastman’s feminist writing of

1918 discusses the importance of birth control for women, and the influence of sexual liberation it would have on the family and on the life of women, in general. The following is a paragraph from her article titled, Birth Control in the Feminism Program.

Life is a big battle for the complete feminist even when she can regulate the size of her

family. Women who are creative, or who have administrative gifts, or business ability,

and who are ambitious to achieve and to fulfill themselves in these lines, if they also have

the normal desire to be mothers, must make up their minds to be a sort of supermen, I

think. They must develop greater powers of concentration, a stronger will to “keep at it”,

a more determined ambition than men of equal gifts, in order to make up for the time and

energy and thought and devotion that child-bearing and rearing, even in the most

“advanced” families, seems inexorably to demand of the mother. But if we add to this

handicap complete uncertainty as to when children may come, how often they come or

how many there shall be, the thing becomes impossible. I would almost say that the

whole structure of the feminist’s dream of society rests upon the rapid extension of

scientific knowledge about birth control. (as cited in Dubois & Dumenil, 2016, p. 467) 46

Eastman’s perception of all the freedoms that birth control brings to women is unmistakable and applies to women today. Newsweek reported that the Trump administration was working on ending funding for contraceptives and on trying to make it possible for insurers to delete birth control from health benefits for employees (Walker, 2017). According to

Plannedparenthood.org, Judge Brett Kavanaugh ruled against women’s access to abortion and to birth control before he was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice. Trump’s plans to cut Planned

Parenthood and his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court further accentuated the need for female representation, as the percentage of men in power with 19th century ideas concerning women’s bodies can lead to overturning Roe v. Wade.

Feminism is also a cultural movement, not simply an organized political movement, and plays a significant role in women’s private lives. As noted, Emma Goldman spoke about women’s right to sexual education and methods of contraception in order to enjoy sex without the fear of pregnancy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016), likely the first to speak publicly about these concerns for women. Her speeches led Margaret Sanger to campaign for a miracle contraceptive called The Pill.

The pill. During the Cold War era, political commentators and onlookers thought that a reduction in the population would decrease poverty and increase economic growth, which would then enhance capitalism and deter communist beliefs among developed countries (May, 2010).

The U.S. and the Soviet Union were vying for political alliances and global consumer markets

(May, 2010). A contraceptive that would reduce pregnancies was seen as a great benefit to the

American government. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an oral contraceptive in 1960 called the pill. It was a reliable method to prevent pregnancy, provided women with opportunities for employment outside the home, and freed women from bearing children and 47 being strapped with family responsibilities (May, 2010). Due to the efforts of two American feminists, Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick, The Pill was developed by American researchers, tested by American physicians, and distributed by American pharmaceutical companies (May, 2010).

Margaret Sanger, a trained nurse, was a birth control pioneer and fought against cultural limitations and legal barricades that prevented women from contraceptive education. Early contraceptive devices, like condoms, were banned by laws which understood these devices to be obscene. The Comstock Act of 1873 forbid mailing any information concerning the control of reproduction, as contraceptive information fell under the anti-obscenity laws (Dubois &

Dumenil, 2016). The laws created by men and in the interest of men removed the ability of women to have control of their own bodies and the ability to have sex without the fear of an unwanted pregnancy. These laws changed in part due to the work of Sanger. Sanger had 10 siblings, grew up in poverty, and understood the effects of too many children on the poor

(Dicker, 2016). She learned from Emma Goldman and followed her work after watching immigrant women, who had no access to private physicians, die from failed abortions. After fleeing to Holland to escape arrest for distributing contraceptive literature, she learned about the diaphragm from a Dutch feminist doctor, Aletta Jacobs. Sanger smuggled diaphragms into the

U.S. and, in 1916, opened the first birth control clinic in the U.S. in Brooklyn, New York. Even though she was arrested for promoting contraceptives and served 30 days in jail, she continued to challenge women’s right to control reproduction and was responsible for advancing state laws allowing contraceptives to be available (Dubois & Dumenil, 2016). She also founded the

Planned Parenthood organization that still exists today (Dicker, 2016). Sanger and McCormick 48 were lifelong activists for women’s equality and fought for women’s reproductive rights (May,

2010).

The Pill became the most popular contraceptive in the country, and by 1964, doctors were prescribing the contraceptive to 6.5 million married women and an unknown number of women who were not married (May, 2010). Women no longer needed men’s responsiveness to avoid pregnancy, and they could now take control of this part of their lives. A sexual revolution was occurring in American culture, as women were challenging the socially unacceptable view of premarital sex. A younger rebellious culture was surfacing and defied the sexual norms of society.

The pill brought controversial matters and concerns to the public eye. Among them were: women’s reproductive rights; the questioning of political, medical, and religious institutions; and aid to foreign countries. Loretta Lynn sang a rebellious song in 1975 about the need for contraception for women and how life changing the pill was for stay at home mothers who were deprived of their dreams. Men saw advantages to the pill as well. They did not have to worry about another child to support financially, an illegal abortion for their partner, nor a quick wedding resulting from an unplanned pregnancy (May, 2010). Women had the most to gain, for the pill symbolized freedom; it liberated women and improved their lives so they could benefit from educational and career opportunities. It is possible that members of Congress could support a bill that could take these opportunities away by restricting the availability of birth control, therefore, women politicians are needed in Congress in order to protect these freedoms for women.

Young women today have this freedom and do not understand the restrictions women faced regarding unplanned pregnancies. Access to the pill is prevalent among all socio- 49 economic levels of society now. Today, in the US, 82% of women have used some sort of oral contraceptive, over 12 million women utilize the pill and more than 45 million have taken it at one point throughout their lives (May, 2010). Health care for pregnant women in the U.S. is not the best when compared to other countries in the world. Infant mortality rates are at 5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to Japan’s 2 and Slovenia’s 1.6 (Photius.com). Npr.org reported the U.S. had the worst rates of maternal deaths in the developed world in 2017. Fertility continues to be an important part of women’s lives, and it does not appear to be changing.

Motherhood is a choice for most American women today, and the role of mothers has evolved over time.

Motherhood. Motherhood has experienced monumental changes throughout history.

Religion, culture, politics, and society have all influenced the role, expectations, and limitations on women raising children in America. Colonial mothers were vital to the survival of the colonies under the English patriarchy, and they were expected to bear children and keep them healthy from the diseases prevalent in the New World. A woman had a one in eight chance of dying in labor. People viewed houses as shelter and a place where families worked the land if they owned property. In addition to raising children, colonial mothers had to work from sunrise to sunset doing jobs, such as planting gardens, cooking, tending to and butchering livestock, processing milk and making butter, preserving meat and vegetables, spinning wool and sewing, and keeping a fire going in their homes for heating and cooking (Vandenberg-Daves, 2014).

Enslaved African women worked in the fields and labored for their masters all their lives, and oftentimes raised their master’s children. In Native American tribes, mothers also were responsible for farming and community survival. By the end of the Revolution, mothers were part of what society coined Republican Motherhood. This was a time period when women were 50 expected to raise sons to be leaders in the new nation. People believed that money would drive men in a commercial society and, hence, loosen their morals. It became a woman’s job to maintain the righteousness of the new nation (Vandenberg-Daves, 2014).

The Enlightenment period in America, between 1760-1800, produced a cultural shift into moral motherhood. Moral motherhood was an ideology that mothers were responsible and had control of the moral development of their children, as well as nurturing and providing spiritual guidance. Women were promoted to an important place in society, albeit a domestic one, and they were responsible for the family and the home on many levels (Vandenberg-Daves, 2014).

As middle-class White women were held responsible for shaping their country’s morals from the home, they stayed dependent on men economically and politically. A good mother was considered morally superior.

In the latter 19th century, the focus on women’s bodies and reproduction became an issue as society expected women to be responsible for the nuclear family. Women’s main contribution to society was motherhood. However, many women wanted the right to regulate their pregnancies and control their own sexuality. Women born to privilege and White middle-class women had a higher chance of surviving the health risks associated with pregnancy and labor.

As a result of the marriage laws, women were prevented from ending marriages or financially supporting themselves. Women were often subject to the sexual demands of their husbands, which also led to unwanted pregnancies (Vandenberg-Daves, 2014). Physicians of this time period were men, and they often held opposing views of their female patients’ desire to curb pregnancies and challenge society. However, change came for women at the end of the 19th century. 51

Mothers gained expansive legal rights to their children, property rights in marriage, and divorce rights. Even though birth control and abortion rights were not evident in the early 20th century, women with money were gaining rights to their own fertility. Women still had to deal with difficulty in caring for their children when a man lost his job. Women did not have access to equal pay, job opportunities, or education for the top paying careers. The Industrial

Revolution and the Progressive Era brought new challenges and changes for mothers. The U.S.

Children’s Bureau encouraged women to enter motherhood as a full-time job. Progressive-Era parenting experts provided resources through this Bureau that was created by maternalist activism (Vanderberg-Daves, 2014). Labor legislation acknowledged that mothers had to work a double day if employed outside of the home. This was progress for mothers, yet male legislatures had control of public funds, and mothers had issues to address like domestic violence, poverty, and racism.

Planning a family became the focus of motherhood in the early 1940s, as the nation was trying to rebound from the Great Depression. World War II had a significant influence on motherhood. Sons were off to war and mothers were honored as sacrificing for a patriotic cause.

Mothers were expected to keep the industrial force strong and work in factories and take over men’s jobs until they could return from the war. Television programming became America’s new past time and traditional gender roles were reinforced through these programs, represented by White, middle-class families with full-time mothers (Vanderberg-Daves, 2014). Mothers were cast as caretakers, financially supported by their husbands and engrossed in having children and meeting the needs of their husbands, while fathers knew best, exercised authority, and went to the office. Women who were not mothers were cast as precarious and questionable. Other cultural changes besides television affected motherhood for women from 1940-1960. 52

Better healthcare and modern inventions made caretaking a bit easier for mothers.

Immunizations, antibiotics, and lower mortality for infants and mothers created a feeling of safety that was not present in earlier generations. Housework became easier with inventions like the washing machine, and the automobile became affordable to middle-class White families, as well as houses in the suburbs. However, houses in suburban areas were not open to African

American families. The government supported and encouraged married people to have children and buy houses through tax exemptions for children who were dependent, as well as families who owned their own home (Vanderberg-Daves, 2014). The Federal GI Bill helped men coming home from war get a college degree or job skills for employment. Yet, cultural changes from this era were brewing, as minorities and the poor living in the margins expressed discontent and feminists challenged the rigid roles women were expected to play (Vanderberg-Daves, 2014).

In the 1960s and 1970s, women voiced concern over opportunities for their own fulfillment and pursuit of happiness, in conjunction with resources to help them with motherhood and caretaking through social movements. Working single mothers and women created economic instability for families and for women. Motherhood started to separate from the nuclear family ideal, and the rigid, traditional role of motherhood began to unravel. What was once considered problems within the family became problems for the state government, too

(Vanderberg-Daves, 2014).

Feminist activism brought policy changes. Women could not be fired in the later years of the 1970s because of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. Public assistance programs like

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) helped poor women provide diapers and school lunches for their children (Vandenberg-Daves, 2014). Roe v. Wade, a 1973 court decision allowing women to have an abortion, also gave women their right to privacy (Dicker, 2016). Women had the right 53 to control their own reproduction. However, anti-abortion movements brought about debates on the subject in the 1980s that continue into the 21st century. Social policies, like the Family

Medical Leave Act of 1993, helped women with money keep their jobs after childbirth or adoption (Vanderberg-Daves, 2014). Poor women cannot take advantage of these laws as they cannot live or survive as a family on six weeks off work without pay.

Motherhood in the 21st century has its own battles, victories, and cultural issues. Mothers strive for changes in polices to allow for breast feeding at work, equal pay, and rights for the

LGBTQ community. Parents continue to struggle with finding affordable, quality childcare

(Dicker, 2016). Harding (2017) reports that married women with children who work full time continue to care for their children when not working, as the household and childcare is not equally shared with their husbands. Feminist activism continues to be a voice for improving legislation for all women who want to raise children and succeed at a profession. Feminist thought is at the heart of activism, organizing, liberating, and educating women.

Selections of Writings on Power and Politics

There is history throughout the world of writings, speeches, and literary texts that encompass women’s and men’s thoughts regarding feminism and the exclusion of women from areas of society, like public leadership roles. Critical thinkers, scholars, and philosophers have referenced these writings in scholarly research on social justice issues and other worldviews

(Freedman, 2007). These writings have inspired women’s movements all over the world, including in the U.S. Several literary writings pertinent to women’s rights, equality, and social justice are important regarding changes in thought throughout women’s gains in equality and in feminist thought. 54

One of the earliest feminist writers was the French author, Christine De Pizan, who wrote

The Book of the City of Ladies in 1405. She wrote about the intellectual ability of women and the importance of educating women as she herself was schooled in science and philosophy

(Freedman, 2007). She had an advantage to getting an education because her father was a scholar. In her writing, she challenged the Catholic Church’s beliefs that men had the ultimate authority in the family, that there was biblical reasoning for men overpowering women, that women were physically weaker than men, and that only men should be educated (Freedman,

2007). De Pizan set the foundation for other feminist writings.

In 18th century England, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote The Vindications of the Rights of

Woman in 1792. Her persuasive writing style explained how women were assigned a life of servitude and empty-headedness because of social conventions (Schneir, 1992). Her work continues to be important today in contemporary feminism (Walters, 2006). She wrote about topics that she believed should be rejected, such as husband’s rights over their wives, women’s characters considered as weak, education for women to be better mothers, and women having no political rights. She pointed out the commonalities of women and men and discussed how the individual rights of man did not extend to women and explained why they should (Freeman,

2007). Wollstonecraft concluded that when men exhibited gallantry and flattery towards women, they were simply putting women in their place (Walters, 2006), and described femininity as a social construct that benefitted the fantasies of men. All these themes carried into the early 19th century.

The antislavery movement gave women the opportunity to speak out in public. Sarah M.

Grimke wrote Letters on the Equality of the Sexes in the U.S. in 1837. Sarah and her sister

Angelina were Quakers who spoke in public and wrote about sexual abuse of female slaves, 55 devaluing women’s work, and hindering a woman’s education. The sisters were chastised for speaking in public and for using religious principles to speak out against the government.

Another abolitionist, Sojourner Truth, was an African American orator (Freeman, 2007). Truth was a former slave, believed women did not need to be protected from men, and spoke out angrily after the Civil War, when Congress gave Black males the right to vote but not Black females (Walters, 2006). She gave memorable speeches in 1851 and in 1867 about being a

Black woman in a racially-divided American culture. She wanted the same rights for female slaves as White American women had. Sojourner Truth was a preacher of the Protestant faith and justified her beliefs through her biblical rhetoric (Freeman, 2007). She had a political agenda for higher wages and for Black suffragists to be included in the movement. This was a time when Black women could not safely speak out and certainly not through public speaking.

Although, a few White women did speak out and make history.

Susan B. Anthony is often referenced and known for her stand for women’s right to vote in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Anthony (1868) published her concerns with women’s struggle for suffrage in the newspaper, The Revolution (Stanton, Pillsbury, & Anthony 1868), but

Anthony did more than write about suffrage. The historical script for the case of The United

States of America vs. Susan B. Anthony in 1873 illustrates how women’s public voices were not taken seriously nor considered part of a democracy. Anthony, along with 50 other women she encouraged, registered to vote and cast their ballots at a polling place in Rochester, New York

(Schneir, 1992). The women were arrested and charged with illegal voting. Anthony wanted to testify on her own behalf, but the judge ordered an attorney to represent her, as a district attorney delivered five hours of argument against her. Anthony proclaimed that the Fourteenth

Amendment defined the term citizen as all people, not only White males born in the U.S.; 56 therefore, women had the right to vote. The judge had previously prepared a written opinion, which he took out of his pocket, and read to an all-male jury stating the amendment was not applicable and, therefore, a guilty verdict was eminent (Schneir, 1992). Anthony was sentenced to pay a fine but never paid a cent. This hearing was an important part of the women’s movement and proved how women’s political voices were muted.

The French, prize-winning, existentialist novelist, Simone De Beauvoir, wrote The

Second Sex in 1949. De Beauvoir analyzed the issues of modern women from theories of philosophy, history, and psychology. She wrote about the process of patriarchy regarding the discourse of women belonging in the home Her writing influenced American feminists through her arguments that women must gain economic independence in order to have control of their future (Freeman, 2007). She believed that women are not inferior because of their biological make up and used women’s experiences to show how culture constrains women.

In 1963, Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, shed light on the persisting problem of societal beliefs and public teachings that can weaken a woman’s confidence in her ability to have a career and pursue intellectual endeavors. She interviewed women born after

World War II and discovered that many regretted giving up their careers and jobs to raise a family. Friedan associated this problem with women’s maternal identity that was taught in educational settings and in the public realm, writing:

I think that this has been the unknown heart of woman’s problem in America for a long

time, this lack of private image. Public images that defy reason and have very little to do

with women themselves have had the power to shape too much of their lives. These

images would not have such power, if women were not suffering a crisis of identity. (p.

75) 57

However, Friedan’s study on White middle-class women who attended college is often criticized by feminist writers and activists, like Gerda Lerner and bell hooks, for its lack of inclusion of all races, sexualities, and classes in her analysis (Rosen, 2000). At the same time, women were also not given enough information about their bodies, sexual needs, or reproductive health.

A book by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, Our Bodies, Ourselves, came out in

1973. It analyzed a woman’s body and addressed sexual issues that were not talked about.

Written in the U.S., this book became a bestseller, was translated into 19 languages, and included topics such as menstruation, childbirth, sexual diseases, masturbation, lesbianism, and women’s sexual desires. This was eye opening for women, considering this information was not widely available to women at this time and the cultural images of women were not representative of the population. This text championed a health movement for women and opened up the medical world to educating women about their bodies (Freeman, 2007).

Like Friedan, Jean Baker Miller (1976), in Toward a New Psychology for Women, also considered culture’s influence on the behavior of women, but focused on psychological theories. bell hooks, author, writer, and social activist, wrote about topics on the intersectionality of race, class, and gender. Other influential writers, such as Toril Moi (1999), challenged cultural trends that defined femininity and masculinity in What is a Woman, and Other Essays. In the 21st century, many feminist writers address misogyny in the media, and how women are portrayed and judged on their appearance in all aspects of mass media and public life. Naomi Wolf (2002), past political advisor to both Bill Clinton and Al Gore, in her book, The Beauty Myth: How

Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, addresses the problem of how society teaches women to have a certain appearance. 58

Rebecca Walker, then a college student, spoke about creating a Third Wave of feminism as a result of the Anita Hill testimony. Walker spoke about the importance of women getting involved in politics and running for office (Freeman, 2007). She published an anthology in 1995 in the U.S., titled To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, which promoted the Third Wave of feminism. American writers, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy

Richards, also encouraged young women to participate in politics in their book, Manifesta:

Young Women, Feminism, and the Future, published in U.S. in 2000. These women wrote about instilling a sex-positive view, the obstacles related to Third Wave feminism, and composed guides for young women to participate in politics (Freeman, 2007).

Enlightened Sexism

Enlightened sexism is a term that began in the early 1990s and was utilized throughout the media. Douglas (2010) describes the term as:

a response, deliberate or not, to the perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists

that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism-indeed, full equality has

allegedly been achieved-so now it’s okay, even amusing, to resurrect sexist stereotypes

of girls and women. (p. 9)

The media creates this deception that equality for women has been accomplished, when it has not. Women have made strides in many areas, yet they have far to go. Television and the media continue to objectify women, but the difference now is that women choose to be sexual objects because they find it empowering. Women’s bodies still appear half naked while acting in videos, commercials, and television series. The media wants us to believe that women can be

CEOs or accomplish equal economic, professional, and political status with men; hence, feminism is no longer needed (Douglas, 2010). Television shows depicting women in power are 59 good, yet in the real world this fantasy rarely mirrors reality. The point of it all is that these illusions represent a belief that women have gained gender equality, and there is no more work to be done; therefore, there is no point to feminism and sexism is fun and should be widely accepted among the public (Douglas, 2010). Indeed, this is harmful to girls and women and fuels the patriarchy.

In addition, shopping is portrayed as a woman’s domain in advertisements. Yet, now, consumerism is portrayed to be empowering to women, or so the media would like us to believe.

Purchasing power and sexual power should be more satisfying to women when compared to political power, and these images are shown in advertising, movies, and fictional television shows (Douglas, 2010). Since women have it all now, they should be out shopping, pleasing the opposite sex, and focusing on their appearance. Culture and the mass media exert power over how women’s roles are viewed and how gender is stereotyped. Women have gained in legislation to reign in power, yet women are not seen in powerful roles in a large part of the public realm.

Women’s perceived roles must be recreated in U.S. society in order to break through these walls of patriarchal power. Discrimination and sexual assault continue to be obstacles for women, as well as dealing with sexism in society. These concepts are exposed in feminist theory.

Feminist Theory

Feminist theory addresses knowledge production, women’s ways of knowing, and masculinized writing. Feminist theorists and writers contend that male characteristics permeate our knowledge and theories and situate women’s issues and concerns as the focus of analysis.

Lazar (2007) explains gender as an ideological structure: “From a feminist perspective, the 60 prevailing conception of gender is understood as an ideological structure that divides people into two classes, men and women, based on a hierarchical relation of domination and subordination, respectively” (p. 146). Within feminist scholarship lies feminist hermeneutics and the deconstruction of cultural issues related to defining what being a woman means in regard to man

(Theriot, 1990). The basic framework for feminist theory since the 1960s distinguishes between the terms sex and gender, whereby sex is used as a biological term and gender is referenced in a social or cultural category (Moi, 1999). Simone de Beauvoir (1949) explained this framework in her famous line, “one is not born, but rather becomes woman” (p. 283).

Feminist theory can be used as a lens to view society and to highlight matters affecting all humans (Tong, 2001). The divergent concepts within feminist theory, like gender equality, violence against women, and reproductive rights, among other factors in society, contribute to the marginalization of women. hooks (2000) acknowledges the necessity to look at each woman’s experience as unique and cannot be considered in isolation of other life circumstances and writes:

A central tenant of modern feminist thought has been the assertion that “all women are

oppressed.” This assertion implies that all women share a common lot, that factors like

class, race, religion, sexual preference, etc. do not create a diversity of experience that

determines the extent to which sexism will be an oppressive force in the lives of

individual women. Sexism as a system of domination is institutionalized, but it has never

determined in an absolute way the fate of all women in this society. Being oppressed

means the absence of choices… Many women in this society do have choices (as

inadequate as they are); therefore, exploitation and discrimination are words that more

accurately describe the lot of women collectively in the United States. (p. 7) 61

In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all feminist theory. The result is a variety of feminist theories that approach women’s existence in society from different perspectives or that focus specifically on different aspects of women’s lives. These variants include liberal, radical, psychoanalytic, Black, Marxist, postmodern, and poststructural feminist theories (Tong, 2001).

Liberal Feminism

Liberal feminism often links women’s oppression to inequality in the competitive worlds of politics, medicine, law, and finance, due to restraints based on traditional beliefs that women are less capable than men both physically and mentally (Ackerly, 2001). According to liberal feminists, women and men are of equal worth and, thus, excluding women from certain areas of the public arena is discriminatory. Moreover, society owes women equal opportunities in education and occupations (Ackerly, 2001). Early liberal feminists, part of the first wave of feminism, stressed these beliefs through the suffrage movement and strived for women to become independent of their fathers and husbands. This approach to achieving equality can be seen in the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants equal voting rights to men and women. Women have banned together throughout history to organize movements in order to achieve gender equality and other goals. How society structures the oppression of women through the relationships between sociology, language, gender, and power relations is poststructural feminist theory.

Poststructural Feminism

Poststructural feminism combines the ideas of feminism and poststructuralism. The foundations for poststructuralism focus on the relationship between language, subjectivity, power, and social organization (Weedon, 1997). Post structuralism came after structuralism, 62 which is a theoretical perspective that gives an understanding of society through structures.

Truth and reality are found within the structures. Hawkes (2003) explains:

At its simplest it claims that the nature of every element, in any given situation has no

significance by itself, and in fact is determined by its relationship to all the other elements

involved in that situation. In short, the full significance of any entity or experience cannot

be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure in which it forms a part.

(p. 7)

Post structuralists study the system of knowledge and criticize structuralists for not identifying meaning associated with language. Most of the theories and relevant texts that filter into producing poststructuralist thought were written by men such as Max Horkheimer, Theodore

Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, going back to the Frankfurt School of Thought, which consisted of upper-class men from Europe. Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida were also well-known male philosophers, which directly plays into poststructural and feminist theories, concerning the absence of women in the creation of what counts as knowledge

(Brookfield, 2005). Frost and Elichaoff (2014) point out that due to the majority of writers being male, there has been a convergence of knowledge, power, and language expressed through power. In order to understand society, poststructural theorists believe they can study the structural linguistics surrounding it and therefore deconstruct meanings assigned to language.

Poststructural feminism explains how social and cultural practices can substantiate, reproduce, and contest gender power relations (Weedon, 1997). This theory allows researchers to spotlight the different techniques or practices that women use to challenge, navigate, and experience oppression within society. A poststructural philosophy also contributed to the development of feminist theory. Language is the center of power where subjectivity lies and can 63 connect feminism and poststructuralism in research. The key is in deconstructing meaning within language. Meaning can be subjective, but it also relies on language, structures, and constructs that have already been created by men, who are in positions of literary power and use this power through language and academia. St. Pierre (2000) explains why poststructural critiques are used: “Feminists and others representing disadvantaged groups use poststructural critiques of language, particularly deconstruction, to make visible how language operates to produce very real, material, and damaging structures in the world” (p. 481). Assumptions regarding gender differences are also embedded in our language.

Weeden (1997) explains that “language differentiates and gives meaning to assertive and compliant behavior and teaches us what is socially accepted as normal” (p. 73). Specific values, morals and interests are articulated in words regarding child rearing and family responsibilities.

Weedon (1997) gives the example of how the colors pink and blue are given meaning related to children, along with the terms tomboy and sissy. These gender assignments and underlying assumptions become normalized behavior for new parents (Weedon, 1997).

Subjectivity is an important, socially-produced component of poststructuralism, which gives people a sense of who they are and how they relate to the world through language.

Weedon (1997) explains, “language is not the expression of unique individuality; it constructs the individual’s subjectivity in ways which are socially specific. Moreover, for poststructuralism, subjectivity is neither unified nor fixed” (p. 21). Subjectivity is not solely based on the individual and what she thinks the truth or reality to be. It also includes one’s synergy with the social world and involves experiences and interactions. How an individual engages with her surrounding world and her own consciousness creates her subjectivity. Frost 64 and Elichaoff (2014) discuss poststructural ideas implemented in research and discourse analysis:

This approach allows for the analysis of language, spoken or written, and of images or

symbols and other media representations…to understand how realities are constructed

through these media, and to observe cultural and societal influences on subjective

experiences. (p. 46)

Feminism and poststructuralism are both concerned with subjectivity, and poststructural feminist theory combines them to focus on gender equality. Poststructuralist feminism contributes a deeper understanding of the issues regarding women’s roles of wife and mother and the connection of social values, plurality of meaning, and subjectivity (Weedon, 1997). Moi

(1999) describes the aim of poststructural theorists of sex and gender as a way to:

understand ‘sex or the body’ as a concrete, historical, and social phenomena, not as an

essence. Although they want radically to change our understanding of sex and gender,

they retain these concepts as starting points for their theories of subjectivity, identity, and

bodily sexual difference. (p. 4)

The lens of feminist poststructuralism forces the acknowledgement of diversity in the experiences of womanhood and adds depth to the language used to talk about them, which, in turn, brings about the many vantage points that can be examined. Theriot (1990) discusses female hermeneutics from a poststructuralist standpoint, which:

makes questions involving subjectivity, ideology, body, and the politics of otherness

askable and approachable by focusing attention not on otherness but on the ways in

which otherness is created, maintained, and resisted. Language must be a central

component in such a critique. Feminist hermeneutics, from a poststructuralist standpoint, 65

is an interpretive strategy which assumes that meaning-making is a political activity

within language by historically situated actors. (p. 5)

A feminist poststructuralist approach to understanding women and their oppression provides tools to deconstruct messages that tell people what they should be. These messages come from all our social, political, educational, economic, and cultural institutions and can influence individual lives and decisions in a myriad of ways, including in a government’s policies and laws.

Socialist Feminism

Marxist feminist and socialist feminist theory, oftentimes used interchangeably, are like liberal and poststructural feminist theories in their attention to power, but they also explain how women are exploited through unregulated capitalism. Marxist feminist theory, however, focuses on class analysis, while social feminist theory focuses on gender dynamics and are, thus, more appropriate to the present discussion. Walby (2001) explains socialist feminism as:

the analysis of gender in its intersection with class; a focus on the material, economic,

and political dimensions of social relations; a prioritization of the analysis of inequality

rather than difference; a focus on social transformation rather than the recognition of

difference or of equal opportunities; and location within the Enlightenment tradition with

its commitment to reason, rather than postmodernist skepticism about the possibility of

objective explanation. (p. 5502)

Hence, human nature can be changed and is influenced by society. Social feminists believe there are many forms of oppression within the patriarchy and these forms vary historically (Weedon,

1997). The oppressive structures of society, such as capitalism, racism, and patriarchy are interrelated. Family is at the heart of these oppressive structures and is socially intertwined with 66 capitalism. Socialist feminists believe that child-rearing requires full participation from men, reproductive rights for women, equality for the LGBTQ community, and the right to define one’s own gender and sexuality (Weedon, 1997).

Radical Feminism

A reordering of society in order to ensure gender equality is the goal of radical feminism.

Radical feminists argue that women’s oppression within the patriarchal system cannot be corrected, therefore, the current system must be rejected (Tong, 2001). While liberal feminists work within the current system for social justice, radical feminists want to dismantle current systems entrenched in patriarchy and recreate them with gender equality as a foundation. In order to extinguish patriarchy’s assumptions, social and cultural institutions (such as churches and families, including many of the traditional beliefs associated with sexual and reproductive rights of women and men) must be exposed and reconstituted (Tong, 2001). Crow (2000) argues that there are several interpretations of radical feminism, but the focus in defining them is, “its refusal to accept the traditional category “women” as it has been defined in the West” (p. 3).

According to Crow (2000), there are several developments to radical feminism in the U.S. from

1967 to 1975: radical feminism views the oppression of women as the oldest form of oppression from which all other forms are related; consciousness-raising brings forth transformation – hence, the phrase the personal is political (a rallying slogan from the second wave of feminism), and, lastly, fighting bureaucratic policies can sometimes limit or benefit the advancement of women’s rights and freedoms. The history of radical feminism in the U.S. from 1967 to 1975 laid the foundation for the issues women encountered in the 1980s, such including pregnancy, gay rights, sex education, childcare, pornography, divorce, single motherhood, AIDS, and healthcare (Echols, 1989). Radical feminism used consciousness-raising groups to educate 67 women on oppression. Willis (1989) explains how important radical feminism was to women’s rights in the 1980s:

Radical feminists coined the terms “sexism” and “sexual politics” to express the idea-

novel and even shocking in the contemporary American context, though in fact it had

ample historical precedent – that sexuality, family life, and the relations between men and

women were not simply matters of individual choice, or even of social custom, but

involved the exercise of personal and institutional power and raised vital questions of

public policy. (p. ix)

These ideas from radical feminism helped explain what happened throughout history. Sex and gender issues continue to exist in our society and influence policies and political decision making.

Liberal, poststructuralist, socialist, and radical feminism all advocate for gender equality and focus on issues impacting women. Thus, feminism was a useful lens through which to view the role of women entering the political realm. Central to this study were women’s lived experiences, including examining the individual ways women resisted oppressive forces.

Considering that this study centered around women’s identity, experiences, and systemic oppression, poststructural feminism provided a better understanding into how women perceived their social and cultural practices that led them to run for office. I considered the external forces and the internal processes that these women utilized in shaping their experiences and decisions to seek public office.

Feminism and Adult Education

A feminist is referred to as a person who has the goal of ending gender inequality and advancing the interests of women (Walby, 2011). Within adult education, there lies a portal for 68 uncovering power and oppression. Sexual discrimination, exploitation, and other forms of oppression can be discovered and revealed. Feminist adult education consists of the utilization of feminist analysis into the curriculum and modes of teaching and learning (Hayes & Flannery,

2000). Feminist adult educators implement pedagogical principles throughout their practice in order to fight the patriarchal hegemony.

Feminist Pedagogy

There are many strands of feminist pedagogy, which places women’s concerns within the center of the teacher-learner construct and is derived from feminist theory. The teaching practices within feminist pedagogy are derived from liberatory and gender education models

(Maher, 1987). Liberatory models identify ways in which society reproduces and resists power relations concerning gender, race, and class within adult education. The goal of liberatory feminist educators is to reclaim the voices of women so that they can present their experiences through their own vantage points, in order to view how privilege and power oppresses their lives.

Gender models focus on fostering women’s learning by deconstructing the identity of woman as a nurturer and, thus, emancipating her so that she can have her own identity and her own voice.

The educational environment using a gender model is constructed so that women’s life experiences as well as experiences in the classroom are deemed important to the learning process

(Tisdell, 1993).

Tisdell (1998) examines poststructural feminist pedagogies in relation to adult learning theory and practice. Using this approach, how gender intersects with systems of oppression and privilege is the focus of the construction of the self. Within this intersection lies the potential to formulate knowledge, communicate experiences, and collaborate in the learning environment.

Tisdell (1998) explains that truth is a notion that is problematized, because students begin to see 69 there are different or many truths, and “constantly shifting identity” (p. 146) is an issue. Because the adult learner is changing her own beliefs and values, this affects positionality in adult learning. She further discusses how knowledge construction, voice, authority, and positionality are four tenets of thought that are interrelated themes of poststructural feminist pedagogy. The positionality of the instructor and the students relates to what goes on in the learning environment, which in turn affects how knowledge is constructed, and participants get their voice (Tisdell, 1993). Structural models that challenge structural power relations have a strong connection to Friere (1970) in adult education but emphasize gender in the analysis. Hayes and

Colin (1994) discuss racism and sexism in adult education and explain how they can affect social institutions and human interactions. These authors stress how important it is to be cognizant as adult educators and learners to the various manifestations that reinforce racism and sexism, as they can have an impact on opportunities and freedoms. In addition to gender, other adult educators analyze the power dynamics associated with the interactions of race and class.

bell hooks believes that sexism, racism, and classism all affect women in society. All three systems are present in our social structures. According to hooks (1989):

Much feminist consciousness-raising has in the past focused on identifying the particular

ways men oppress and exploit women. Using the paradigm of sex, race, and class means

that the focus does not begin with men and what they do to women, but rather with

women working to identify both individually and collectively the specific character of

our social identity. (p. 23)

When we battle sexism, we automatically take on class and race, because they are included in domination. hooks argues that in order to battle sexist oppression, one must have radical feminists as teachers, who focus on what and how the curriculum is taught and implement 70 pedagogic flexibility. Confrontational practices may lead to comments that are critical and many students may resist, but they may ultimately lead to transformative learning experiences.

Angela Davis is another African American feminist, educator, and activist for civil rights.

Similar to hooks, Davis (1990) is concerned with transforming society. She is considered a socialist-feminist, grounded in Marxism and critical theory (Brookfield, 2005). Her belief is different than other feminists, in that she stresses both men and women should share a common knowledge of what feminism means. She states:

Feminist thinkers engaged in radically revisioning central tenets of feminist thought must

continually emphasize the importance of sex, race and class as factors which together

determine the social construction of femaleness, as it has been so deeply ingrained in the

consciousness of many women active in feminist movement that gender is the sole factor

determining destiny. (p. 23)

Davis (1990) defines feminism as a movement that will ultimately end sexual oppression. Both hooks and Davis believe that, in order to understand one’s position on gender, one must also consider class and race. Women’s unity cannot be solely based on sex. Instead, unity must evolve around issues and struggles. People must work together and help each other arrive at a higher consciousness. Adult educators refer to Davis for teaching democratic political change and transformative processes (Brookfield 2005). This kind of feminist pedagogy begins with a critical perspective that encourages critical thinking, which in turn creates an understanding of systemic oppression.

Critical Perspectives

Critical perspectives in adult education focus on addressing issues related to power and privilege within the educational process. Adult educators and researchers use critical 71 perspectives as a framework to analyze how learning is affected by issues related to social positionality, like economic class, gender, sexual orientation, and race. Given that male scholars were the dominant writers and philosophers throughout history, it is not surprising that men also introduced the tenets of critical theory. Critical theorists of the Frankfurt School, including

Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Lowenthal, and Fromm, drew inspiration for their work from the writings of the philosopher Karl Marx (Brookfield, 2005). Marx (1998) wrote:

The idea of the ruling class is in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the

ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class

which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time

over the means of mental production. (p. 64)

Critical theory focuses on the examination of power relations and the quest for knowledge construction and is a predominant undercurrent in adult education, emphasizing a process by which one exhumes and probes the assumptions by which one is influenced (Brookfield, 2005).

Researchers engage with critical theory when investigating problems of power and justice.

Critical theory is also a social and political theory and it has an ideological impact on qualitative methods research. Critical theorists presume that research invariably favors a distinct group of people and involves ethics and politics (Bogdan & Biklen, 2010). Consequently, they work to aid those in society who are marginalized. This ideological influence on qualitative methods is conceptualized and explained by Bogdan and Biklen (2010) as “critical of social organizations that privilege some at the expense of others. Tracing a tradition to the Frankfurt

School, it is less a theory than a group of theories” (p. 21). The social theorists and German philosophers in the Western European Marxist tradition provide a descriptive foundation for social inquiry focused on reducing dominant forces and providing freedom for the marginalized 72 population (Brookfield, 2005). Critical theorists believe their research should empower and transform people who are facing adversity from an unjust society due to social inequalities.

Critical Theory and Adult Education

While critical theory originated within the Frankfurt School, it prevails and provides a foundation for theorists who consider topics, such as race, LGTBQ, and feminist issues, through the lenses of power and privilege. Critical theory has, thus, branched out from its original conception to include postcolonial theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and critical feminist theory. Brookfield (2005) addresses critical theory in the practice of adult education and describes the value of using critical theory and critical thinking to “challenge and change the process by which a grossly iniquitous society uses dominant ideologies to convince people this is a normal state of affairs” (p. viii). He refers to the organization of the world regarding three core assumptions that ground critical theory:

1. That apparently open, Western democracies are actually highly unequal societies

in which economic inequity, racism, and class discrimination are empirical

realities;

2. That the way the state of affairs is reproduced and seems to be normal, natural,

and inevitable (thereby heading off potential challenges to the system) is through

the dissemination of dominant ideology; and

3. That critical theory attempts to understand this state of affairs as a necessary

prelude to changing it. (p. viii)

Adult development and the economy should not be tied together. Within adult education, the teaching-learning transaction itself challenges knowledge construction and brings forth questions concerning assumptions we make about our world, thus generating critical thought. Critical 73 adult education creates questions involving our larger societal systems like culture and formal and informal institutions where adults learn.

In discussing critical adult education, Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner (2007) point out that race, class, and gender contribute to the key concepts critically analyzed in conjunction with knowledge, truth, power, and oppression. Kincheloe and McLaren (2005) insist that critical research is best situated within the context of empowering individuals. Feminism also empowers women and advocates for the rights of women on the basis of sexual equality

(Jamieson, 1995). Both feminism and critical theory focus on promoting system changes.

Hooks (2000) explains sexist oppression in the U.S.:

Sexist oppression is of primary importance not because it is the basis of all other

oppression, but because it is the practice of domination most people experience, whether

their role be that of discriminator or discriminated against, exploiter or exploited. It is the

practice of domination most people are socialized to accept before they even know that

other forms of group oppression exist. (p. 37)

Throughout academic history, feminist theories have addressed inequality issues associated with power and gender (Kerner, 2017).

Evaluating these concepts and the interplay throughout society concerning female leadership in government may further egalitarian praxis within adult education settings. This project addresses social problems, such as the slow rise of women running for office and serving in political positions and gender-related forms of oppression, discrimination, and disadvantage.

Women must learn how to critically analyze the political system and the power relations associated with gender in order to run for office.

Critical Feminist Theory and Adult Education

At the crossroads of critical and feminist theories lies the critical assessment of gender that ultimately leads to systems of power, resulting in critical feminist theory in adult education, which was influenced by both critical theory and critical pedagogy in its evolution (Brookfield,

2017). Merriam, Caffarella, and Baumgartner (2007) state that, in this context, “the learning process itself is less of a focus than the economic, historical and sociocultural context in which that learning takes place” (p. 241). Brookfield (2017) explains that “critical feminism undertakes a power analysis of gender-based inequality across personal and social relationships, work, politics and ideologies of sexuality” (p. 64). Hooks (2000) asserts, “Challenging sexist oppression is a crucial step in the struggle to eliminate all forms of oppression” (p. 37). Critical feminist theory is unique in how the analytical lens shifts away from men’s experiences and viewpoints, and adult educators utilize critical feminist theory in order to empower their students.

Paulo Freire (1970), a radical emancipatory educator, was a respected writer and educator, and is often quoted by women adult educators. He created a literacy program to bring adult learners out of poverty. Freire dedicated his life to teaching adults by building on the knowledge they already possessed in order to reclaim their power and voice (Horton & Friere,

1990). His work with adult learners in Brazil continues to have an impact on adult education.

Freire (2003) sees education as a vehicle for social change and draws comparisons between traditional teaching methods and a banking system. In this scenario, students are merely containers ready to be filled by information provided by the teacher; the students know nothing, and the teacher knows all. The students lack the opportunity to be creative and change their world of oppressive circumstances. They are prevented from developing a critical consciousness 75 and, therefore, remain in passive positions. The students stay dominated in an oppressive system that the oppressors can use for profit. Without a critical consciousness, students cannot think for themselves. Freire believes the educational system itself must be transformed to create an atmosphere where students can critically scrutinize the world around them, and he presents his method of problem-posing education involving the uncovering of reality. This places adult learners within the world, and they can critically consider their reality. Freire (2003) states:

Education is the practice of freedom - as opposed to education as the practice of

domination - denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the

world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from men. Authentic

reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without men, but men in their

relations with the world. (p. 64)

People must develop their own power to critically perceive their relationship with the world; otherwise, they become conveyers of information and cannot practice acts of cognition nor develop the ability to critically reflect and transform their world.

In order for adult learners to comprehend how they are affected by oppressive constraints in society, they must be aware of how these social structures can function in harmful ways.

Critical perspectives in adult education can equip adults with the ability to become an active part in society and participate in their own learning. Hayes and Flannery (2000), among many others, draw from Freire in discussing feminist pedagogies and implementing strategies for practice.

These authors write about the research and scholarship for the education of women learners and assert that within adult learning theory, gender differences in teaching and learning have not been given enough attention. 76

This investigation into women in politics involved inquiry into women’s experiences leading up to the decision to run for an elected position and what influenced them to overcome structural and other societal barriers. How women learn informally concerning their identities in the political realm and their role as women leaders added a deeper understanding to this study.

Therefore, popular culture and public pedagogy as a theoretical construct is explained next.

Popular Culture and Public Pedagogy

As noted, researchers and theorists identify feminist constructions as a part of popular culture and everyday life within public pedagogy. Trier-Bieniek (2015) explains the function of a feminist outlook on popular culture:

The juxtaposition of feminist theory and popular culture has an inevitable impact on the

consumption of culture mainly because popular culture has the power to put up a mirror

to our lives and show connections between media, socialization, and identity. Pop culture

is generally the images, narratives and ideas that circulate widely in contemporary

culture. (p. xiv)

How elected women deconstruct these dominant cultural images and messages is pertinent to understanding how they overcome the barriers to attaining female political leadership.

Norms and values are prevalent in popular culture. Morell (2002) argues that popular culture is an enforced mass culture, or a people’s culture, but can also be a terrain of culture interchange between the two. Popular culture is also used to refer to how people come to engage with social relations and ideologies of the dominant culture, and scholars have identified popular culture as a site of strife between the dominant and subordinate groups in society (Adorno &

Horkheimer, 1999; Giroux, 2004; Hall 1998; McCarthy, 1998; Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 77

2010; Storey, 1998; Williams, 1998;). The norms and values of society are enmeshed in, among other things, media, films, magazines, news sources, and online websites.

Commercialism is often valued as more important than the civic needs of citizens in the

U.S. Usher (2008) argued that most of the studies about the role of popular culture have illustrated how popular culture narratives have been constructed by powerful elites to strengthen dominant, inequitable, and oppressive power structures and promote U.S. global imperialism while simultaneously structuring the illusion of promoting democracy. In a later study, Wright

(2010) pointed out that the majority of popular culture narratives in the U.S. are produced by the neoliberal culture industry, with an objective of promoting commodity consumption as the best measure of happiness and success while diminishing the sense of social justice and social responsibility. Giroux (2004) sees neoliberalism as a dominant ideology of the 21st century that permeates society and attacks our public spheres. Corporate media powers own most of these communication venues and have the power to reinforce neoliberal hegemony and institutionalized oppression among viewers. Therefore, I explored how popular culture influenced the public’s view of women in power.

Public Pedagogy and Adult Education

Technology and the media have pervaded society and educational sites. Cell phones, laptops, kindles, and iPads have become commonplace and are expected features in adult education classrooms. Many people use the internet on a daily basis and encounter popular culture through online sources, such as news sites, blogs, social media, and activism websites.

People watch television shows and movies through these devices and read books as well.

Learning can be powerful and have long lasting results when people interact with these 78 transmedia messages and texts (Wright & Sandlin, 2009). I explain how sites like these and other forms of popular culture affect adult learning next.

Feminist and critical theorists have been referring to the term public pedagogy in educational research since the 1990s, yet it first appeared in 1894 (Sandlin, O’Malley & Burdick,

2011). Public pedagogies are defined and will be used in this research as: “spaces, sites, and languages of education and learning that exist outside of the walls of the institution of schools”

(Sandlin, Shultz, & Burdick, 2010, p. 1). Examples of pedagogical sites include learning that occurs outside of formal education institutions, such as museums, schools and libraries; informal sites of education like the Internet, media, popular culture, commercial spaces, and through activist movements and figures, including public intellectuals (Sandlin, O’Malley, & Burdick,

2011). Educational scholars have been studying the emergence of cultural studies and education.

It is at this intersection that Giroux popularized and helped develop the term public pedagogy

(Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010).

Giroux (2004) discusses how public pedagogy and the principles of the free market in a capitalist society are applied to our public services and public life, with the goal of privatizing and commercializing the needs of society for the economy and free market’s gain. His scholarly studies include topics on cultural studies, education, politics, media and critical theory, and he has led the way for researchers to explore the connections between neoliberalism, education, cultural studies, and the media. Biesta (2014) discusses how Giroux (2004) describes public pedagogy as being concerned with: “the diverse ways in which culture functions as a contested sphere over the production, distribution and regulation of power and how and where it operates both symbolically and institutionally as an educational, political and economic force” (p. 16). 79

This power influences how people form perceptions about women as leaders and affects how women identify with elected leaders.

Likewise, there is a body of literature that focuses on how adult learning and development can be influenced by the power of multiple sites within public pedagogy (Wright &

Sandlin, 2017). In understanding, mapping, and exploring the terrain of public pedagogy,

Sandlin, Schultz and Burdick (2010) insist that: “We are constantly being taught, constantly learn, and constantly unlearn. Education is an enveloping concept, a dimension of culture that maintains dominant practices while also offering spaces for their critique and reimagination” (p.

1). In the U.S., pedagogy can be rigid as it transfers values, identities, and knowledge through diverse learning sites that are influenced by the people who own them. They include a broad variety of social institutions and formats, including entertainment and sports media, cable television networks, popular culture, the Internet, and churches. These sites of learning are not constrained to classrooms, schools, test taking, and blackboards. The U.S. is a capitalistic society, and these sites run on making a profit.

Examples of women, politics, and informal learning are taking place throughout society today. Websites are available for women to connect with each other and form social movements.

In response to the charges and allegations against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein,

Tarana Burke’s MeToo! movement gained national attention (metoomvmt.org). According to

Burke’s website, this organization focuses on resources for women victims of sexual violence, which started out as grassroots work in 2006, and has now reached a global community of survivors (metoomvmt.org). Times Up is a movement inspired by the Me Too! organization, started by over 300 women in Hollywood, such as Reese Witherspoon and Shonda Rimes

(timesup.com). Its goal is to create change that promotes safety and equity in places of 80 employment. These websites contain news, resources, and blogs for women to interact and connect with ideas. Sandoe (2017) demonstrated how women fans of the television series, The

Hunger Games, could learn from popular culture and understand their role to create positive change in their world. She found that women fan activists have the ability to influence political outcomes. For example, she interviewed a woman who volunteered for her local chapter of the

Democratic National Party and encouraged fans to vote in the 2016 Presidential election by forming a campaign called Wizard Rocked the Vote. The purpose of Sandoe’s study was to examine popular culture as a site of public pedagogy where women learn about their role in society and form identities based on those perceptions. She interviewed women fans of the show and found that these women formed a new belief about their own way of life and gained purpose in contributing to change in their community. Women are also learning to protect themselves and others by coming together and educating each other via the Internet and websites.

Women have also banded together recently for a Women’s March that took place in

Washington, D.C., in response to President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. The March was in response to anti-women messages heard by the public throughout Trump’s campaign.

The marchers protested issues, such as reproductive rights, healthcare reform, LGBTQ rights, worker’s rights, and racial equality. Women’s issues regarding sexual harassment in the workplace came to the forefront in the media shortly thereafter. As a result of these movements, websites, and marches, women were now taking a stand and voicing their experiences.

Headlines in news stories and media programs were consuming television, radio, and the internet, with women accusing men in power, like Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer, of sexual misconduct (Graves, 2018). Several men in high positions, such as CEOs, actors, and politicians, were resigning and making apologies to the American public (Graves, 2018). Adults 81 are learning through popular culture more than ever, and these media sites are not only bringing women together, but also,becoming teaching tools for women across America to fight injustices

(Brandt & Kizer, 2015). Women can identify with other women and band together to educate each other and voice their concerns. Not only are these websites bringing women together to share stories, they are also influencing political events.

The 2016 Presidential election is a prime example. At the time of this writing, U.S. intelligence officials are currently investigating how Russian hackers tried to influence the election by damaging Clinton’s reputation through email and propaganda on social media websites. The Guardian news reported several articles on this topic. In 2016, Luke Harding, a journalist for The Guardian, reported that a New York Times investigation revealed that John

Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, found a suspicious email and forwarded it to a technician to investigate. The technician made a mistake and labeled it as legitimate instead of illegitimate. This mistake enabled Russian hackers to access thousands of emails from a top- ranking Democrat. Moscow gave the emails to WikiLeaks. This website dispersed them to the

American population and the story dominated the news cycle, which in turn gave Trump power to advance his campaign. This damaged Clinton’s campaign and led Trump to victory as the

President of the U.S. The FBI uncovered a cyber-espionage team linked to the Russian government that attempted to hack other U.S. political institutions. In 2015, the FBI discovered that this cyber-espionage team had hacked into the Democratic National Committee.

Faris, et al. (2017) analyzed reports of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including both mainstream and social media coverage, for the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at

Harvard University. The large-scale data collection included media stories published on the web and shared through Twitter. The overview of methods within this study is pertinent to how the 82 researchers evaluated and mapped the media landscape. Among them include the sharing of media sources by users on Twitter and Facebook, which provides a broader perspective on the role and influence of media sources among people engaged in politics through Twitter and

Facebook. The researchers documented that both candidates received negative coverage; however, Trump’s agenda focused on alleged Clinton’s scandals related to her emails and the

Clinton Foundation, although nothing criminal was ever found. Trump’s primary rhetoric focused on negative remarks about his opponent and immigration. Moreover, Trump dominated the media coverage. A key takeaway to the study was that Clinton’s coverage focused on made- up scandals, while Trump focused on reducing taxes. Trump’s involvement with this ongoing cyber investigation continues and connects power and social media to the importance of popular culture and public pedagogy in influencing politics and public policies.

Sandlin, O’Malley, and Burdick (2011) and Wright (2018) reexamine theories of adult learning and adult development through the lenses of public pedagogy and discuss how adult learning and development are influenced by public pedagogy. It is partially within these spaces of public pedagogies that identities are formed and shaped through the process of interacting with popular culture and cultural institutions. They highlight that traditional adult learning theories often neglect this element of adult learning. In discussing identity, hegemony, resistance, and public pedagogy, Sandlin, O’Malley, and Burdick (2011) insist that the relationship between the adults and the wider cultures they are exposed to is absent from dominant discourses of adult development.

Sandlin, Wright, and Clark (2011) explain that feminist scholars linked public pedagogy with popular culture in the 1990s and point out C. Lukes (1996) edited volume of Feminisms and

Pedagogies of Everyday Life to emphasize how gendered identities can be influenced and 83 negotiated by public spaces. Wright and Sandlin (2017) assert that because of the considerable teaching and learning occurring within public pedagogies, educators are now studying the impact these learning sites have in adult identity formation. People learn through public pedagogies like pop culture. More specifically, Sandlin, Wright, and Clark (2011) argue that adult identity, individual and collective, is taught by informal cultural institutions, and that people are taught who they are or with whom they should identify in regard to “race, class, gender, sexuality, and so on and whose cultures and histories are considered ‘normal’ and ‘dominant’ through the ways these cultures and identities are portrayed to us and perpetuated through public pedagogies” (p.

7).

Popular culture has the ability to shape women’s identities, perpetuate harmful ideologies that limit women’s opportunities (Wright, 2007), and, potentially, prevent them from participating in politics. Therefore, public pedagogy can be crucial in the investigation and development of women’s knowledge construction. If women learn through public pedagogy and can form their identities regarding leadership, politics, and their place within the political arena, researchers can explore this knowledge by studying women who have learned how to achieve successful political candidacy.

Empirical Research in Popular Culture, Public Pedagogy, and Adult Education

Popular culture is enmeshed within informal learning environments. Adult educators and scholars continue to seek answers to the ways in which popular culture can influence adult learning. Next, I will present empirical research on how adults engage with popular culture and how it can educate and miseducate.

Myers (2013) studied anti-feminist messages concerning gender, sexuality, and feminism in American television programming for young girls. She found that the messages in these 84 programs were anti-feminist. She used a textual analysis to analyze the content of 45 episodes of four television series from the major children’s cable networks, Disney and Nickelodeon, through a critical discourse analysis. Myers found that these popular programs contain anti- feminist messages, and these messages are purposely being marketed to young girls through commercials, movies, toys, and consumerism. Myers also illustrated how the messages in these shows are highly disturbing and are specifically designed to undermine the progress women have made. Some of the prevailing messages included: celebrated beauty, demonized strong and unattractive women, desired girls valued over non desired, degraded women and girls, objectified girls for male consumption and demeaned teenagers and women for being in positions of authority. Some messages dismissed feminism as unnecessary and even a problem.

Myers found that the influence of these shows can erode feminism and pointed out they were watched by millions of young girls in the U.S. on a daily basis. They can impact a young girl’s ability to benefit from the opportunities that feminism brings to future generations of young girls.

Wright and Sandlin (2009) conducted a study with an objective of investigating the effect of popular culture, particularly prime time TV, on female watchers’ identity development. These scholars explored one television character, Dr. Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman, who appeared in episodes of the The Avengers (Newman, 1961), broadcasted in the early 1960s. Data gathered included responses of interviews with fans from when the program first aired, an interview with Honor Blackman, and interviews with scriptwriters, as well as other documents, ranging from statistics retrieved from the British Film Institute to newspaper articles of the time.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that in specific, historical situations and times, watching TV could be a form of important pedagogical action, bringing about transformational learning among adult audiences that result in life-changing and lasting effects. The study 85 highlighted the power of interaction between TV sets and viewers on women’s perceptions about themselves, as well as various issues, including politics.

Swigger (2017) studied how popular culture can influence political beliefs and demonstrated how sitcoms can sway political views on gender issues, specifically related to contraception and access to abortion. The author suggests that there may be no such thing as nonpolitical programming in that even political shows contain subtle messages that can influence views on gender inequality. He defines political shows as “any program that explicitly discusses political news, focuses on politicians as main characters, or clearly focuses on one area of public policy” (p. 110). Swigger (2017) used an experimental design to show how subtle gender messages woven into political shows can impact public opinion on abortion rights and access to contraception. One group of college students took a general social survey questionnaire after they watched political shows and answered questions about political attitudes related to sexuality like contraception and abortion issues. Another group listened to classical music while answering the same survey questions. Rape Myth Acceptance (MRA) was prevalent in some of the sitcoms and defined as “…a set of beliefs that systematically transfer responsibility to the victim” (p. 113). The study found that a respondent’s level of MRA strongly predicted their opinions if those considerations were primed. Respondents were more sympathetic about reproductive rights when they viewed messages about positive gender relationships.

Respondents with moderate levels of RMA shifted and were less likely to support access to abortion and contraception when messages were prompted with a “boys will be boys” discernment as their RMA was activated. Clearly, television shows can influence how people are affected by policies and freedoms. 86

Indeed, television shows and films can influence adult learning. Oppressive ideologies can be reproduced and resisted, identity development can be shaped, and political attitudes can be developed. Equally important, public perceptions can also be impacted by popular culture in our media. An inquiry into research on adult learning and how popular culture can influence the public perceptions of women leaders follow.

Perceptions of Women in Politics

A body of literature exists that substantiates how inequality and gender issues are reflected and concentrated in the media. Andersen and Collins (2016), in discussing the structure of social institutions, affirm how the media and popular culture can enforce societal norms, and report that “images widely distributed in the mass media produce social stereotypes thereby limiting and distorting images that we have of others and ourselves” (p. 258). Idealized male standards in the U.S. include: “being brave, dependable, and strong, emotionally stable, as well as critical, logical and rational. The ideal male is supposed to be not only wealthy, but also in a position of power over others” (p. 180). Several studies have found direct links between sexist attitudes and beauty ideals and practices in Western societies. In one example, Swami, Wilson,

Salem, Wyrozumska, and Furnham (2010) conducted three studies of 1,158 British women and men. They used surveys to gather information on connections between sexist beliefs, the objectification of others, media exposure, and beauty practices. The first study measured attitudes toward women, hostility towards women, benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, tendency to objectify others, media exposure, endorsement of the thin ideal, and body dissatisfaction (for women only). The second study measured height preferences in an other-sex partner, and the third study measured endorsement of cosmetic use. The studies showed that the endorsement of various beauty ideals and practices was related to individual differences in sexist beliefs and the 87 propensity to objectify others. Also, heightened objectification of others and stronger sexism was associated with preferring the thin ideal. Finally, higher sexism scores and greater objectification of others was linked to endorsement of cosmetic use for women.

These three studies concluded that sexist beliefs are linked to beauty ideals and practices, and that Western societies are associated with sexist attitudes. Additionally, this study implied that programs should be implemented that advocate for gender equality, with a goal to eradicate sexist attitudes in order to obtain healthier beauty practices. Women not only spend money and time on their makeup and hair, they also invest money in clothing and fashion.

Clothing choice for women in politics is the subject of news stories past and present. The wardrobe of presidential wives has always received attention from the press, going back to the

19th century (Yermack, 2011). The stock prices of particular retail firms are reported to rise when a First Lady makes a public appearance in a designer outfit (Yermack, 2011). It is no surprise, then, that First Lady Melania Trump is often scrutinized for her wardrobe by the media

(Koekkoek, 2017). The Guardian reported on June 22, 2018, that once again Melania’s clothing was under scrutiny. In an online news article, a photo shows her entering a vehicle with an army green jacket with the words “I Really Don’t Care. Do You?” on the back as she was visiting an immigrant child detention center in Texas. Reporter Hadley Freeman, from The Guardian, reported that Melania’s communication’s director, Stephanie Grisham was concerned that the media would choose to focus on her wardrobe. The article discussed whether this was simply a jacket or whether a hidden message was involved and claimed that Melania’s clothes were intentionally worn to give a message to reporters and the public. Freeman reported on Melania’s past wardrobe headlines in the press, including the interpretation of Mrs. Trump’s white pantsuits as female empowerment, a bowed blouse associated with the name Gucci pussy-bow, 88 and yet another on her expensive high-heels worn to visit hurricane victims in Texas. It appears that her wardrobe and appearance are the focus of her news coverage.

The media also belittles women in their roles as buyer and customer. For example, women have been historically associated with the consumer culture as the shoppers, while men are characterized as the producers (Sandlin & Maudlin, 2012). Sandlin and Maudlin (2012) examined popular culture discourses concerning female consumerism and found that, “dominant discourse about women as consumers operate as master narratives, creating controlling images and perpetuating a politics of disgust that demeans and oppresses women” (p. 175). These images were located in texts, such as print advertisements, television commercials, internet sites, music lyrics, and popular literature. Women were constructed as portraying “particular behaviors, dispositions and values” (p. 176). In their analysis, these researchers reported that the images of women tend to be weak, sometimes hysterical, and driven by emotion. This research connects to Betty Friedan’s (1963) book, The Feminine Mystique. These same characteristics are being assigned to women leaders in public office and to all women, and these messages are miseducating the public concerning women’s roles in society.

In her 1991, bestselling book, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,

Susan Faludi explains how women were exposed to beliefs about feminism in American culture in the media during the 1990s, and how these beliefs were detrimental to women’s progress. The aim of her book was to present how popular culture and the media distorted messages to society at the end of the 19th century about gender equality, and that women internalized these messages.

Women internalized these messages and focused on changing themselves to match them instead of changing society for equality. Examples of these messages were phrases like: the man 89 shortage, the biological clock, the mommy track, and postfeminism. Women were expected to believe that these negative effects were the result of women’s push for gender equality.

Adults view stereotypical gender representations and women’s roles in society endlessly through the media. These portrayals can harm the way women are represented as capable, intelligent leaders in all realms of society including politics. Considering that American politics is a masculine realm, empirical research on women in politics follows.

Methodology of the Review

This literature review includes an inquiry consisting of various combinations of women in politics and the following terms on ProQuest, JSTOR, ERIC, and Google Scholar databases: adult learning, adult education, politics, political positions, government, gender, candidates running for office, public pedagogy, learning from popular culture, media, gender representation, and critical feminist theory. I narrowed the results to the articles, dissertations, and conference proceedings that applied directly to this study and focused on research within the U.S. political realm. I also consulted online academic journals, such as Adult Education Quarterly and the

SAGE publishing academic portal. Several books with topics on adult education, sociology, public pedagogy, popular culture, and qualitative studies were also used for reference.

Moreover, I incorporated research articles and charts from the Center for American Women in

Politics website.

Empirical Research on Women in Politics

This dissertation sought to understand the perceptions of women’s roles in American politics, how women perceived themselves in these roles, and what role, if any, popular culture played in these perceptions. While current literature fails to answer the research questions in this study, there are numerous studies addressing the influence of power on public perceptions of 90 female leaders, media coverage of women in politics, and the issues covered when reporting about women candidates as well as the time given for these issues.

The Influence of Power on Public Perceptions of Female Leaders

Within our democratic system, women and men are given the freedom and right to run for a political office, yet many more men take advantage of that right than women. Power within society can prevent women from participating in this opportunity. Research shows how women in American culture can be influenced by the power of men in powerful positions.

A further example is Omarosa Manigault Newman, a past advisor to President Trump and author of the book Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House, released in August of 2018. She claimed in an article in The Guardian on August 10, 2018, that she has all the supporting evidence to back up her claims in her book about the Trump campaign’s issues with women. Lloyd Green reports for The Guardian on August 12, 2018, that the book unveils inappropriate phrases and language used by Trump and his campaign hires like “piece of ass,” the “N-word,” nicknames for Betsy DeVos, and a warning from a Trump family member, telling

Omarosa to “back off” when she inquired about Trump’s special relationship with Reverend

Paula White. Omarosa’s book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller’s List and Best

Seller’s list on amazon.com. If women are exposed to inappropriate, demeaning, or sexist language in these political working environments, they are not respected as leaders in this line of work. Furthermore, this treatment teaches men that this inappropriate and demeaning language is normal and can encourage men to continue this behavior. Books on this topic can educate the public on this problem in our society and bring attention to the issues of how women are treated and viewed in public office positions. Changing the laws can also bring attention to how women are viewed. President Trump signed a bill into law regarding sexual harassment on December 21, 91

2018 (www.thewashingtonpost.com). Members of the House and the Senate will now have to pay for their own legal bills for sexual harassment claims. Settlements and rewards will be made public and will be reported by the Office of Compliance, and the accusers do not have to wait 90 days before filing a formal complaint (www.thewashingtonpost.com). This bill was passed in the House and the Senate as a result of the MeToo! Movement. Television also has the power to transport political beliefs into people’s lives.

Television shows can also support the political views already formed by audiences.

Zoonen (2005) held that television viewers often watch the political narratives that express their understanding, judgment, and utopian visions of politicians and politics. This viewpoint is troubling considering that corporations can control television messages. The U.S. Supreme

Court overturned the Feingold/McCain law in 2010, that strictly limited corporate funding of political campaign ads. Today, multinational corporations can use billions of dollars to influence elections. These multinational corporations own news shows and can influence voters’ perceptions of candidates through shows, like the conservative Fox News Channel.

Wright (2010) specified that there is now a need for adult educators to teach media literacy and, most importantly, to teach students how to think critically concerning the power inherent in TV’s popular culture narratives, because the visual dimension that television adds to popular culture increases viewers’ emotional engagement. Wright (2010) concluded that if adult educators are interested in promoting social justice, they cannot dismiss the role of popular culture in shaping individual identities, cultural perceptions, and worldviews. Tisdell (2004) provided an overview of critical media literacy literature and associated adult education literature to show how entertainment media and popular culture contribute to adult education related to equity issues of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. According to Tisdell (2004), popular 92 culture and entertainment media have a significant influence on society. Entertainment media teaches human beings something about themselves as they map new meanings onto their own experiences based on what they see and to what they relate. For good or bad, entertainment media also teaches people about other people through films.

For years, there has been a growing debate about the role of popular culture and entertainment media in adult education. In this debate, scholars have noted the tendency of the media to perpetuate inequitable structural power relations based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and social classes. Media can serve as a significant means through which individuals construct knowledge about other people’s identities, thus becoming significant educational sources (Tisdell, 2004). Given that adults are consumers of popular culture and entertainment media, it is important for adult educators to teach media literacy skills. Tisdell (2004) also found the majority of the studies and discussions related to the critical media literacy are taught to youth. Since adult educators and learners are large consumers of popular culture and media, it is important to educate adults about the role of media in shaping their perceptions, especially on issues associated with equity and diversity.

Jubas, Taber, and Brown (2015), in an edited volume entitled, Popular Culture as

Pedagogy, provide a range of critical perspectives on popular culture as a pedagogical method.

According to them, the fundamental premise of popular culture as a form of pedagogy is that people learn in multiple ways, including through watching fiction. Scholars have argued that audiences are not inactive consumers of media, but, rather, they make their own meaning as they accept, challenge, and resist cultural representations (Tapscott, 2009). The scholars in Jubas,

Tabor, and Brown’s (2015) edited volume focus on movies and television. They argued that these platforms reflect aspects of audiences’ lives and serve as powerful tools for helping people 93 experience and see the world in different and new ways. The collection of research includes feminist and critical textual and discourse analysis that provide examples of television shows and films portraying varied contexts of adult learning and popular culture.

Given that popular culture has the power to educate and miseducate, adult educators are teaching strategies to adult learners, so they can scrutinize messages conveyed within popular culture sites. The messages behind these powerful sites are driven by the political beliefs that own and control them for profit. Adult learners must be equipped with critical media literacy skills in order to intercept these messages and think critically about political candidates and policies.

Media Coverage of Women in Politics

Political candidates are viewed through many media venues. Women political candidates not only compete with their opponents, but also must grapple with the way the media depicts them. Stereotypes assigned to women by the media can be harmful and negatively influence voters’ perceptions. How women are portrayed is directly related to the source that is producing the media, which can then influence the public’s view of candidates. Studies that show how women candidates are framed with gendered stereotypes, topics covered by the media for female candidates, who covers most political news and commentary that the public is exposed to, how much coverage time is allotted to female candidates, and other media issues women candidates encounter is presented next.

Despite these many issues, media coverage is still a critical aspect of political campaigns.

There is clear evidence that the media covers female candidates in a different way than their male counterparts. For instance, Fowler and Lawless (2009) noted that there are stark differences between the media coverage of male and female candidates. Analyzing gubernatorial 94 campaigns, where most women fared poorly, these researchers evaluated how candidates chose to represent themselves, and how their images were disseminated by media, which was a prevailing influence over how politicians’ images were understood by the public. This quantitative research study revealed that male and female candidates received different types of coverage on their campaign trail. Reporters accentuate male candidates as discussing the actions they have already taken in their career to promote their campaign, whereas women are reported as discussing what they will do in the position. Men are presented as focusing more than women candidates on female issues, such as health, education, and child welfare. Fowler and Lawless

(2009) attribute this discrepancy to the environment in which the candidate’s campaign and the newspapers that report on the campaigns. The researchers claim there is a powerful paradigm that exists, that matches the consensus of feminist theorists, regarding the existence of male candidates being favored over female candidates, and this notion is embedded in our U.S. political system. The authors suggest that future research in the underrepresentation of women in politics begin with a closer look at the political context within which women candidates must campaign, instead of the gender differences in how they are reported. This study brings attention to a deeper problem with society and does not simply target the differences in how gender inequality is presented in the media.

Jamieson (1995) discusses the underrepresentation of women in government in her book,

The Double Bind: Women in Leadership, defining double binds as no-win situations in reference to problems women encounter in leadership positions and political office. One of her examples includes women managers. If they act like men, they are considered “bitchy” or “too aggressive” (p. 5). She explains how the reason for women’s oppression lies in the continuation of sexist language in historical Western theology. Jamieson (1995) references the Bible and 95 traces this language back to the story of Adam and Eve in the scope of original sin. Five double binds exist that have common constructs:

Women can exercise their wombs or their brains but not both. Women who speak out are

modest and will be shamed, while women who are silent will be ignored or dismissed.

Women are subordinate whether they claim to be different from men or the same.

Women who are considered feminine will be judged incompetent, and women who are

competent, unfeminine. As men age, they gain wisdom and power; as women age, they

wrinkle and become superfluous. And in a latter-day bind women who succeed in

politics and public life will be scrutinized under a different lens from that applied to

successful men, and for longer periods of time. (p. 16)

Jamieson (1995) discusses how double binds exist today because these factors continue to shape culture. She gives the example of the womb/brain bind that consists of the notion that women can give birth or be an intellectual, but they do not have the ability to do both. This subtle message continues to be used in the media when representing women public figures. Jamieson writes an entire chapter discussing how the media reacted to Hillary Clinton’s tea and cookies comment she made during the 1992 campaign of her husband, Bill Clinton, for U.S. President.

Her famous comment, in response to accusations that she used her marriage to gain clients for her law firm or that he funneled money to her law firm, was that she “could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas” (p. 24). However, she continued practicing law, which was her career prior to her marriage. The press used this comment out of context and pitted homemakers against women with careers (Jamieson, 1995). Thus, Hillary Clinton was caught in a double bind. Her comment was interpreted as meaning stay-at-home mothers were not smart and that she was too intelligent to stay at home and bake cookies and have teas. 96

Women and men are also judged differently in the media on clothing choice. Appearance counts for women candidates far more than men. Belt (2013) points out in his study of viral videos and reinforcing stereotypes of female presidential candidates in the 2008 elections that late night television became the focus of jokes for Hillary Clinton’s banal pantsuits, while only occasional focusing on Howard Dean’s rolled sleeves, Al Gore’s earth tones, or Lamar

Alexander’s plaid shirt (Belt, 2013). This type of media coverage can damage the public’s perceptions of female leaders more so than that of male candidates and, in addition, provides daily opportunity for criticism of female candidates.

Scholars have argued that the media tends to cover masculine issues for male candidates and feminine issues for women candidates (Schekel, 2011). For instance, Allen (2016) examined the role of gender in the news coverage of Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election cycle. She analyzed Twitter pages, newspaper articles from The New York

Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Des Moines Register, and campaign advertisements, and compared the media coverage of these candidates to their own campaign messages. Part of her analysis focused on how much the media focused on feminine and masculine issues for each candidate and what issues the articles emphasized for each candidate.

Women’s issues were defined as health care, women’s rights, regulation of the corrupt financial industry, Alzheimer’s research, LGBTQ rights, free tuition for public universities, campaign finance reform, climate change, paid family leave, pro-life, pro-marriage, civil rights/systemic racism, marijuana, college affordability, union workers rights, the heroin epidemic, and religious liberty. Masculine issues were matched to foreign policy, terrorism, combating ISIS, gun control, tax proposals, economy, job creation, income inequality, veterans’ rights, gun rights, death penalty, immigration, constitutional rights, eminent domain, police 97 brutality, and the need for political revolution. All these categories are important to women, yet labeling women with all the human issues contributes to women being labeled as caretakers and not leaders.

The media’s unbalanced masculine and feminine categories play into framing these narratives. Clinton’s advertisements consisted of 40% women’s issues. Bernie Sanders’ advertisements focused on regulating the financial industry and overthrowing a corrupt political system. Ted Cruz’s campaign targeted ISIS and protecting the country from foreign threats.

Interestingly, Allen found that Hillary Clinton’s messages on women’s issues on both Twitter and campaign advertisements were not reflected in her media coverage; instead, the media focused on her on issues identified above as masculine. Clinton’s masculine traits were emphasized in her personal coverage even though she tried to present a more caring and feminine image on her Twitter page and in her campaign advertisements. In many instances,

Clinton was portrayed negatively for engaging in masculine issues by the press. Allen (2016) revealed that Hillary Clinton was often cast in the media as an “iron maiden,” “suggesting that she is overly and unnaturally masculine and that she has lost touch with her femininity” (p. 86).

Allen (2016) concluded that even though Clinton ran her campaign on feminine issues, the media could not accept a feminine image for President.

Allen’s findings revealed that Clinton received more personal coverage with descriptive language like: corrupt, politically calculating, confident, fierce, energetic, compassionate, untrustworthy, not likable, and tenacious, than Cruz and Sanders, as well as less focus on her own campaign materials. Allen (2016) also found that Clinton received substantially more negative personal coverage than the two male counterparts. Allen concluded that even though common media narratives surrounding Clinton as a corrupt politician were partially the result of 98 her long political career and her status as the frontrunner in the presidential race, the negative coverage was also exacerbated by her position as the only woman who has come close to breaking the political gender ceiling. The media not only judges women candidates unfairly compared to male candidates; it also places women in character/gender frames.

Gender frames used in news stories can portray people in a negative light. Gordon,

Gordon, and Nabor (2017) define gender framing as occurring when a person in the news media is labeled according to hegemonic gender stereotypes. They studied gender framing of news stories of Senator Kamala Harris, News Anchor Megyn Kelly and First Lady Melania Trump in news outlets, such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, during the 2016

Presidential election. According to Gordon, Gordon, and Nabor (2017), women are framed in different ways according to the literature surrounding women and politics. These authors gave six different examples of how women can be framed: (a) the “iron lady” is framed as unemotional and tough with masculine characteristics; (b) the “seductress” or “sex object” frame focuses on the appearance of the candidate with less emphasis on policy ideas or professional qualifications; (c) the “pet” or “child” needs assistance from a man and cannot lead alone; (d) the

“motherhood” frame unveils a woman with nurturing characteristics which directly influences her political choices; and, lastly, (e) the “mammy” is a female of color and takes on too many responsibilities. The researchers determined that Harris was framed as the “iron lady” and the

“sex object;” Kelly was framed as the “iron lady” and the “sex object;” and Melania was framed as the “pet” and the “mother.”

Likewise, Meeks (2012) conducted a study to examine media coverage of four female candidates, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Elizabeth Dole and Claire McCaskill, as well as their male competitors. Meek’s analysis concentrated more on “novelty labeling,” defined as labeling 99 women as norm breakers. According to Meeks’ novelty labeling included gender labels such as

“woman,” “man,” “mother,” or “husband,” and uniqueness labels such as “first,” “pioneer,” or

“lone” (p. 182). Meeks also examined masculine and feminine character traits and political issues to find out whether the media coverage of men and women differed across the offices of

Senator, Governor, Vice President, and President. Feminine traits were considered to be compassion, emotionality, honesty, congeniality, and altruism. Masculine traits were defined as rationality, leadership, decisiveness, independence, and aggressiveness. Meeks’ study showed that, in general, female candidates received more gendered news coverage than men, including gender and uniqueness labels and feminine and masculine issues and traits. This study observed news media over a ten-year period. Within this period, two important patterns were found in the data. News coverage was higher for women regarding political issues and character traits and women framed as a novelty.

The second pattern in the analysis revealed that when women sought higher executive offices, the gender news gaps were greater. Meeks (2012) concluded that the political domain continues to be highly masculinized and even more so at the highest levels. Across the offices of

Senator, Governor, and the White House, moving from legislative to executive, gender and uniqueness labels increase for women. This is not surprising considering the low numbers of women in White House positions at the time of the study. Meeks (2012) also found considerably less feminine and masculine issue coverage for candidates running for the White House and three times more masculine issue coverage than female issue coverage for the White House. The study also demonstrated that the gender gap was more conspicuous on novelty labeling, women as norm breakers, and character trait coverage when women contested for executive offices of 100

President, Vice President, and Governor. Meeks’ findings provide insights into the developing gender dynamics of women running in the masculinized political domain.

Ryan (2013) hypothesized that the coverage of Elizabeth Dole, Hillary Clinton, and other female contestants become more gendered and negative as female politicians move up or try to move up in their political career. This study is different from other studies regarding how women politicians are reported in the media in that these women gained momentum as they changed political positions and held incumbency as they ran for higher offices. Gendered was defined as terms used in the reporting to focus on appearance, marital status, and issues like healthcare and education. These media frames are used to assign specific gender roles to gender in society. Both Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Dole ascended from one position to another, and their coverage by the media changed every time they engaged in a new campaign. To test his hypothesis, Ryan (2013) analyzed newspaper articles from papers that have the largest circulation in the U.S., including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles

Times, USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, and The Denver Post. Ryan based the newspaper choices on the average number of issues that were in circulation each day of the week within the time frame of 6 months, with an end date of September 30, 2012. The timing of this study took place when more women were vying for a Presidential nomination, like Senator Michele

Bachman and Governor Sarah Palin. In order to find the level of sexism in their media coverage,

Ryan (2013) coded gender characteristics in the articles about Clinton and Dole during their time as cabinet member, senator, wife of a presidential candidate, and a presidential candidate.

Ryan’s findings suggest that gendered coverage increased slightly as these women moved into higher positions. This study suggests that women continue to battle gender stereotypes even after they gain a political position and succeed to higher powered seats. Scholars have also 101 confirmed that both liberal and conservative newspapers are much more likely to cover males than females (Shor, van de Rijt, Ward, Askar, & Skiena 2014). Shor et al. (2014) concluded that the political affiliation of the media source had no impact on the amount of coverage of female subjects.

Historically, women have always been treated differently in news reports in the U.S.

(Ryan, 2013). These studies continue to show that this is the status quo in the American news media platforms and that gender frames continue to exist. This type of reporting confines women to roles that are not only inappropriate, but also inaccurate. Scholars have also studied how much time is allotted for the issues covered in a campaign and the time given to women in these media reports.

Issue Coverage and Time Allotted

Considering that public perception of female leaders is influential to voters, the manner in which female political candidates are presented is analyzed next. Issues that are covered during public interviews and the time given to each issue, as well as the frequency of their coverage compared to male candidates vying for the same positions, is necessary in order to identify any discriminations.

Studies exist in the literature concerning other factors that play a role in the amount of time women receive in discussing important issues compared to male candidates. Wasburn and

Wasburn (2011) identified five features of American commercial media houses conveying information related to the campaign of female candidates competing for executive public seats.

The first feature was that female candidates tend to get less attention compared to their male counterparts. Another is that, often, media reporting of female politicians’ performance during debates tend to focus less on their qualifications for the coveted political seats and more on 102 trivial issues, including their physical appearance, family status and lifestyle. Third, female candidates tend to be accorded more damaging coverage, ranging from focus on their perceived lack of experience and personality traits, to knowledge needed for effective control of high- profile public offices. Fourth, the media usually discusses the position of female candidates on issues acknowledged in the American political culture as female issues, including childcare, abortion, environment, and education, in place of male issues such as economy, military, and national security. Fifth, often, questions raised relate to what a woman candidate would bring to the position if elected. According to Falk (2010), similar patterns have been manifested in media coverage of female politicians since 1884. Victoria Woodhull was the first woman candidate for presidency in 1872, and she received no press coverage (Falk, 2010).

Wasburn and Wasburn (2011) conducted a study to examine the manner in which the media depicted Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for the Vice President of the U.S. in the

2008 election. On August 29, 2008, the Republican presidential aspirant, John McCain, astounded the American public and the media by selecting Sarah Palin, then, Alaska Governor, as his running mate. This became the first time a Republican Party presidential candidate would have a female running mate. In their study, Wasburn and Wasburn (2011) examined the manner in which the American commercial media houses covered Palin’s candidacy from September 1,

2008 through November 3, 2008. Time and Newsweek were used to represent the mainstream media houses. Their reasonably relaxed deadlines enabled them to examine many official sources, condensing the results in a description highlighting the main media houses’ top stories

(Entman, 2004). Both Time and Newsweek are mainstream media corporations. The owner of

Time, The Time Warner Company, owns other businesses such as Turner (CNN), AT&T,

Warner Bros., DC Comics, book publishers, and video distribution firms while Newsweek Media 103

Group, a privately-owned company, owns Newsweek, The Washington Post, and the

International Business Times, to name a few, as well as a number of TV stations. The news magazines’ political perspectives are likely to be conveyed by their associate firms, reaching many and diversified audiences, both international and local (Croteau & Hoyes, 2001).

It is in view of this that Wasburn and Wasburn (2011) conducted an analysis of all Time and Newsweek deliberations on Palin and her opponent in the Democratic Party, Joe Biden.

They analyzed the amount of photograph coverage and inscribed text dedicated to every candidate. Photograph analysis demonstrated that Palin’s photographs were featured more regularly and were positioned more conspicuously in both Time and Newsweek than those of

Biden. Regarding typescript coverage, data depicted that Palin was given significantly more coverage than Biden. Newsweek discussed Biden 6 times and Palin 37 times, while Time accorded less attention to the two vice-presidential competitors. Nevertheless, Palin still received more coverage: 13 times, compared to Biden’s 4 times. Palin was the first woman governor of Alaska, mayor of Wasilla for two terms, elected city council member, and was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She was qualified to be president. Biden had experience as a U.S. Senator and had served in politics longer, yet his 2008 presidential campaign was unsuccessful. He only became successful in the public’s eye when

Obama chose him as his running mate for vice-president. It is important to note that many of our past presidents have been governors and not senators. Teddy Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Jimmy

Carter, Grover Cleveland, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Calvin Coolidge,

Andrew Johnson, and William McKinley were all governors without any senatorial experience and were elected president. Donald Trump, our most recent elected president, had zero political experience before obtaining the U.S. Presidency. 104

Although Palin received more coverage, data showed that most of her coverage focused on trivial topics. Newsweek devoted 58.2% of her coverage to discussions related to her family, childhood, personality, and physical appearance, while only 11.9% pertained to her legislative qualifications and experience for office, or to two key political matters of the national political campaign: the state of the country’s economy and the war in Iraq. The corresponding figures for

Palin’s coverage in Time were similar: 52.3% and 14.3%, respectively. On the other hand, neither Time nor Newsweek dedicated any focus to such trivial issues in their discussions about

Biden. Newsweek emphasized Biden’s qualifications for Vice President and his position on the economy and the Iraq War in 54.6% of its discussion, while Time devoted exactly 50% of its discussion to these two topics. Palin’s coverage made her seem like she had inadequate political experience by the two magazines. It was striking when contrasted with that of Biden, who had worked as a Senator for over 3 decades and had unsuccessfully run for President twice in 1988 and 2008. Palin’s coverage was not on issues related to her experience as governor running the state of Alaska nor her qualifications to be president.

The bulk of the news media in the U.S. is motivated mainly by profit rather than public good (Bennett, 2003; Croteau & Hoynes, 2001; Gans, 2003). It is against this backdrop that

Wasburn and Wasburn (2011) argued that Palin’s wide photograph coverage needed to be understood as a way of promoting sales using her appealing photograph. Arguably though, such coverage had a negative implication on her campaign. Heflick and Goldenberg (2009) held that photographing female candidates based on their appearance heightens their perception as less competent. Heflick’s and Goldenberg’s study found a link between Palin’s appearance and negative views of her. Time magazine reported that Sarah Palin was a sex symbol and of the top ten search terms used on the internet for Sarah Palin was “beauty pageant,” “photos,” and “hot” 105

(Turner, 2008). Wasburn and Wasburn (2011) concluded that Palin’s extensive photographical coverage depicted media acknowledgment of her image’s ability to attract audiences; more particularly, the interest created by the media framing her as an astonishing selection as the

Republican Party’s vice-presidential candidate, rather than her credentials and experience for the office. These findings support Barret and Barrington’s (2005) study that claim photographs have an ability to influence how the electorate assesses a candidate’s personality. Who reports these stories and provides photographs for news outlets also has an effect on how women are presented.

Most of the news reporting for television news segments are men according to a 2017 study from the Women’s Media Center, an online news source created in 2005 by Jane Fonda,

Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan. This bipartisan, non-profit website reports stories of women in the media to ensure women’s voices are heard and their stories are told. The 2017 news article on the gender gap in the media reports that in the 20 top news outlet shows, men report

62.3% and women report 37.7%, and that the disparity is most prevalent in television news, but also exists in online news and in newspapers. Men dominate these media landscapes, with women reporting more on topics concerned with lifestyle, health, and education, while men cover more topics on sports, crime, and justice (Women’s Media Center, 2017). Gender inequality in reporting the news to the public plays right into how women are seen as leaders in society.

As explained above, the manner in which women political leaders are presented to the public can have an adverse reaction to their campaign. The political lime light can hinder a woman candidate’s prospects for political office. The media sites have the power to promote or deter voters’ decisions on choosing women candidates. Additional factors can help or hinder a 106 woman from choosing a political career or entering the world of politics. Many of these factors stem from women’s experiences. In order to better understand women’s lack of access to political positions, hegemony with regard to families, political knowledge, and political ambition are explored next.

Factors that May Increase or Decrease Women’s Representation

Clearly, women have historically been underrepresented in political offices throughout the U.S. (Dahlerup, 2013). Even though many women are active in modern political organizations and exercise their political right to vote, their underrepresentation remains constant across all government levels. According to Moyer (2017), lack of female representation in elected positions in the U.S. is detrimental to the government’s effort directed toward the building of a more inclusive environment for all citizens. While women are often successful when they choose to run for a political office (Moyer, 2017), they, nevertheless, are choosing not to run for political positions.

The current campaign finance system in the U.S., which depends heavily on individual fundraising from private donors, is another major hurdle for female candidates (Brechenmacher,

2018). Women’s organizations, like the Women’s Campaign Fund and EMILY’s List, have played an important role in trying to level the playing field by giving financial support to female candidates during the early stage of campaigns (Evans, 2016; Malcolm & Unger, 2016). Party expenditures on behalf of congressional candidates also do not show any gender disparities in fundraising (Burell, 2014). Nonetheless, female politicians have consistently argued that raising campaign funds is more challenging for them than for their male counterparts (Barber, Butler, &

Price, 2016). Given this hurdle, it is not surprising that low numbers of women in political offices remain. 107

Moyer (2017) conducted a study to identify factors that make women hesitate to run for political offices. Moyer analyzed the existing research and a comparative case study of Iowa and

Minnesota. She hypothesized that public campaign financing programs can promote opportunities for women to contest and win state political seats. To test her hypothesis, Moyer examined the percentage of women elected to political offices in Iowa and Minnesota between

1975 and 2017. The independent variable in Moyer’s test is public financing. Minnesota has public financing and Iowa does not. She found that the difference in gender representation between Minnesota and Iowa was significantly different. By contrasting the data, Moyer determined that, over time, gender representation increased more rapidly in Minnesota than in

Iowa. Following the results of the 2016 general election, Minnesota was ranked 9th and Iowa was ranked 31st in terms of gender equality in the state legislatures. Moyer points out that the percentage of women in American politics increased steadily as women gained more power in the workforce and the public sphere and that gender representation increased in Iowa and

Minnesota from 1975 to 2017. At the beginning of Minnesota’s public financing program, Iowa had a higher percentage of women in the state legislature. Yet, in terms of gender representation,

Minnesota quickly advanced its numbers and overtook Iowa. Moyer (2017) asserts, “The public financing program in Minnesota allows women to take advantage of a program that eases the perception that women cannot raise funds as well as men” (p. 16). This data demonstrates that public financing can help in promoting gender representation in state legislatures and that more women choose to seek elected office when there is an increase in female representation. Women perceive that fundraising for them can be an obstacle in running for a political position.

Implementing a public finance program for women can help ease this tension and attract more women to run and ultimately does indeed increase women’s representation. 108

Research also confirms that in order to increase women’s interest in running for office, women must be politically socialized at a young age (Lawless and Fox, 2010). Visvanathan

(2012) conducted a study to find out why some women are politically ambitious and found that gender and family roles coupled with the partisan composition of the constituency are considered the most significant predictors of how many women will run for a certain political office. The study concluded that if women are politically socialized at a tender age, then their political ambitions could be enhanced. These findings were consistent with findings in previous studies

(e.g. Center for American Women in Politics, 2012; Lawless & Fox, 2010). The level of voter’s education also makes a difference in women winning elections. Lack of education among constituents is an important factor that continues to hamper women in politics (Leigh, 2006).

Leigh (2006) found that, as the state level of education increases, female representation increases as well. Women candidates gain more votes in areas where educational opportunities are more prevalent, such as cities and urban areas. Rombough and Keithly (2010) interviewed female local Latina or Hispanic leaders in local political positions and found that among the personal factors and characteristics that lead to women running for office are encouraging girls to participate in activities, such as athletics, theater, music and campus politics. Working for women politicians was also noted.

Women must learn about political governance, the U.S. political system, and how to run for office in order to serve in a political position. Women score lower than men on political knowledge according to Dow (2008). Applying a statistical decomposition methodology to data from the 1992-2004 American National Election Studies, Dow (2008) wanted to know how much of the political gender gap is explained by gender-based differences in observable characteristics, such as education, employment status, and related attributes. This study focused 109 on the underlying sources that play into the political gender gap. Dow’s findings suggest that the educational choices and memberships in groups and organizations that women choose to belong to do not flow into politics. The social settings of these groups and the civic engagement is different for the groups that women join compared to the organizations that men join. Women spend more time in social connectedness in groups that focus on art, health care, and education, whereas men spend more time in face to face contact and in schmoozing, which occur in male- dominated organizations. Interestingly, for every given level of education, women learned less and retained less factual knowledge about politics than men. How women and men choose groups and organizations to belong to may directly relate to how they are taught in society to socialize and learn according to their gender.

Scholars also report positive influences that may lead more women into politics. Some studies have viewed the visibility of women in politics through media coverage as a factor in inspiring women to participate. Campbell and Wolbrecht (2006) contend that when more women politicians are made visible by the news media, the more likely adolescent girls are to gain interest in becoming political figures themselves. In a cross-sectional analysis, these authors found that where female candidates are in view during campaigns for high-profile offices, more adolescent girls report an increased interest in pursuing a political career, particularly by engaging in increased discussions with family members.

Mariani, Marshal, and Matthew-Schultz (2015) studied the role model effect on young women. They also found an advantage to young women’s exposure to female candidates like

Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. In this study pertaining to women and role models, role model theory is defined as: more women politicians must be visible and viable in order to inspire more young women to participate. The study found this theory applied more to Democratic women 110 than to any other political party. Indeed, the mass media is an important teaching tool for influencing young women’s career choices. Role model’s act as behavior models for inspiring individuals and in showing them what is possible, as well as influencing them to adopt new goals in all areas of life (Morgenroth, Ryan, & Peters 2015). Additional women in political service can heighten political ambition for young women.

In looking at the differences in political ambition between men and women business owners, executives, lawyers, and educators who are considering running for office, Fox (2003) found that women are significantly less likely than men to have ever considered running for office. This researcher offered four possible explanations for women’s meager interest in an elected position: political and demographic factors, levels of external support, traditional family dynamics, and self-perceptions of electoral viability. Given that early political socialization of women is an important factor in increasing participation in the political realm, studies involving young women’s political leadership and activities in colleges and universities follows.

A study by Lawless and Fox (2013) found five factors that contribute to the gender gap in political ambition among 2100, 18-25-year old female college students. The five factors that contribute to the gender gap are: (a) young men are more likely than young women to be socialized with politics as a career choice by their parents, including school experiences, peer associations, and media habits; (b) young women tend to be exposed to less political information and given less discussion time than young men; (c) young men are more likely than young women to have played organized sports and care about winning; (d) young women are less likely than young men to receive encouragement to run for office from anyone; and (e) young women are less likely than young men to think they are qualified to run for office, even once they are 111 established in their careers. These factors seem to play out in women’s lives as they reach life beyond their college years.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 2018 athlete participation numbers support Lawless and Fox’s (2013) findings. Wimmer-Schwarb (2018) reports that the number of college athletes reached an all-time high for men and women, however men continued to outnumber women. The number of men NCAA student athletes is 278,614, or 56%, compared to 216,378, or 42%, women athletes (www.ncaa.org). Furthermore, women receive fewer athletic scholarship dollars (womenssportsfoundation.org). Although women have made notable strides in athletics since Title IX, men still dominate this arena. In 2011, male athletes received

176 million more dollars than women athletes, and, in 2014, 45% of college scholarships were allocated to women (womenssportsfoundation.org). Gender inequities continue to exist in professional sports as well concerning pay equity and the percentages of women in administrative positions (Taylor, Siegele, Smith, & Hardin, 2018).

Returning to the political arena, Lawless and Fox (2008) conducted an earlier study to find out why women are underrepresented in politics. Their conclusions were based on a Citizen

Political Ambition Panel study they conducted between 2001 and 2008. Women and men were chosen from professions that often led to political candidacy. According to this research, in most instances, the women in their sample had already broken traditional structural barriers as partners in law firms, professors, business executives, political activists, and college administrators.

However, Lawless and Fox (2008) noted that the increasing body of studies on the role of gender in the electoral process have suggested that historical gender socialization is still playing a key role in modern politics. Women who de-emphasized a traditional family life and traditional family structures were successful in their professional careers. In light of that, the data also 112 suggested that childcare responsibilities associated with married women or women who live with a male partner adversely affected their interest in running for political offices. Women in this study were found to spend 50% more time each week on housework and childcare than men.

The relationships studied were male-female relationships. Lawless and Fox (2008) report that:

Our findings suggest that we remain in a period where women must continue to

disentangle work and family life. As a result, for many women in the pool of eligible

candidates, entering the electoral arena would simply be a third job, which is quite

unappealing since they already have two. (p. 10)

In the same vein, Carroll and Sanbonmatsu (2010), in a survey assessing the factors most important in influencing the decision to run for mayor, found that women were more likely than men to rate that their children’s ages and approval from their spouse was important. Thus, for the women in the study, their roles in the family unit influence political aspirations. Traditional family dynamics persist in American culture even as the reality of most women’s lives is vastly different than those traditional ideals.

There is a plethora of research on women’s structural barriers and factors that decrease a woman’s opportunity to run for office; however, the literature on how women constructed their political identity, how female figures in popular culture have influenced them in that process, and how they decided to run for office is limited. Given the present feminist political movement of

2018, involving the Women’s March during President Trump’s inauguration, the first woman to win the popular vote for the Presidency, and women forming organizations that center on speaking out against sexual harassment, my study’s timing was apropos and in step with the current women’s movement. Women’s historical exclusion from American political life is embedded in many aspects of the socialized world and educational institutions. While the 113 qualitative literature focuses on the many hinderances women encounter in our society, few studies provide an explanation for how women acquired the knowledge and experience to succeed in their political endeavors. This study was different in this aspect and contributed to women in the field of adult learning.

Summary of Literature Review

The U.S. has fallen behind other established democracies in regard to female representation in politics. This literature review establishes a history of research showing how women are underrepresented at the local, state, and federal levels. The studies show that even though American women occasionally win elections, the number of women willing to run for political seats is considerably lower compared to that of males. This collection of studies identifies some of the structural obstacles contributing to this trend, including popular culture, gender stereotypes, a strong incumbency, a weakness in party recruitment processes, the mass media, and gender-specific fundraising hurdles. Media coverage is highlighted here as a main issue faced by women politicians when running for office. Studies have shown that the media coverage they get revolves around their marital status and their physical appearance. This biases voters who find them ill-suited to deal with challenging issues in areas such as the national defense security and economic affairs. This review also identifies evidence supporting the view that voters may have a negative perception of women leaders when they cast their ballot.

However, through the use of critical feminist theory and popular culture as a pedagogical tool in adult education, women can change this perception. Critical feminist theory informed this study so that I could filter my research through the lens of power, gender, and societal issues within the political world of women and politics. Chapter Three will discuss the design of the study.

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CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This qualitative research study explored how women in elected positions construct their professional political identities through the lenses of the intersection of feminist perspectives on identity development, and popular culture as public pedagogy. The research questions guided by this study are:

1. How does the public perception of women in politics influence women’s decisions to

run for elected office?

2. How do their perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women in

politics influence women’s decisions to run for office?

3. How does popular culture influence the development of the self-perceptions of

women in politics?

This chapter begins by presenting the components of qualitative research and follows with an explanation of why a qualitative interpretive approach is applicable. Next, I will position myself as the researcher and describe my own background as an elected official and researcher.

Lastly, I will explain the study itself, including the participants, data collection methods, data analysis, and measures I took to ensure reliability of the study.

Qualitative Research Methodologies

This was a qualitative research study. Philosophical assumptions are a part of what determines the research design for a study. Quantitative research is generally informed by positivism. According to Creswell (2014), post-positivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatic are four of the primary philosophical worldviews that qualitative researchers bring to a study, though there are many more philosophical worldviews that could inform a study (Merriam 115

& Tisdell, 2016). The assumptions that underlie most qualitative research studies, including this one, are constructivist in nature. Constructivists argue that knowledge is not independent of the knower (Creswell, 2014). We construct knowledge as we learn, so the focus of this type of research is on the process of learning, and not specifically on what is learned. What we assign meaning to affects our reality and how we learn; learners develop meanings from their own experiences, which are subjective and varied. Therefore, in qualitative research, the researcher investigates the participants’ views on the situation being studied, including historical and cultural norms that exist in our lives by recognizing how individuals interact with one another and society (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005).

Qualitative research methodologies are often utilized within the field of adult education to analyze adult teaching, learning, and knowledge construction; common designs include phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, and case studies (Merriam

& Tisdell, 2016). Each type has its own focus and methodological strategies. The researcher is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis, the process is inductive (a theory cannot be explained in regard to a phenomenon), and words and illustrations are used to create thick, rich descriptions in the findings of a study. Such approaches gather data primarily through interviews, observations, and analysis of documents and artifacts; hence data are typically words, texts, and images. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) assert that “qualitative research is based on the belief that knowledge is constructed by people in an ongoing fashion as they engage in and make meaning of an activity, experience, or a phenomenon” (p. 23).

In describing the nature of qualitative research in relation to the world or reality, Merriam and Associates (2002) explain that “there are multiple constructions and interpretations of reality that are in flux and that change over time” (p. 4). An interpretive angle is utilized as the 116 researcher interprets and understands the meanings of the participants’ experiences based on what they say in interviews or in writing, or in what is observed at particular moments in time and in a particular context. Merriam and Associates (2002) clarify that “learning how individuals experience and interact with their social world, the meaning it has for them, is considered an interpretive qualitative approach” (p. 4). Considering that my research questions are about how women interpret their experiences, construct their self-perceptions of women in politics, and make sense of popular culture’s influence on their lives, a basic qualitative study was appropriate and assisted me in understanding how they made sense of their lives and their worlds.

I gathered data from in-depth interviews and analyzed language in order to understand the meaning and influential experiences of women in political positions. Merriam and

Associates (2002) specifically highlight the basic interpretive components of qualitative research and explain that the researcher seeks to understand a phenomenon, the meaning is mediated through the researcher, an inductive strategy is used, and a descriptive outcome is devised. I studied how individual women from a small population interpreted their experiences in their world.

The purpose of this research study was to explore how elected women officials constructed their professional identities. I was interested in how they assigned meaning and how they constructed their decision to run for office. In particular, I was most interested in these women’s experiences. Hence, a qualitative basic inquiry was the most appropriate type of methodology chosen for this study.

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Critical Feminist Research and Researcher Background

I pursued this project using a critical feminist theoretical lens. This study involved the lived experiences from women’s perspectives as a basis for knowledge. I wished to uncover what influenced women to run for office as well as what shaped their political leadership in a male dominated arena. The underpinnings of most feminist research champions social justice and social transformation (Frost & Elichaoff, 2014). Learning how women are influenced to run for office from the perspective of a feminist lens offers an approach that “seek[s] to highlight the variations of women’s lives and identities, and to ask how they are perceived and shaped, both by themselves and by others” (p. 42). Feminist research pertains to many issues women must address in their path to successful leadership.

A research design influenced by feminist perspectives allowed me to position gender as the focus of inquiry, as well as how women’s views about women in politics were influenced by popular culture. The primary data collection method of the study, explained in detail in the data collection section, was in-depth interviews, with questions focusing on the gendered aspects of identity that affected decisions and experiences of women running for and serving in public office. The questions also addressed their perspectives on the role of popular culture in developing gendered attitudes and self-perceptions. In conducting the analysis of the interview data, I looked for themes, patterns, and trends within the text of the in-depth interviews and drew conclusions based on these women’s decisions, influences, and lessons learned in their lives.

Hess-Biber (2014) explains:

feminist researchers have unique angles of theoretical perspectives that they use to assess

women’s status within society and to formulate particular questions that may not 118

otherwise be tackled by the hegemonic ideas that reinforce the existing system of gender

inequality. (p. 3)

Adding a critical critique to feminist research enabled me to pursue and uncover the historical and social aspects contained in ideological, political, and social structures that created barriers to women who wished to become elected officials. Since men continue to claim over

70% of Congressional seats, women are underrepresented. Feminist qualitative research led to subjugated knowledge here and uncovered gender-biased discrimination (Hess-Biber, 2014).

As stated previously, in this critical feminist qualitative inquiry, I was the instrument for my data collection and analysis, and I interpreted the findings. In order to carry out this involved process with my participants, I am obligated to evaluate and disclose my biases, values, and personal background associated with reflexivity (Creswell, 2014), which required “taking a critical look inward and reflecting on one’s own lived reality and experiences (Hess-Biber, 2014, p. 201). Additionally, reflexivity was a crucial component of in-depth interviews, as Hess-Biber

(2014) explains:

reflexivity goes to the heart of an in-depth interview; it is a process whereby the

researcher is sensitive to the important “situational” dynamics that exist between the

researcher and the researched that can affect the creation of knowledge. (p. 201)

Reflexivity is especially important to critical and feminist researchers due to the focus of these lenses on power relations as a major tenet within the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

While the researcher is carrying out the study, she must be aware of the power relations within the study itself. Asking questions to participants can raise their consciousness and promote change, even though there is an assumption that this may occur in critical research (Merriam &

Tisdell, 2016). I included many women of different backgrounds and experiences, and I 119 implemented reflexivity in my study, beginning with the ways described in the following paragraphs.

My personal experience as a woman in a local political position in the U.S. impacted my perspective on what influenced these women to participate in politics. I was able to relate to many of their experiences because of my own knowledge and experience as a woman in politics.

For example, I sympathized with any experiences they had with gender stereotypes in the political world, as I have experienced women’s oppression and how popular culture shaped my own identity as a woman and as a leader. Moreover, I have championed for women of all political parties to be on local boards in the town that I live in and realize how difficult it is to get women to run for elected positions. I have experienced how men perceive women as mothers, wives, and caretakers, and some of the women interviewed had children and discussed family issues related to career responsibilities and marriage. I have also experienced cultural sexism in our country, and how women can be portrayed as sexual objects rather than as serious public servants. The cultural practices, norms, and values that shape women’s experiences and the social institutions that assign gender characteristics to women play a part in their identity and how women are perceived. Like everyone, I am a product of my own social background, assumptions, and society’s social structures and institutions (Hess-Biber, 2014).

It is also important to recognize my own positionality in relation to politics and societal expectations. As Hess-Biber (2014) points out, “the feminist, reflexive researcher’s perspective begins with an understanding of the importance of one’s own values and attitudes in relation to the research process” (p. 200). As such, I recognize that I am a privileged, White, heterosexual woman with children, and I have a family with access to political organizations and prominent elected officials in Congress and state government. I have been politically active in my county 120 and state for the last 20 years and currently work as an elected committee person. Therefore, I know and work with elected officials, supporting their campaigns, organizing and hosting fundraisers, distributing candidate yard signs and literature, obtaining signatures for petitions, and working at polling places. This experience gave me access to women in elected positions; in fact, most of the women I interviewed knew me on a personal level or in a professional capacity.

I have endorsed some of these women for my political party, while others are not from my political party. All these encounters shaped my questions and my approach to study some of the participants. In an attempt to alleviate my own biases, my goal was to try to include women from all races, sexualities, political parties, and experiences, as diversity will add depth, alternative explanations, and additional perspectives to this study, while reflexivity and multiple participants will help minimize bias.

With regard to understanding the role of popular culture in the development of women’s identity, I must first understand how it may have influenced and shaped my own. When I was growing up in the U.S. in the 1970s, there were few women leaders featured in history books and television programs that represented women in political positions to guide me. There were also few women I related to as role models or leaders in my life. Many of the characters on television and in movies were sexual objects and believed in the notions of romance and caring for others as a primary goal. I have also struggled with my own identity as a woman leader. I have worked with men who treated me like a second-class citizen because I was a woman. I was exposed to the culture of the times and how women were objectified and viewed, particularly on television.

Not much has changed, unfortunately. My experiences of having few women leaders around me had a stifling effect on me as an adolescent and influenced my life path both positively and negatively. 121

Ryan and Macey (2013) explain how television shows can influence an individual’s self- identity: “These narratives are not simply entertainment, but powerful socializing agents that shape and reflect the world and our role in it” (p.4). I watched television in the 1970s nearly every night; my grandparents lived next door to me, and my brother and I would watch shows and movies with them on a regular basis, including The Waltons (Jacks, White, Peterson &

Jones, 1972). The program began in 1972 and was canceled by CBS in 1981 and television movie sequels appeared until 1990. The Waltons took place during the Great Depression and

World War II, which were two significant events that took place during my grandparents’ lifetimes. Perhaps they felt connected to the characters and could relate meaning from the program to their own lives. The characters taught me lessons about life and the show influenced my adolescence. I learned from the women characters about the importance of raising a family.

The women were mostly in care-taking roles, while the men hunted for dinner, worked on the farm, and went to war. I especially like Mary Ellen, the oldest female sibling. She married a physician and later divorced, something that was not prevalent during that time period. She became a nurse and eventually a physician, after realizing that people in her community needed more physicians. Mary Ellen did not get a lot of support from the people around her, but she did not let their opinions stop her from becoming a doctor. Most women in this show were not professionals, which mirrored rural life for women in the U.S. during the 1930s and 1940s.

Much like Mary Ellen, I did not receive support from my family for my decision to attend college. I was the first one in my family to get a college degree and I paid for it myself. I, like

Mary Ellen, went against the grain of my family culture and became a professional through furthering my education. Also, like Mary Ellen, I divorced and remarried. Like the caretaking role for women portrayed in The Waltons, I had to quit my job as a middle school teacher to take 122 care of a terminally ill child. I stayed at home with my children for many years, although not by choice, and figured out a way that I could work from home and take care of the needs of my family at the same time. My son needed a feeding tube and eventually a part-time nurse to help with respiratory machines and I felt the need to stay with him and make him comfortable and also meet his many medical needs. I learned many lessons from The Waltons, among many other programs, movies, and other sources of popular culture, and so, as I grew up, I thought women were limited in their opportunities professionally. On the other hand, I also knew there were women who broke through these boundaries and became successful. I am interested in how these women did, indeed, break through these internal and external forces. Now, as an adult, I have two children in good health, an adult son in college, and one that passed from a brain disease, all while being politically active. My experience is only one of many women who became successful in local politics. My participants, likewise, had varied experiences that led them to run in an election. I gathered information from them about their experiences to uncover, using a critical feminist framework, the forces in popular culture that have influenced them and learned about the strategies these women used to navigate our political landscape.

Participant Selection

Creswell (2014) describes how individuals are identified for a study of this nature: “The idea behind qualitative research is to purposely select participants or sites (or documents, or visual material) that will best help the researcher understand the problem and the research question” (p. 189). In order to obtain the data I looked for, I purposely selected six to seven participants and started interviews, adding more participants as I needed until I reached saturation. Feminist researchers choose their research participants in the interest of minimizing power differences between themselves and their participants in view of challenging power issues 123

(Hesse-Biber, 2014). Due to my committee work and recruiting women to serve and run for elections, I have a connection to women elected officials and selected participants with care.

The criteria I used assisted me in this process:

1. Participants must be female, as I sought to learn about women’s experiences and their

gendered identity in leadership, as well as discussed, the media influences that

affected their decision to run for a political office.

2. Participants have served in a local or state elected position for at least one year, in

order for them to share their experiences of the political world, how they chose to run

for office and how they gained political knowledge. They did not have to be

currently serving in office.

3. Participants lived in Pennsylvania, as I conducted face-to-face, in-depth interviews

and could not travel long distances to meet these women due to my own

responsibilities.

In an attempt to eliminate biases and obtain as broad of a picture of women’s experiences as possible, I tried to recruit women of all races, sexualities, and socioeconomic statuses. I also recruited women of all political parties and ideologies. I have helped women run for office based on their desire to run and not on their political party preference or ideology; therefore, this study is not restricted to women who are registered voters of any specific political party.

Another reason I did not limit participation based on political party is that women who run for school board or other similar local positions must cross-file and usually do not run for office in a

Republican, Democrat, Independent, or Other seat. However, I only had access to women in my social network and through my political party work; therefore, my participant selection reflected that privilege of access. 124

Merriam and Tisdell (2016) discuss insider/outsider issues in critical research in regards to the relationship the researcher has with her participants. Critical researchers need to understand these issues and how they can affect their research. These issues can affect what kinds of answers and what participants the researcher may have for her study (Merriam &

Tisdell, 2016). I am an insider, in that I am also a political activist and I serve in an elected position. In addition, I work with more men than women, and I can relate to gender issues in this political environment. I used my social network to recruit my participants. For these reasons, the women I interviewed were able to trust me and disclose more information than if I were an outsider to the political processes.

Introduction of the Participants

This final part of Chapter Three provides a transition into Chapter Four where the findings will be discussed. Semi- structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with eleven women elected officials who were currently serving in a local or state position. All of the participants had served at least two years in their current elected position and all were white heterosexual females. The participants ranged in age from 45 to 73 years and all but one had college degrees. Table 2 provides a summary of the information pertinent to the study of the women interviewed, including age, elected office title, college education, children, and marital status. Pseudonyms were used to preserve the participants confidentiality. Of the eleven participants, one identified as an Independent, three were registered Democrats, and seven were registered Republicans.

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Table 2

Participant Information

Name Elected College Political Marital Age Children

Position Educated Affiliation Status

Jan Tax Collector yes Republican Married 49 Yes

Ellen School Board yes Independent Married 45 Yes

Linda Register of yes Republican Divorced 52 Yes

Wills

Betty School Board yes Republican Married 73 Yes

Maria Township yes Democrat Divorced 59 Yes

Assessor

Meg State yes Democrat Married 70 Yes

Representative

Jean Borough no Republican Married 68 Yes

Council

Laura School Board yes Republican Married 51 Yes

June Senator yes Democrat Married 68 Yes

Brenda Magistrate yes Republican Divorced 52 Yes

Judge

Terry Recorder of yes Republican Married 49 No

Deeds

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Jan

Jan is serving as a Township Tax Collector. She has two children and is 49 years old. Her college degree was in Journalism with a minor in Psychology. Jan worked for television and radio stations prior to having children. She was a stay at home mom for several years before deciding to run for a local elected position. She was inspired to run for office by two friends who were School Board members. A male Township Supervisor helped her learn the process.

Ellen

Ellen is a School Board Director. She has two children and is 45 years old. Her college degree is in History and she works for a local college doing event planning, admissions, and fundraising. Ellen was very active in the PTO where her children attended school. She was inspired and recruited to run for School Board by two School Board Directors. She is serving her third term. A male School Board Director taught her the process of running for School Board.

Linda

Linda is an attorney, retired military JAG, Register of Wills for her county, and is running for a judge position on the Court of Common Pleas. She is 52 years old and has children in college. She has been Register of Wills for several terms and is running for judge on the

Democratic ticket, even though she is a Republican. A male from the Republican Committee recruited her to run and helped her learn the process.

Betty

Betty has a degree in Elementary Education and is a retired school teacher. She is 72 years old and enjoys her role as a grandmother. She has served several terms as a School Board

Director and recently won another election. She was inspired by her father serving on School

Board. Her husband is a Township Supervisor and taught her the process. 127

Maria

Maria has a degree in Communications. She is currently a Township Assessor, but also ran for the Senate. Even though she lost, she plans on running for a Senate seat in the future.

Maria works in real estate and was helped to organize a campaign and run for office by a male

Government Affairs Director. Her children are grown, and she is 59 years old.

Meg

Meg is a State Representative. She is 70 years old and had one daughter. Her degrees are in Secretarial Medical Science and Business. She started off in politics serving on Borough

Council. Her father was a Democratic Committeeman and she learned how to campaign from him and helped him with John Kennedy’s presidential campaign when he was running for

President.

Jean

Jean is 68 years old and went to work for the FBI right out of high school. She did computer entry work for the FBI until she and her husband had children. She became a stay at home mom until her friend who was on the Borough Council suggested she put her name into the

Borough Council office for an appointment because there was someone who retired from a seat.

Jean became appointed and then ran for the position several times and won each time. She is getting ready to run another time for the same position.

Laura

Laura has a degree in Early Childhood Development. She is 51 and works for

Shippensburg University in their Education Department. Prior to that she worked for the military for twenty-seven and a half years managing child development programs and writing policy.

Laura was a School Board Director for two terms. After several years off she decided to run 128 again. She won in the last election and will start her new term in January. Her children are in college. A Republican Committeeman explained the process of running a campaign to her.

June

June is a State Senator. She is 68 years old and has college degrees in Horticulture. She taught at a technical school and then went on to work for Penn State as an Agricultural Extension

Educator. She was a County Commissioner for 8 years prior to running for the Senate. A male

County Commissioner helped her learn the process to run. June became the first woman County

Commissioner in her county.

Brenda

Brenda is 52 years old and worked for Children and Youth Services before going to law school. She was a Public Defender for three years and then went into private practice for 3 years before being elected as a Judicial Magistrate for her county. A male judge helped her learn the process to run for a judicial position. She has two children.

Terry

Terry is 49 years old, has no children, and has a college degree in Communications. She worked in her husband’s photography business for 20 years and worked on political campaigns for politicians. She did the photography for governors, congressmen, and even President George

Bush and John McCain when they came to Carlisle, PA. Terry was inspired to go into politics by a male neighbor friend who was a Senator at the time and became her mentor.

Synopsis of the Participants

Adhering to the participant selection specifications, all eleven participants identify as females who have served and/or currently serve in an elected position for at least one year. All live in Pennsylvania and range in age from 45 years to 73 years. One of the participants identifies 129 as an Independent, four are registered Democrats, and six are registered Republicans. Table 2 provided a summary of the participants’ information.

For every participant, I obtained written informed consent prior to any data collection as required by Penn State’s University Internal Review Board and to ensure that I followed all guidelines for protection of human subjects. Once approval from the Internal Review Board was obtained, I began collecting data as described below.

Data Collection and Analysis Methods

Qualitative research often involves collecting words and texts through interviews, observations, and documents (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016); the collection of artifacts also sometimes serves as an additional data collection method. I used interviews as data collection methods in this study. The data came from semi-structured, open-ended, in-depth, and face-to- face interviews with each participant. I will explain these data collection methods in detail next.

Interviews

Interviews often serve as the primary means of data collection in qualitative research.

Merriam and Tisdell (2016) point out that “interviewing is necessary when we cannot observe behavior, feelings, or how people interpret the world around them. It is also necessary to interview when we are interested in past events that are impossible to replicate” (p. 108). A researcher decides which type of interview to implement in her study by way of determining how much structure is warranted for the information desired (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Considering that I searched for women’s explanations about how they formed their identity as political leaders, the experiences they had in their lives, and who they may have identified with in popular culture, I needed data that can be gained through guided conversations, which equates to in- depth, open-ended, semi-structured interviews for this study from a feminist perspective. 130

This method allowed me to probe further into the hidden, but lived, experiences of these women and provided access to knowledge that may be otherwise inaccessible (Hess-Biber,

2014). The purpose and theoretical framework meant that I must get “at the ‘subjective’ understanding an individual brings to a given situation or set of circumstances” (p. 189). Butler-

Kisber (2010) confirms that researchers use interviews as a main source of retrieving life stories, experiences, and stories of identity. Highly-structured interviews, typically accompanied by shorter responses, would not allow me the depth of information or knowledge I sought. A semi- structured and open-ended style of questioning allowed me to ask follow-up questions and ignited further conversation. I continued to interview women until I reached a point when my information was redundant and no new data emerged. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) explain,

“Saturation occurs when continued data collection produces no new information or insights into the phenomena you are studying” (p. 199). I used an audio recording device to record the interviews, which I then transcribed for analysis. I also utilized field notes throughout the data collection process as a way to gather additional data. These notes were vital to me as they captured the characteristics of the people in the interviews and anything that was interesting and relevant to the study.

The interview questions, data collection, and data analysis were guided by what influenced these women to run for office, what experiences shaped their identity as political leaders, and who in popular culture they identified with in childhood, and as adolescents and adults. Some of the questions that I asked included:

1. Can you tell me about your background and your upbringing?

2. What do you think made you consider entering politics?

3. Who were your mentors along the way? 131

4. Tell me about the fictional or historical figures you admired and might have felt

encouraged by.

5. Tell me about your favorite books. What do you think drew you to those titles?

6. Tell me about the television shows that impacted you. Characters who influenced you.

7. What movies were especially meaningful to you?

8. Who have been your role models and what do you admire about them? Who were your

heroes?

9. How did you learn how to run for office?

10. I asked you to bring an item that was important to you in your quest to run for office.

Explain what you brought and what meaning it had for you.

11. As a young woman what experiences made you want to become a leader?

12. Did you learn any stereotypes about women in politics?

Data Analysis

Creswell (2014) outlines seven steps for data analysis in qualitative research, which I used to analyze the data from my research. The steps include collecting raw data (e.g., transcripts, field notes, images), organizing and preparing the data for analysis, reading through all data, coding the data, by hand or using qualitative analysis software, interrelating themes/descriptions, interpreting them, and validating the accuracy of the information. I used the constant comparative method of data analysis described by Merriam and Tisdell (2016). As such, I organized the themes from the field notes, and transcriptions from the interviews. I utilized critical feminist theory and popular culture as pedagogy to inform my analysis, looking for themes of power, gender issues, and oppression, and what role they had in how these women 132 constructed their knowledge related to identity and the influence of popular culture. I describe these in detail next.

I began the data analysis by identifying sections of data that were relevant to my three research questions. The main goal was to find answers to these questions. The answers were then referred to as the findings, themes, or categories (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). As I read the transcripts, I made notations in the margins that were important to my study. I sorted the responses in order of the questions I asked, and read through all the responses, while highlighting key phrases. This is explained in Merriam and Tisdell (2016) as coding. At the beginning of the analysis, I practiced open coding by identifying segments of data that I considered imperative to my study. For example, words such as voice, listening, and helping, were repetitive in the participant’s responses and I highlighted those words and phrases throughout the analysis. I constructed categories by assigning codes to the units of data. This process was done throughout the data collection and I went back and forth between the raw data and the emerging analysis to create a data set. This system of data analysis is inductive and comparative, hence I used the constant comparative method (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

I searched for themes or categories that exhibited the same pattern within the data. This was a complex task that involved the researcher moving from the bird’s eye view of the research to the finite details. I looked through the lens of critical feminist theory and public pedagogy to find answers to my research questions regarding gender, power, and life experiences. I ensured my study was valid and reliable and will explain these strategies next.

Verification Strategies

It is imperative that research is conducted in an ethical manner, and to ensure that the findings are dependable in order to have the findings considered as a contribution to the field of 133 study. In this case, I utilized methodological and interpretive rigor throughout the data collection and analysis to ensure my study was regarded as a valuable contribution to the adult education knowledge base. All researchers must consider ways to ensure the trustworthiness of their studies by checking validity and reliability (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).

To begin, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at The Pennsylvania State University must verify the appropriate training for and experience of researchers, their study design, recruitment of participants, procedures, safeguards for participant privacy, including informed consent procedures, and require the researcher to follow ethical standards. These research protections are in place to ensure that all human subjects are protected from harm and violations of privacy standards. An additional benefit of the IRB process is that it helps to improve the quality of research studies and add to the studies’ internal validity and credibility, by making researchers think through each step of the process and be accountable for their work to the university, other researchers, and to the participants. I have completed the IRB process for this study.

To determine the quality of a quantitative research study, readers typically look for how they might replicate the study themselves to verify the findings; a well-designed study provides enough detailed information for this endeavor. This is more problematic in qualitative studies, because interpretation and perspectives come into play from both the researcher and the participants. Moreover, as noted above, a key assumption of qualitative research is that there is no one truth or reality, as each person’s reality differs from another’s. Therefore, multiple interpretations of the same data are possible, which require qualitative researchers to find other ways of demonstrating the value of their findings. Merriam and Associates (2002) explain: 134

replication of a qualitative study will not yield the same results, but this does not discredit

the results of any particular study; there can be numerous interpretations of the same data.

The more important question for qualitative researchers is whether the results are

consistent with the data collected. (p. 27)

High internal validity ensures that readers can feel confident that researchers have implemented strategies to enhance the study’s credibility, including actions such as triangulation, member checks, sufficient amount of data collected, and reflexivity of the researchers. In order to get as close as possible to the participants understanding of their experiences, I used adequate engagement in data collection, as I interviewed women until I reached saturation.

Another consideration for researchers who want to increase the trustworthiness of their research is to take steps to make the study more reliable. Reliability, in the traditional use of the term, looks at consistency across repeated investigations, in different circumstances and with different investigators. In qualitative research, as noted in previous paragraphs, replication is not possible, as participant responses are dependent on context, life experience, and factors too numerous. Hence, as Merriam and Tisdell (2016) note, many current researchers prefer the term dependability or data trustworthiness to ensure that the findings are credible. It is up to the researcher, then, to make sure the findings are consistent with the data. Researchers can take several steps to increase the dependability or reliability of their work, including triangulation, peer reviewing, providing a detailed and accurate record of procedures taken, including member checks with participants, and ensuring the reader understands the perspective and background of the researcher (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I used peer reviewing and provided a detailed and accurate record of the research process so that the reader can follow the procedures taken and can understand my background as the researcher. 135

The last major consideration for researchers for maximum trustworthiness is external validity, also known as transferability. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative findings cannot be generalized to larger populations, for the reasons discussed above. Instead, transferability allows readers to determine whether they think the findings might be applicable to other contexts. To increase the transferability of the findings, researchers should provide detailed descriptions of the context, participants, and findings, again, allowing the reader to have a complete understanding of the study. Another possible strategy for increasing external validity is to attempt to have a varied population sample. However, in qualitative research, the goal is to have more depth to fully understand a phenomenon, rather than a shallower view of a diverse sample (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I interviewed women of different ages, education levels, and political parties. I provided detailed descriptions of the context of the study, participants, and findings.

As noted, it is up to the researcher to be transparent about every aspect of the study, so the reader can ultimately determine the study’s trustworthiness. Therefore, I collected data from people with different political ideologies and perspectives. When the data and my emerging findings were saturated, so that no new data emerged, I ended the data collection. In addition, I had my colleagues, including doctoral students and my doctoral committee, look at the research and make comments using peer review strategies. This gives another pair of eyes to the findings and provided the researcher with valuable feedback. To ensure reliability, I kept a record of the research by logging the steps in a journal to write an account of the research process including how I arrived at my findings. Questions, decisions, and issues I ran into while collecting data and analyzing were recorded in the journal (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016). 136

Qualitative researchers acknowledge threats to validity as specific actions or occurrences that could produce invalid conclusions (Maxwell, 2010). Bias is a possible threat to a study like mine, therefore, I used integrity throughout the study and kept in mind my own subjectivity.

Even though a researcher cannot totally eliminate all her beliefs, and perceptions, I was aware how these values and expectations influenced my conclusions. I used use “rich, thick, descriptions” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 256) in my details of the findings of my study.

Due to qualitative studies being in depth and containing thick rich description they are not considered generalizable. It is impossible to generalize the findings statistically, since no statistical data will be collected. Rather, the purpose of qualitative research is to explore the particular in depth (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Hence, I made no claims of generalizability.

Rather, it is up to the reader of the report to determine the applicability of the information and the findings to those in similar contexts. As noted above, as the researcher, I followed ethical standards to safeguard and protect the study process and its participants. For the research to be as dependable and confirmable as possible, I followed the standards of qualitative research.

Chapter Summary

This chapter provides an overview of the methodology that I used in my study. I described basic interpretive qualitative research methodology and design, my background as a researcher, and participant selection. I outlined my interview questions and explained that I expanded on these questions as I felt appropriate to gain more depth. With the interviews as the primary data source, along with my field notes, I used constant comparative strategies to analyze the data as themes emerged. I discussed verification strategies and how I implemented them throughout my study. In the following chapter, I display the data and findings.

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CHAPTER FOUR

FINDINGS

The purpose of this qualitative research study is twofold: (a) to explore how elected women officials construct their identities as political leaders and the factors that influence their decision to run for office; and (b) to understand their perceptions of popular culture in the process of constructing their political identity. The research questions that guided the study are:

1. How does the public perception of women in politics influence women’s decisions to

run for elected office?

2. How do their perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women in

politics influence women’s decisions to run for office?

3. How does popular culture influence the development of the self-perception of women

in politics?

This qualitative research study utilized a basic interpretive approach. Eleven elected women participated in this study, and data was collected from individual, face-to-face, one-hour interviews. Chapter Three provided the methodologies and the profiles of the women participants which are summarized in Table 2 below. Interview questions used in the study are located in the appendix. The series of questions addressed the participant’s background, education, experience running for office, opinions on gender adversity in politics, and observations of barriers women candidates will contend with in future elections. The women who participated in the study were all White and elected officials. Most had college degrees and most had children of various ages. This chapter includes the findings of the research study and is separated into the four main themes that emerged during the process of data collection, transcription, and coding: (a) barriers for women, (b) gender discrimination and influence, (c) 138 identification as politicians, and (d) the influence of popular culture. The themes are summarized in the Data Display that follows the table and then they are described in detail on the pages that follow. The last section of this chapter closes with a summary of the findings.

Table 2

Participant Information

Name Elected Position College Political Marital Age Children

Educated Affiliation Status

Jan Tax Collector yes Republican Married 49 Yes

Ellen School Board yes Independent Married 45 Yes

Linda Register of Wills yes Republican Divorced 52 Yes

Betty School Board yes Republican Married 73 Yes

Maria Township Assessor yes Democrat Divorced 59 Yes

Meg State Representative yes Democrat Married 70 Yes

Jean Borough Council no Republican Married 68 Yes

Laura School Board yes Republican Married 51 Yes

June Senator yes Democrat Married 68 Yes

Brenda Magistrate Judge yes Republican Divorced 52 Yes

Terry Recorder of Deeds yes Republican Married 49 No

139

Table 3

Data Display of Themes

Barriers for Women

The Good Old Boys

Family responsibilities

Lack of women role models

Future barriers

Gender Discrimination and Influence

Gender discrimination prior to running

Finding her voice

Lack of voice

Finding voice

Leadership skills

Listening: focus on service vs entitled career

Collaboration and compromise: directive vs consensus

Identification as Politicians

Others suggested they run for office

Understood their role as helping

Popular Culture Influences on the Development of Political Position

Women characters in books and television

Inspirational people

140

Barriers for Women

The first main theme that emerged from the data focuses on women’s perceptions of the existence of more barriers to elected office in comparison to those men encounter. This theme emerged from their answers to questions centered on how men treated them, how they overcame gender roadblocks in their careers, and what will be the biggest challenge for women that serve after them. The women participants identified and experienced four types of barriers: (a) gendered membership in the good old boys’ club and its accompanying patriarchal power; (b) gendered childcare responsibilities; (c) the lack of female role models in politics; and (d) future barriers. Mentioned by many of the participants, the existence and associated power of “the good old boys” (The term good old boys is used in reference to a network of wealthy, White men with money and power.) affected them politically when running for office and during their professional career. I will discuss how the good old boys’ network influenced these women who ran for office next.

The Good Old Boys

The challenge for women who want to be accepted into the political landscape is fueled by the “good old boys.” This informal social and political network uses their money and power to benefit themselves and to provide favors to each other. Women and minorities are usually excluded. They form business and political relationships that fuel their own self-interests and remain loyal to their members. The connections that they make with each other help wield power in making business transactions, fund a candidate’s campaign, and secure important endorsements. This antiquated concept continues to exist in our culture and is harmful to women who run for office. It continues to be a barrier for women and will continue for future women 141 politicians. Jan, a Tax Collector, explains how she feels about the underrepresentation of women in politics:

I think some women are scared and intimidated by the process to break into the good old

boys’ network, so I think anything that we can do like the Republican Women’s Group,

to try to get the women more involved and back them. I think a lot with campaigning and

running for office is not only the financial, but you need support and the people to help

you go out and knock on doors or organize and having women groups back women

would be great.

Jan also sees the good old boys as a continuing obstacle for women who will run for office in the future. She says,

I think it is going to be breaking the glass ceiling they all talk about. I think it is going to

be hard for – we say our society is evolving in terms of – I think it is still going to be hard

for women to get in there and break the good old boys’ network. I think that is going to

be a challenge.

Linda, Register of Wills and running for judge, referred to the good old boys in discussing the importance of endorsements from a political party. Endorsements are significant because the political party will work to get you elected. Receiving an endorsement from the good old boys can be problematic due to the implicit understanding that payback is often involved. As Linda stated:

You need to endorse the right people. We should be past the point of the good old boys’

club, or you owe someone for being a good committee person. That’s not the kind of

people you should be supporting for these positions. 142

Linda was not endorsed by her party the first time she ran for Register of Wills, and yet, she ran and won. At this writing, she was planning to run for judge under the same circumstances. In her second election, her opponent got the Republican endorsement, even though she won the most votes when the Democratic and Republican votes were counted. She will run on the

Democratic ticket in November without the Republican endorsement. Therefore, she will not have the support from the Republican party. She further explained how the good old boys’ network prevented her endorsement:

In our current political battle, if I had walked in with my opponent’s resume, they would

have laughed at me. But he gets the pat on the back and the nod…so that’s a perfect

example of where, and it must be a woman, there was no reason not to endorse me. I had

everything I needed, and I was electable. I had been elected twice for county positions! I

had much more experience! I had the resume; I was a veteran! If Cheryl wins, our bench

is down to one female judge in a bench of seven! All things being equal – you would

want to put the woman in and have your population of women candidates increase. Half

my graduating class of law was women; yet, we are still not getting women into those

leadership roles. It was the perfect storm. There was no reason not to endorse me.

When asked what the biggest challenge to women will be who serve after her, Linda responded:

To continue to get to the solution, and I don’t know what that is. As long as you still

have that good old boy network, and it is still behind closed doors. I can remember

talking to some men who were planning a golf outing and a lot of business happens on

the golf course and I am not a golfer, so I said, “Everyone that was going were men who

left the women out of conversation, left them out of the deal making.” I said, “So, what

should us non-golfers do?” I didn’t even say women – I said non-golfers. They said, 143

“Well can’t you women just go shopping?” That was their answer. I said, No, let’s find

something else that we can all participate in.” I think it is good to have some downtime

with people. I understand it is after hours but don’t make it an area where it is male only.

That still shocks me that this is in existence.

Laura, a School Board Director, also mentions the good old boys in several of her comments. She discussed the barrier women experience when they run for a political position:

I think the barrier is still very, very, much a good old boys’ club, and it is very difficult

for a woman to break into that at her rate, and not being brought in by another male. I

think that you have to be brought into it. It is very difficult to do unless you have

someone helping you. It is almost impossible to do that. You have to understand how

to navigate that.

When asked how she felt about women’s underrepresentation in politics, she said:

It is very much a good old boys’ club, but if you are not part of that club, I don’t know

how you would help others either. There are men who want to help and help you

understand it. Because of the role women play, you know, you play so many that is a big

piece of it! From a woman’s end, it’s the childcare issue. Caring for families is an issue

and the whole thing is difficult and that landscape must change a little bit to get people to

change.

For these participants, the gendered nature of the good old boys’ club played a part in their political lives.

This concept continues to exist for women running for office. Some of the women found ways to navigate through the system, while others experienced the obstacles created by it and had to fight against it. Some were defeated but continued their campaign and ran again. 144

Laura’s comment about family reflects the experiences of many of the participants, who also discussed how family responsibilities were a hinderance to their involvement in politics.

Family Responsibilities

In addition to navigating the good old boys’ club, many of the women participants struggled with balancing family responsibilities and having a political career. Many of them delayed entering politics because of having a family of their own. Those who decided to enter an election had some support and help with the children from their own mothers, and one mentioned help from her mother-in-law. Interestingly, none of the women mentioned help from their significant others.

Jan, a mother of two young boys, struggled with going back to work after her second child was born, even though she had the desire to work in finance. She was a stay-at-home mom and took care of her two elementary-aged boys. Upon discovering an opening in her township for a tax collector, she described her difficult decision to inquire about the position:

I thought, that sounds interesting, but Jacob was just a baby and I thought, this is not the

right time in my life for it. But it was always in the back of my mind that this sounds like

an interesting position, because I get to work with people and I also get to work with

money and balancing things, and I like to do that. So, when Mr. Books announced his

retirement, I thought, I am going to talk to him about the position and I did. And I

thought, I am going to try this and that’s what I decided to do.

Jan did run for the tax collector position, as soon as Mr. Books retired, and won. However, it was not easy. Her husband, a lawyer at one of the largest law firms in a nearby city, works late nights and sometimes travels; therefore, he was not home to help with childcare responsibilities, 145 and may not have helped if he were home. Jan also explained how she overcame family responsibilities while campaigning with the help from her own mother. She shared:

I was out campaigning until about 7:00 the night before the election to hit every single

door. I remember at that point, my boys were too young to be left alone, so, my Mom

had them in the car and she was driving me, and she was driving me because it is much

easier if someone was driving me and I could hop out. We have a lot of long rural roads

in the township and I got in the car and the boys and my Mom were all clapping for me

and they were like, “You did it, you did it! It’s your last house.” And I was so proud of

myself despite how hard it was. I knew I went into the election doing all I could do.

Ellen, also a mother of two elementary-aged boys, explained how motherhood and having family responsibilities can lead to a barrier for women in politics:

I think it is hard to be everything – to be a mom, to have a full-time job, to have the time

to volunteer, which is what I am doing – the School Board does not take a salary. But in

Congress and in our state house, it takes a toll on our family. I still think at the core of

family is this motherhood. It’s the mom figure.

It appears that she accepted the dichotomy of gender roles in the family. Ellen further explained how motherhood can be all consuming:

I have a great partner. Josh is a fantastic father and husband, but he makes a whole lot

more money than I do, so he makes our ship able to go. But he doesn’t keep it afloat. I

do all of that. Women still carry that with them. Whether or not that has been bred into

us over time or if it’s really how different our brains work. I think about there is a

difference in men’s and women’s brains and how they think. We lay down at night and

think about the million things we have to do and get done and my husband lays down and 146

goes to sleep no matter how stressful his day was. And I hear that from many women,

that we can’t switch off, that we are always going, and I do think that for a lot of women

the idea of entering politics is so overwhelming, because of all the responsibilities in their

lives.

Similarly, Laura, mother of two teenagers, talked about family obligations being part of a woman’s identity, in her opinion. She thought motherhood could prevent women from taking on leadership careers and thus could be a roadblock for some women. Describing how women deal with the complicated path to getting elected, Laura pointed out that:

Some of it is we won’t put up with the process to get there. It’s not worth it in our lives.

Men tend to focus more on – they see themselves more in their work life. That’s how

they describe themselves. Women are more – work is only a part of our lives. We see

our family life and interactions with people. We tend not to take our identities from just

our work. For women it is just not worth that misery to get to that position. It’s a shame

because I think we lose a lot of good women leaders because of that.

June, a Senator and mother of one child, talked about the issues that women experience juggling childcare and career, including her grown daughter:

Women have different roles in life and even I see that changing. I see more men

becoming more engaged in raising their kids but, ultimately, in the end, you are the

mother. That’s still out there! I see this with my daughter in traveling with her job. She

has young children at home, and it is not easy for her to go away. She says she is happy

to get away for the next few days, but she is really not! She is worrying about what is

happening. I don’t think it will ever change honestly. 147

Thus, the participants felt they had to adjust their working schedules to meet the needs of children when career and family collided, but that male politicians do not.

Family restraints were common concerns among most of the women interviewed. When these women appeared to do most or all of the childcare and housekeeping, it left less time to campaign, learn the system, and run for office. In addition, most of the participants did not have any female role models in politics to emulate.

Lack of Female Role Models

Female political role models for these women were scarce. When asked how they learned to run for office, the women participants all had similar answers: they did not know how to run for office. None of the women knew how to get their name on the ballot or how to run a campaign. This was not surprising considering most were not involved in any political organizations and most did not have any female political role models to ask for help.

Additionally, ten out of eleven women interviewed said a White male taught them the ropes.

Jan was a stay at home mom at the time she decided to run for office and did not have any experience in politics. None of the PTO moms she served with knew the process. But, her husband, Robert, an attorney, played a key role in teaching her the local election system; her friend, Bill, was a township supervisor and helped her with her campaign. She stated:

You know Robert is a huge, you know he loves politics. He always studied elections, so

he said, “Why don’t you call some of the locally elected people?” So, I reached out to

Bill Gentry. I reached out to Jim Gallant and he was the head of the Republican Party in

the county at that time. He said, “We really don’t get involved in local elections.” He

gave me a couple of hints – like reach out to people and get your name known. He said,

“Don’t expect any help from us. We deal with mostly county-wide races.” I have to say 148

a lot of it was Robert because he knew, and he loves politics. He studied campaigns. A

lot of it was Robert and a lot of it was trial and error. Bill helped a lot.

Jan ran two elections for Tax Collector and won both times with the help of the two men she already knew who had political knowledge. One man was connected to the good old boys’ network. Even though the women candidates received help from some of the good old boys, it was still a barrier for them, and they had to gain entry.

Ellen, a School Board Director, had a similar learning experience with men teaching her the system. Even though she knew me, a School Board Director, she asked a male School Board

Director, Manny, to help with her campaign. My husband, Larry, and I are also politically involved and help people with political fundraisers and campaigns. Ellen reflected on the fact that she knew very little about politics and said,

That was all you and Manny. I watch you and I always see you and Larry active and

involved in not only your own political career, but in wanting to be involved with others

that you believed to be in the role, and that was inspiring. It really is – it was never

anything that I had exposure to growing up – it was not how my family operated and it is

neat to see families that do that. Manny has tremendous energy for that, and it is

contagious. I am grateful for it and it is inspiring. I have learned a lot from him, and I

think he has always handled himself remarkedly well in those situations. Certainly,

regarding running this time, and even running last time, he was always a person I asked

questions of. Running for office is a really big step, and it is outside of who I am. I am

an extrovert from the point that I get my energy from being around people. But I don’t

enjoy promoting myself at all. I don’t enjoy it – I think it probably is hard for a lot of

people. This was a really big step outside myself. 149

Even after Ellen ran for School Board Director the first time, she credited Manny with helping her and showing her the way to campaign. She explained:

The first time I ran, Manny carried my petitions and passed them out – circulated them or

had them circulated, and I thought of maybe I need that experience of doing that myself.

So, this time I did that. I think I wish I did that the first time too.

Ellen realized she needed to network with people in order to get signatures. If she did that the first time she ran, it would have been easier the second time she ran for office.

Linda, an attorney running for Judge of The Court of Common Pleas, confirmed her male friend’s guidance in the process of running for her elected position as Register of Wills. Jared, an attorney and Republican Committee Man supported her and helped her through the more unpleasant parts of running for office, including being considered an outsider by the Republican

Party, which was in power in the county in which she lives. She explained:

I might as well give it a shot. I knew I could do the job. It sounded interesting, but the

political part, I did not understand what I was getting into and I told Jared afterwards had

I known what I know now I probably would not have run. In politics people get nasty

and personal. They really attack you as a person and what you bring to the position.

Because I was running against the party’s endorsed candidate, I was the leper. No one

wanted to talk to me. I was not a part of that inner circle, and it was very difficult in the

process. And Jared was such a cheerleader. He was able to get me through that process.

Maria, a Township Assessor, explained how a man with political knowledge helped her:

I was an idiot. I had no idea. I’m a realtor. There were other realtors who supported me

and wanted me to run for this position. There are programs through the Realtor’s

Association where they train realtors to be candidates. I went through that little program 150

and we had a Government Affairs Director. He was very helpful to me, telling me who

to talk to and he offered to come out to our first meeting. I had all the people on my

committee, and I told them we were having a meeting and he said, “Would you like me to

come out and run your meeting?” I said, “Great!! I don’t have any clue what I am doing,

so sure!” And he did, and it was pretty eye opening for all of us. We left the room going,

“Holy crap! What did we get into?” And we had a lot to do and, oh, my God! We didn’t

think about that, we didn’t think about that. He was helpful in saying you should do this,

and you should do this, and did you think about this?

Even though Maria took an informal class on how to run for office, she needed more guidance.

She was fortunate to have a Government Affairs Director who assists organizations in strategies, policies, regulations, and government laws to guide her through the process. Maria knew women realtors but did not know any women in office she could go to for help. Likewise, Meg, a State

Representative, explained how she learned from her father and reflects on her political experience as a young girl:

My father had been a Democratic Committee person and had us leafletting and

canvasing, going door to door and dropping stuff off for John Kennedy when he was

running for President. Going door to door was always a single part of my campaigns, but

I just want to fit in that I learned it by doing it.

Laura, A School Board Director, also had a Committeeman help her learn about campaigning as she was putting out her signs. She said:

At the grassroots level, you wouldn’t even think it is that difficult. I can see why we

don’t have women in the congressional seats at the state and federal level. It isn’t a - hey

I think I can do this. Even though from a qualification end you have checked all the 151

boxes – I can do this! There is a whole underworld. Ben Smith did me a favor. I had

known him my whole life! He will put my sign in his yard, right? He said, “I can only

do Republican endorsed candidates.” I was like, “What the heck does that mean?

Republican? I am a Republican. Can’t you endorse me?” HAHA! I had no idea. He

said, “No, no.” I must have looked like he slapped me and then we started talking and he

explained the system to me, and I was like, “What are you talking about?” I had no idea

this was convoluted! I don’t think that average person has any idea!! I learned it the hard

way.

Brenda, a Magistrate Judge, learned from two older male judges and a politically-connected male attorney. They taught her to understand the political process in order to run for Magistrate

Judge. Brenda did not go to a woman for guidance. It seemed that there were no women in powerful political judicial positions offering to help. She explained,

The helper, political-wise, was Albert Schafner. He was an attorney in Millersburg that I

worked for and he went between Harrisburg and Sunbury for years and I called him the

dinosaur. Had I not been affiliated with Albert Schafner I don’t think I would have been

elected. He was so well respected in the community…Judge Shawn Gavel helped me.

He was a political animal. Judge Hassins too – he is not a political animal like Gavel, but

he helped me run. Mr. Schafner knew some stuff – but I didn’t know – this is Dauphin

County a Republican area, and I was a Republican, but I didn’t know that the person I

was running against had already talked to all the committee people. He had already

gotten their agreement to vote for him and they didn’t know I was going to be in the race.

I ran as a 33-year-old single mother, former public defender in this County against a cop 152

endorsed by the Republican Party. I would not have done that without that help in their

part of Northern County. They called it an army of ants.

There were not any women in powerful political positions that Brenda could go to for assistance.

Terry, Recorder of Deeds, explained how a Senator helped get her into the political world and introduced her to people running for office:

But working with a lot of politicians too – Senator Mickey was a neighbor of my in-laws.

He was a good family friend to us. Through him and a lot of political folks we did some

events for politicians and I got involved and wanted to be involved as a supporter, and

then I started to work on some campaigns, and when I did that I thought, you know – I

can do this, and I can do it better than them.

Even though women are scarce in political positions, these women were helped by men. If there are few women in these positions, and few women in powerful political positions, women who want to run for office must turn to men for help.

The women participants also believed that a lack of political efficacy exists for women interested in running for office. They knew they needed help and turned to men with political knowledge. Unfortunately, they presumed these barriers would remain for women in future elections, which is discussed further in the next section.

Future Barriers

The women participants believed that women will continue to have gender-related issues when running for office in the future. The issues they encountered do not appear to be dissipating. According to many of the participants, the problems associated with being a woman in the political realm will continue for generations to come. 153

Laura, the School Board Director mentioned previously, spoke about family issues when asked about her feelings on the underrepresentation of women in politics. Like Ellen, who thought that running for and serving in an elected position takes a toll on the family, Laura also spoke about similar family issues. She reiterated the perception of gender roles in families; the traditional role of mother carries into the present perception of traditional families. Even though times have changed, these roles remain an issue. She said:

Because of the role women play – you know you play so many that is a big piece of it!

From a woman’s end, it’s the childcare issue. Caring for families is an issue, and the

whole thing is difficult, and that landscape must change a little bit to get people to

change. Who would even want to do it at some point?

In addition, Laura cited family issues again, when asked about the biggest challenge for women who serve after you. She said, “Women are always going to deal with the family piece of it.

Even now, I think my daughter will have the same thought or concerns.” Following the same pattern, Brenda, a Magistrate Judge and mother of two middle schoolers, discussed family obstacles when asked about the same challenges to women in the future. She said:

Judge Turgeon ran with her baby in a carriage – going door to door. My kids were young

when I ran county-wide. They were like 1, 5, and 7, but I had so much family support. I

suspect, look at Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she had a great man! You must pick a good

husband. I am not married anymore, but mine was very supportive during that time. I

was campaigning in Harrisburg at the time. You need a support system at home! No

question about it.

Women with children need family support in order to run for office. Mothers need childcare coverage if they want to campaign, network, and fundraise. The women politicians who 154 participated in the study seemed to view family and career as conflicting roles. Family life continued to be a hurdle for women. More women are running for office, but they continue to deal with the traditional role of motherhood. Motherhood can be overwhelming, and most mothers deal with the role of motherhood alongside a career. However, more women in politics may allow for women to have more equal opportunities, as they can work towards legislation for universal child care.

Women must surmount these barriers in order to run for office. Obstacles remain such as the good old boys, childcare issues, and lack of female role models in politics. In order for women to attain elective office, they must navigate through major cultural gender biases in order to achieve in politics. A cultural shift needs to occur for women to campaign and run for office at the same rate as men. Gender discrimination is prevalent in so many areas of women’s lives leading up to running for office that it is not surprising that women are still experiencing gender discrimination in politics.

Gender Discrimination and Influence

Traditional ways of thinking about gender carry over into politics, and women political leaders must contend with these issues before their campaign, through it, and throughout their political careers. Gender discrimination was significant to their experiences as women. Some of the women talked about how they found solutions in order to work effectively and/or to counter the discrimination. Finding their voice and using it effectively was imperative to improving their leadership skills. Defining their leadership skills and abilities was difficult for them. They did not use language associated with being in charge. Leadership skills appeared as a sub-theme composed of categories: listening, collaboration, and compromise.

155

Gender Discrimination Prior to Running

Money was an issue for women running for office. Several women commented on the financial difficulties associated with being a woman and running for office. Brenda, the District

Magistrate, shared, “Women need equal amounts of money to run and I don’t know if women other than Hillary Clinton have that kind of money.” Similarly, Maria, the Township Assessor, answered bluntly when asked about the greatest barrier for women in politics:

Our culture. That women aren’t usually asked to run or are groomed to run. So, you are

behind the 8 ball right away. So, when you do run people say, “Well, there is this Joe

over here in the party for years.” And money is a problem. You must prove yourself

worthy of donations. It’s a difficult, you know, it takes a lot of money to run even for a

local campaign. Again, I don’t think it’s just millennials or younger people, especially

where I live, older seniors, they are just not used to seeing women as strong leaders.

Maria also explained how her town views women running for office in a place where men are the only ones appearing on local ballots:

But it’s still hard for people to believe that women are running for office. Where I live it

is changing, but the majority of people are men. They are not used to women even being

a candidate. I should say a candidate for something other than library board or school

board.

According to Maria, public perception of women in politics is that women are scarce. There are not enough women in political seats. Women also experience gender discrimination in their careers. 156

Gender discrimination was a common thread for these women prior to running for office in their professional careers. Jan, the Tax Collector, experienced this in several different positions before she ran for Tax Collector. She explained:

I worked for two different radio stations, plus I worked the front desk and things like that.

And I don’t mean to sound like I am bragging but I mastered that job. I learned pretty

quickly. I think I kind of blew away the men. I don’t think they had anybody who

quickly caught on the job as quickly as I did. I feel like am bragging. One day I went

into my boss – I was 22-23, and I asked for more responsibilities because I was getting

bored. So, I would get my job done pretty quick and I would organize the supply closet,

the inventory, and I was running out of things to do, and I went into Mr. Treano and I

said, “Are there any more responsibilities?” He said, “Why would you want that?” He

was in his upper 60s early 70s, so he had that mind set where he thought women should

be a secretary.

She pointed out that her other profession was male oriented:

When I was a videographer, there was only one-woman sportscaster. And then in the

business office of the radio station, there was all men in the business department. All the

DJs except for one was a man. There were mostly men in that industry.

She also discussed her work environment and how she dealt with the gender issue:

When I was a videographer, they were like, “You are a woman! You can’t carry the

equipment. You may get grossed out when you go to an accident.” I didn’t like going to

accidents, but I am like, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” I found a way to balance all the

equipment and carry it all. At the radio station, if people blocked my way, I would work 157

to get another job where people would appreciate me, or I would just do the best I could

until I found a better situation for myself.

Linda, the Register of Wills, promoted women’s achievements in the military on

Facebook. She recounted:

I put a post on FB on celebrating women in the military and one of my male military

counterparts really had some heartburn with it. He looked at it like, why do we need to

see it as different ways for women, because we are all veterans. And he is correct. We

are all veterans, and it was funny to see people respond to him. I don’t think he sees it. I

said, “Just because we are celebrating women in the military doesn’t mean that we are

being negative against men.” It is recognizing that their path through the military is

different than the average man’s path through life and through the military. It is like if

we wanted to recognize Vietnam veterans. That’s not taking anything away from the

other veterans, it’s just on this day we are recognizing that the Vietnam veterans’ path

was different. Extremely different than those other veterans coming back from war.

Your race, your gender, your experience, and being able to acknowledge that is huge. I

can give you an example that focusing on women is a positive thing, and he took it as a

negative thing, and I think a lot of people do that, and we need to educate them that

celebrating one thing does not mean we are taking it away for others.

She talked about her experiences in the military:

In the military when I first enlisted, I was in units that were predominantly male and there

weren’t that many females in the units that I happened to be assigned to. My first unit as

a [Judge Advocate General] JAG officer was in a unit where the head JAG the [Staff 158

Judge Advocate] SJA head of the staff – was a female. She was a Black female and she

got 2 points in my book.

Even though women leaders were scarce in the military, Linda looked to other women for leadership:

Our former JAG, she retired as a Major General. She was amazing! I have seen her

many times present, and I have seen her. She was the first female pilot in the guard. The

women weren’t even allowed to fly, and you had to have a man in the aircraft. In today’s

day and age, the things that she went through. Not that many years in front of me, so she

really hit a lot of glass ceilings and broke through. So, she to this day is still fascinating

to speak with. I enjoy her immensely and like to listen to all the things that she went

through that makes all of us coming afterwards – so much easier to get through.

Linda went on and shared her military story of being a woman in uniform, and how she was perceived by others:

I went to a Veteran’s Day at the elementary school. So, I went in for my daughter to an

assembly and she was raising – she was part of that group that raised the flag that day.

After that event they were doing a fundraiser for the military over at a local grocery store.

I was going there, and I will stay in my military dress. I thought I am going to stop by

McDonalds and grab a cup of coffee on my way over. So, I stopped at McDonalds and

here I am in dress blues all my medals, and all my bling all over on Veteran’s Day, and

people just stared at me. I hear these stories all the time, like, “Oh yeah, I went out to

supper and someone picked up my tab.” And I thought here I am paying my dollar for my

coffee. It’s not a matter of the money. It’s about the fact that everyone on Veteran’s Day

should acknowledge someone in full-service dress! Did they think, “Hey, can I buy you 159

that cup of coffee?” No one said anything to me, and I was really shocked. When I got

to the fundraising event for the military – they were collecting items for people overseas

who were serving, and the group that was running it were all veterans, and it was a

motorcycle group, and they all had their leather on showing what service they were in,

and where they served, and I was standing outside, and everyone was coming out, and

thanking all of these motorcycle guys for their service, – and I finally turned to my buddy

and said, “Am I here? Do you see me?” Here I am in this service dress and here I am in

the military, and they are thanking these guys and not one person said anything to me,

and that was the single most – because it was repeatedly all day long in my service dress

that I was having – it was like I was invisible, and it was a military town with the war

college, and I couldn’t believe that not one person acknowledged me on veterans day in

my service dress. I can only think it is because I am a woman. I don’t know what else it

could have been.

Linda’s experience is not surprising considering people associate war with men and sacrifice, but it’s the kind of discrimination faced by women politicians. Cultural biases are pervasive and insidious. She should have gotten the same acknowledgment that her male colleagues in uniform received. People perceive men in uniform and in combat as the military.

People’s perceptions of war do not include women, rendering them invisible. Instead, traditional military values hold true to the idea that women are not protectors of international security and stability. These ideas of gender inequality start early in women’s lives. Meg, a State

Representative, shared her experiences of gender discrimination in her family as a young girl and in choosing a career as a young woman. She said: 160

My family was very patriarchal, in that there were separate rules for men and women,

and girls and boys. The girls cleaned the house, did the dishes after dinner, the boys

punitively had some outdoor responsibilities. They wrestled, and they did what they

wanted to do, and we cleaned their rooms once a week. There were roles, and I think a

lot of that came from my mother’s family, and she was one of nine. There were 3 boys

and 6 daughters, and my grandfather had a business and the sons worked at the business,

and the daughters did not. I was raised in an environment where when I grew up, I would

get married, and I would have kids and that would be my life. Careers for women –

secretary, nurse, teacher, and I am going to add nun because I had a nun corner me in a

closet and said I had a good vocation – and I said, “No!” I had an Aunt who was a nun,

and I did not want to live her life. Teaching seemed completely out for me, because I felt

sorry for teachers in the way that people treated them including the Priest in the Parish

School, and the kids in the classrooms. Nurse was out because I really hate needles. I

was a candy striper, and I was holding a bottle when they were putting in an IV and said

to my friend – “You need to take this, I am going to faint!” I got up. Secretary was all

that was left in terms of careers, and I remember arguing with my mother that I was really

going to go to a 2- year college or a 4-year college, and she would argue with my father

like, “Why does she have to go college?”

Jean, Borough Council member, had a similar experience as a child wanting to be on a sports team. She said, “I was a tomboy. He (Dad) threw baseball with me even though I could never join a team because there wasn’t any for girls back then.” Jean also shared her experience taking her car to the mechanic. She said, “Yeah, when you go to a car repair place, they look down at you. It’s their ignorance, not mine.” Jean accepted the discrimination as part of life and 161 shrugged her shoulders often during the interview. Betty, a School Board Director, shared her experience of one of her husband’s colleagues making unwanted advances:

I had to fend off one of my husband’s associates. That was the first time I had been

disrespected as a woman, because I came from a family and a culture that women were

well respected. That was difficult for me. I never went anywhere, and it’s always in the

back of your mind that women are treated unfairly or abused or whatever. That one little

thought comes back, and it is a memory.

Maria, Township Assessor, shared an experience that happened to her in grade school. She said:

I never thought of it as wanting to be a leader. It sort of happened. There were, as a kid I

was 5’8 in 8th grade, most girls were not. I was never a skinny little thing and I liked

sports. I got picked on by the boys and made fun of. I basically – if they were picking on

anybody else, I would stand up for them. I got between those few people and tried to

protect them. There literally was a – I had to be like 16 or something. There was a party

going on and the boys were taking the girls into the garage, and we knew what was going

on and what was happening in there. Now, they didn’t want me, but my best friend was -

had gone in there, and I got her out of there! For some reason another word got around

that I had saved her.

Maria stood up for others experiencing discrimination. She not only fought against it for herself but looked out for others experiencing it.

Many of the women interviewed were aware of gender discrimination prior to running an election but stood up for themselves in situations where they were bullied or harassed. They demonstrated determination and tenacity when faced with situations involving hardship. Their experiences prior to running for office may have contributed to the ways in which they were able 162 to find solutions. Some of the women devised a course of action to improve situations they found to be adverse for women in leadership and in politics.

Finding Her Voice

Some of these women found ways to navigate the good ole boys, family responsibilities, and lack of women role models. Voice was a topic for these women in the sense of finding their voice and realizing they had a lack of voice in meetings and in speaking their mind or expressing their opinion in a way that was heard. They overcame some instances of gender discrimination in their careers and prior to running for office, and in addition, created solutions to confront and counter obstacles. Meg, State Representative, explained how she dealt with the issues:

But to counteract them, I am one of the co-founders of Emerge Pennsylvania that recruits

Democratic women to run for office, because I recognized that it was harder for women.

But I had models. Even though they were Republicans, they served without party lines.

Jan, Tax Collector, also tries to get more women involved in politics. She explains:

You need to have more women out there involved. We are capable of doing so much,

plus we bring different perspectives and ideas to the table. I am involved in the

Cumberland County Republican Women as the Treasurer, and one of the things that we

are trying to do try to figure out a way to motivate more women to get involved and back

more women candidates.

Betty, a School Board Director, talked about how another woman on School Board dealt with a sexist situation involving male sexual organs. She said:

Without naming names, there was one situation. The group of women got together and

flat out told him that I was being disrespected. And we set him straight. Mary Smith was

great!! I have a story. There was a man on the board, and he really gave her a hard time. 163

He told her, and this is a quote, he told her to get a set of them! So, she went home, her

husband is a farmer, and she brought a set back and set it on the board table. I don’t think

she would mind me telling this story.

Humor is one way these women dealt with sexist situations.

Others learned how to stand up to sexist comments by confronting them head on. Laura shared a story about her School Board experience involving a woman superintendent’s annual review. She reflected on how that review affected her and what she personally learned from it.

She said:

But when I was on School Board, I had to stop a meeting. I went to do Dr. Smith’s

evaluation, and they talked to her about her car. They said she must be doing well

because she drives a Lexus. And so they – this was when we were doing her evaluation

to give her – what we were going to consider for her – what her expectation was and what

her goals were – and the conversation was about her car – and not that it was ok to talk

about that ever, especially at that level to her, and they said that to her, and that she never

wears the same pair of shoes twice. The way she handled that – I was like Oh my God! I

literally could hardly speak. I stopped the conversation and handled it with him, and I

was like, “I don’t know what happened in the years that you had been doing this before,

but you can NEVER do that!! I heard you say that, and I promise you that if she ever

wanted to push that I would not be able to deny that you said those things to her and so

know you are going to have to give her this amount.” I wasn’t sure she deserved that.

She was gracious enough at that meeting and when we reconvened, she didn’t give

herself the top block and she never questioned, and I have forever respected her for that,

and on the other side of the coin I thought, “Why didn’t you say anything?” I have asked 164

her about that after. I met with her afterwards. I was like, “Who says these things to

people?” But, if the opinion of someone that you are working for – that’s a hard place to

be for a very accomplished woman and she said, with true grace, she would never want to

cause this district embarrassment. She said, “I would never want to cause them to have a

financial burden because I am in the exact place I want to be, and those comments won’t

inhibit me from being where I want to be.” I remember thinking that is the savviest thing

that anybody said, and she added that this is not the first time this has happened to me

along the way. I learned from that every time something similar has been said to me.

Mine is not quite so blatant but mine is much more subliminal or subversive than that.

She taught me not to panic over those, or not to make a big deal over those. You can

gracefully make your point and she did.

Laura corrected the sexism experienced by the Superintendent in that meeting, and she also learned from it. Several women made adaptations in order to succeed and made changes to the patriarchal system they were experiencing and opened a door to change. Linda, an attorney, shared an experience related to her law practice. Despite the unfair treatment, she did not change her attire. She said:

I remember the first time I was doing a hearing at the District Attorney’s Office. I

walked in, in a pantsuit, and people stared at me. I had no idea why! Typically, we wore

office dress, but if we were going to court, we wore suits. I had a pantsuit on that day. I

went to court. I found out later that day that that judge preferred women wearing dresses

or dress suits and not a pantsuit. But, even in my generation!! Now that judge is gone.

He has passed away and no longer there. It is interesting in my generation that something

like that was still going on. 165

Linda had many experiences within the military, running for office, and practicing law that she viewed as sexist, and unfair to women performing the same duties as men.

The participants dealt with gender discrimination before running for office and in some cases, their careers before politics. Some of the women devised ways to counteract it and even create solutions. Once these women were in office, they found gender differences related to how they conducted themselves in leadership positions. They had to find their voices and use them effectively in order to lead.

This topic was brought up frequently in the context of obstacles they faced and in their reasoning for running for office. Next, I explain how voice became an important issue. Each participant expressed feeling silenced at some point in their lives and/or having to make themselves be heard in certain situations in their political career. Some of the women incorporated voice into an item I asked them to bring that represented their reason for running for office.

Lack of Voice. One woman also viewed her reason for running was not only to have her voice be heard, but also the voice of others who could not stand up and speak for themselves politically. When asked to explain an item that she brought to the interview that represented why she ran for office, Terry, Recorder of Deeds, explained her picture of her two grandmothers standing with her on her wedding day:

I looked at it, and I thought, “My grams did not have the right to vote and they were born

without the right to vote and I am not sure one of my grams ever voted!” She had a very

strong husband and I am not sure if he didn’t permit her to vote, but I don’t think she ever

did, and you know that was his thing to do. My other gram she died at 59. But I don’t

know if she ever voted, or how she felt about those things. I look at this and they were all 166

just hard-working people, and I always felt too, that we didn’t have as much money as

other people, but we had a right to be heard, and we had an opinion. These folks make

our country work. They are the fuel behind everything in our country. I thought, “I need

some kind of voice, and be part of the system.”

When asked what made her enter politics, she further explained:

I think for me, since really, Junior High, when I started to get involved in government, it

was really important for me that my voice be heard – that the voice of my classmates be

heard. There is always a certain group that are running the show, and I just thought that I

needed my voice to be heard, and I wanted to know what was going on, and I wanted the

information, so I was always involved in student government, and all through high

school.

Terry also said, “So, a lot of the reason I run is not just because I am a woman, it is to speak for everybody – for all people.” Representing other voices was important to Terry because she wanted to have the voices of people who could not stand up for themselves be heard. When asked what advice she had for young aspiring women leaders, Jean suggested, “Be yourself and speak your mind! Let your opinion count and let yourself be heard. Think of yourself as an equal.” Jean came from an older generation, yet she felt that speaking up still applied to younger women.

Ellen, a School Board Director, also described lack of voice in her workplace as a roadblock:

I think it probably made me angry, and that anger fueled me to speak up. I felt like I had

to overcome some gender roadblocks. When I was a student there weren’t many

roadblocks, and I didn’t feel my voice wasn’t heard by faculty or my peers, and I had a 167

lot of leadership roles. Coming out into the workforce was different. I expected my

voice to be heard in the same way, but it wasn’t. Because my style isn’t to be loud and to

be argumentative – it is to listen and ask and offer my thoughts. I am louder now, and

those things needed to evolve.

Ellen also remembered a time on the School Board when she wanted to be on the Athletic

Committee. She came from a baseball family and was interested in school sports. After voicing her desire to be on the Athletic Committee, she was not chosen. She explained:

The first year I was on school board. Mr. Salt and Mr. Summers and Tim – very much so

I felt that I was pushed aside, and you were great at - you know, you had already been

there, and had been more established, and had found your voice, and I hadn’t yet. I had

felt dismissed because there was a situation one time when they were talking about

baseball, of which I know a ton. I grew up in a baseball family and that was our thing. I

was totally dismissed from the conversation as well as asking if I could be on the

Athletics Committee, because I felt it was important to have a woman on the Committee,

and that didn’t happen until last year when – but I didn’t ask again. But I was never put

on it until years later.

Ellen noticed her voice was not heard by the board. The members of the Athletic Committee were all men. These women had to modify their voice and make an effort to be heard. They were not aware that this tactic had to be developed until they were interacting with board members and colleagues during their public meetings.

Finding voice. Another issue about their voices seemed to arise for them as they were trying to convey issues that were important to them. Many women spoke about voice being an important part of their growth and learning how to use it in order to make a difference in decision 168 making. Women also learned to use their voices in a manner that brought results. Some struggled with this lesson. Ellen, the woman who wanted to be involved in the Athletics

Committee, explained how motivation could drive women to find and use their voices:

Or something must happen to light that fire to want to have your voice heard. I think

some of it is on me. Maybe it has taken longer than it should have to make my voice

heard, and perhaps, there are social constraints that have caused me to feel that way.

Some of it’s my personality. I do think that women finding their voice can take longer,

and I think our missteps are characterized differently than men’s missteps of finding that

voice. Oh, she’s forceful because she’s bitchy or she’s this because she’s that. Those

perceptions – they take a long time to break. I think we are on the way. It is so much

better than it used to be. The men that are being raised today are a bit more evolved than

the men who are raised 40 or so years ago, I hope.

Betty combined helping others, and using her voice, into her response on why she chose to run for school board, “I really thought of it to help the teachers, help the kids, and be a way for me to have my voice heard and make a difference.”

When asked if there were any moments in her career when she was surprised at how men treated her, Maria also expressed her experiences in terms of finding and using voices:

The men want to tell you what they think you should be doing. You couldn’t be right,

you know. It’s very much a fraternity, and I don’t think men like the fact that we are

changing that, and the fact that we are getting our voices. That’s really the biggest thing,

I think. 169

Likewise, Maria brought a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. as her meaningful item that represented why she ran for a political office and again addressed the importance of using one’s voice. She explained:

I think it’s about passion and speaking up – Martin Luther King Jr.– ‘Bad Things Happen

Because Good People are Silent.’ You have to speak up! Even if you say things that are

wrong, you can’t be silent. You can’t worry about not being elected again because you

pissed somebody off. You have to speak up!

Not only was locating voice apparent in their actual use of the word “voice,” but also in the ways in which they described using their voices. Some of the women had to speak louder and interrupt others speaking. They had to jump into the conversations and be heard in a direct manner. This was a new way for them to communicate, and they had to assert themselves.

Leadership Skills

Most of the women participants did not mention leadership skills such as integrity, decision making, innovation, delegation, creativity, or accountability when describing themselves or their effectiveness as a leader. Instead, they identified themselves as good listeners, collaborative, and good compromisers. It seemed they used traditionally held feminine characteristics when describing how they perceived themselves as leaders. Linda, Register of

Wills, stated that women do not fit into the current leadership model. She explained, “There is still sexism obviously. I think that the male leadership is so different in the kind of bonding that they do, and that if you look at the corporate level, women don’t always fit into that kind of model.” This can be exclusionary for women because of how women’s strengths are perceived.

Within the category of leadership skills, men’s leadership skills are perceived as active wherein women’s leadership skills are perceived as passive. When asked their advice for women 170 entering the field of politics or what strategies they utilize to make them effective leaders, most of the women said listening was an important skill or strategy. Listening was also viewed by some of the women as a difference in leadership between men and women.

Listening: focus on service vs entitled career. When I asked the participants questions regarding what they believed led to effective leadership, most of the participants viewed listening as a leadership skill utilized by women political leaders. The sub theme listening appeared in several answers, usually as a contrast to what they observe in their male colleagues.

Ellen, a School Board Director, declared listening as the number one strategy for being an effective leader. She explained, “To be an effective leader, you have to listen. To recognize that everyone is not that same round peg fitting into that same round hole.” Linda, Register of Wills, also believed that listening is the number one skill for being an effective leader and not only in the political world. She said, “Listening and communication is key to everything – not just leadership. You have to not only listen, but you need to be able to communicate all around.”

Meg, a State Representative, responded similarly when asked about her effective leadership strategies. She said, “Listen, because you can learn more by listening than you can by talking.”

June, a Senator, explained why listening is an effective strategy for her, “Listen. Focus on service and helping people. If you make it about that instead of yourself that always works.”

Laura, a School Board Director, also said listening is her most important strategy. She declared,

“The top one is listening.” Betty, a School Board Director, exclaimed that listening was all three strategies for her effectiveness as a school board member. She stated, “Listen, listen, and listen.”

Maria, Township Assessor, explained the importance of listening and how women utilize this skill in her explanation of how men and women lead: 171

Women tend to be inclusive, are open to listening, and opinions and trying to figure out a

compromise. Men tend to say this is what I want to do, and we don’t care what anybody

else thinks. Where I think women do care about making the right decision and are maybe

a little more nervous about making the right decision. Is this the best thing to do?

Women tend to look at it like I do. It is a public service. Whereas men look at it like it is

an entitled career. Women want to do the research and the work and struggle with

making the right decision.

June, a Senator, discussed listening as a lesson she learned important to her success:

Sometimes people just want you to listen. When I am in my extension mode and I still

am sometimes that way, I am ready to give you an answer really fast. Dat dat dat.. this is

what you should do, but sometimes people just want you to listen. They are not

necessarily looking for a solution. Those were things my mother taught me – to listen.

The participants viewed themselves as good listeners. They were forthcoming in sharing why listening and having their voices heard were important to them. Listening was key to hearing problems that need to be solved and having their voices heard was crucial to solving problems and communicating strategies. The women interviewed also viewed collaboration and compromise as important skills for leadership.

Collaboration and compromise: directive vs consensus. The interviewees thought being collaborative, and compromising was a must for getting things done. Some thought men’s ego prevented them from accomplishing more, as they believed men tended to lead by dictating and women were more team oriented. Ellen explained her observations of the differences in how men and women lead: 172

Up until now, some of the bigger differences involved are regarding ego. There is a lot

of ego that comes into play. Men are interacting with each other and disagree with each

other, and I think women don’t have that case. The women that have been on the board

so far do not bring their ego into it. That again could change, but we will see. They will

out loud each other, and posture, and not back down, whereas the women on the board

will say, “Oh, ok. I see that. You are right.” Whereas, men I see often shutting down,

and tossing a pen, and backing away from the table before they try to reconcile at all.

Manny had ego and he is also a consensus builder. That has made him a very good

leader.

Similarly, Betty, a School Board Director like Ellen, thinks consensus is key to good leadership.

She said:

I think in my experience women seem to lead more by consensus. They get a feel for

what the overall problem in the overall situation is. This is not universally true, but I

think men feel like a strong position leading from the top is a way to get things done.

Maria discussed women’s underrepresentation in politics, and lamented that fact given that women typically move things forward more efficiently and more often than men:

I hate it!!! I hate the fact that women are underrepresented. We wouldn’t have the

deadlock. I think back to how women are used to taking care of the fights in the sandbox.

You are going to be able to figure it out and be able to come back and play again. Where

there is a willingness to get things to move forward. We have too much other stuff to do.

We don’t have 16 months to figure this out. We have to get it done. It’s frustrating to me

and I have seen it. It’s helping, because of society changing and seeing their roles more

important and stronger. The women who have been elected – there is more women 173

running, and it’s becoming a powerful lobby where women can get together even if they

are different parties. Women want to work together even if they don’t agree on

everything. Whereas, men tend to not want to work with women, because I think more

things will get done much quicker. It’s common sense. It’s not so much about winning,

it’s about more win-win for everybody. Maybe I’m not going to get everything. I still

feel like the male mentality is that I am going to win everything, and you are going to

lose. Maybe I can win a little, and you can win a little, and we can move forward.

Maria also talked about listening, compromising, and collaborating in her musings on the differences in how men and women lead:

Women tend to be inclusive, are open to listening, and opinions and trying to figure out a

compromise. Men tend to say, “This is what I want to do, and we don’t care what

anybody else thinks.” Where I think women do care about making the right decision and

are maybe a little more nervous about making the right decision. Is this the best thing to

do? Women tend to look at it like I do.

This attitude relates to the first category. Agonizing over making the right decision clearly indicates an attitude of public service and the common good, whereas deciding what would be best for himself, or more expedient, more lucrative, etc., is a very top-down, ego- driven leadership style, better suited to corporate executives and dictators than public service.

Likewise, when asked what differences she had noticed in how men and women lead, June, a

Senator, responded:

I think men are confident from the get-go. They don’t question themselves in terms of

their leadership styles and their ideas. They don’t have any qualms about putting forth

their views. Whereas, I think women are always questioning themselves. Although I 174

don’t think it is self-doubt to a certain extent. It is more, am I thinking of everybody’s

perspective? This group in my district – am I thinking of how this will impact them?

They don’t look at things that way. I still don’t think they do! That’s wrong. That’s why

people say, “Well, I’ll elect a woman any day because that is kind of in the background.”

Brenda explained the differences between how men and women lead:

I think men are much more black-and-white, much more laying down the law, much

more direct. The one scenario that comes to mind. I had an issue between staff, and the

office manager was micromanaging the crap out of the secretary, and it would make you

crazy, and she [the secretary] blew up one day, and it was a bad blow up. I had to deal

with this issue, and I wasn’t quite sure because the secretary was doing everything she

was supposed to do. She was an amazing office manager. I gave it a day or two thought

and of course I had to reprimand the manager and she was like, “F-U”, and, “I am done!”

I called Alicia in, and I said, “You are doing an amazing job as officer manager.” I said,

“This is up to you. Do you want to be training people every couple of years?? Because if

you are going to manage this way, then you are going to have to. Because you know you

can’t change somebody!” She thought about it, and then did what she had to do. I don’t

see men having this insight. You know like – “I am going to figure out introspectively

how someone can make this change.” HAHA! And being like – “You will do this.”

These women believe that including others in decisions is important to good decision making.

Terry talked about the differences she saw in the way men and women lead:

I definitely think that men are overall generally more aggressive and tough. Kind of like

the Trump of it all but not as extreme as Trump! Ha-ha. I am in charge, I am the boss,

and this is the way it’s going to be…and I think women can be – men can be more black- 175

and-white too, this is what we are going to do. With women, we take a different

approach in things. We consider all the sources and we gather all the information and

then decide. I think in a lot of ways maybe we are compassionate. Ok, let’s understand

the situation before we react and decide.

It seems as if the women candidates are describing the men they worked with as self- centered and arrogant in that they have the right to judge without taking others’ positionalities, beliefs, and situations into account. The women interviewed did not describe themselves as having authoritative and dominant characteristics in their leadership styles. While listening, collaboration, and compromise are important and must be executed in leading and governing, other characteristics were not mentioned at all. Although politics and leading are often used synonymously, and the women in the study clearly understood leadership and possessed leadership skills, they didn’t necessarily identify themselves as politicians.

Identification as Politicians

None of the women participants viewed themselves as politicians even though they held an elected position. Many of the women interviewed thought that running for their position was not going to be political, and some did not see the position they were running for as a political one. When asked about what made her consider entering politics, Ellen said:

First off, I have to say I was very naïve, and I never thought about school board as being

politics. I thought it as a continuation as I had been PTO President, and I was active in

the school, and I was really involved, and I was a squeaky wheel. I would come to your

meetings, and I would share my thoughts, and I would - people would listen and when an

opening occurred – I applied for the opening, and I was lucky enough to be selected, and

I think that is when I realized oh ok – this actually is considered a bit more political than I 176

had realized. I think I hadn’t ever really thought about the board as being politics – it was

very naïve of me.

Similarly, Maria said:

I would say that when I thought about doing this, I didn’t think of it as politics. I think of

politics as being more on the higher state level or federal level than the local level, really.

I never thought I wanted to get into politics, I just knew my background, my experience

had gotten me to a point that told me I could do something better than the person who

was doing it. That drove me to do – not thinking politics.

Even though they experienced the political process first-hand, some of the women continued to view themselves as non-political. Jean, the Borough Council member, explained her view of her elected position, “I don’t really call myself a politician. It’s small time. I don’t have any aspirations of going into anything higher. I enjoy knowing where my tax money goes.”

Betty, the School Board Director, also said, “I am not super political by nature, but I am an educator. I have a great fondness for children, and I feel they are our future. So, really, becoming a school board member was a fulfillment of an educator.” Not only did these women not recognize themselves as politicians initially, they all had another person suggest to them that they should run for a political office.

Others Suggested They Run for Office

Interestingly, none of these women considered running for an elected position until somebody else told them to, which in most cases was a White male. When asked what made her consider entering politics, Linda, who at the time just returned from a military assignment away from home, said, “I got a call from Jim Doe and he said hey have you ever thought about running for office?” I said, “No – it never crossed my mind.” In the same manner, Betty said, “I don’t 177 think I was retired for more than three weeks and my cousin’s husband called and said Betty you need to run for the school board. We need to have an educator on the school board.” Brenda, who started out as a public defender shared her entry into politics:

I abhor politics, and I hate everything about it. My family was not political, and I am not

political. I didn’t know anything about it. I was in a district judge’s office doing

preliminary hearings and the judge, Yanik, I will never forget, he used to be a disc jockey

on the radio, said, “Beck Babe you ought to run for that position in Northern Dauphin

County.” That is how it started.

Likewise, June said, “So, actually, one of the County Commissioners asked me, ‘So why don’t you run for office? I need another Democrat to serve as a partner.’ I just dismissed it. I didn’t even associate with the Democratic party.” June also added her experience of how she became a Senator: “I got a call to say, ‘would you run for THIS office because a senator passed away,’ and the rest is history. Here I am 8 years later.” Comparatively, Jean shared:

A neighbor lady up the street was on council, and we got to know each other, and there

was a group of us. We all had kids, and we would walk in the evenings, and we were

mostly stay at home mothers, and walked for exercise and camaraderie. One of the

ladies, she was a teacher, and she was on council, and she called me one day, and asked

me if I would be interested. Somebody had just resigned, so it would be an appointed

position, and I said, “Sure.” So, I got appointed, and that was it, and I ran after that.

Even after Jean served in her position for several terms, she is preparing to run again.

She stated, “I didn’t want to run for council the last time and now they (members of council) are like you have to be there – we need your background.” These comments play directly into the 178 research showing that women do not see themselves as political leaders in American society

(Fox, 2003; Lawless & Fox, 2010). Moreover, these women saw their role as helping.

Understood their Role as Helping

These women politicians perceived their role in politics as helping the community. This theme fits into how society perceives women’s traditional role. Interestingly, these women failed to realize that this perception of themselves plays into the same problem within society that promotes women as caretakers. While helping is part of political leadership, as well as taking care of the community, many of these women did not mention the leadership skills such as integrity, decision making, innovation, delegation, creativity, or accountability when describing themselves or their effectiveness as a leader, as noted previously.

When asked what made her enter politics, Jan responded:

So, I started getting involved in activities at school. I was a volunteer. I got very

involved in the parent teacher organization and I was the treasurer for the PTO for four

years. But through that I found out that I even liked working with money and finances

and I also liked working with the community and helping people.

Jan volunteered in her children’s school and recognized her talents in finances and viewed herself helping people and the community. Conversely, according to the Center for American

Progress (americanprogress.org), 40% of mothers are sole or primary breadwinners, which creates an obstacle for women to get involved in politics and likewise, to get to the polls on election day, due to taking off work and missing pay. The women interviewed here are privileged in that being a stay at home mother and volunteering is a choice.

Ellen got involved in the school board by her interest in helping community organizations. When asked about her career and why she chose working in the fundraising 179 position at Dickinson College, Ellen explained, “I’ve always kept my toes in the philanthropic world and with my volunteering with cystic fibrosis and Parkinson’s disease foundations and different organizations over the years and I have always enjoyed the fundraising part.” When asked about an item of hers which brought meaning to her as a leader and represented her desire to run for office, Ellen showed me her nametag with the word “Admissions” engraved. She described it:

It was so powerful to me, because from a fundraising standpoint, from what I do every

day – like the more I can raise in scholarships, the more I can help some of those students

to be here and give an opportunity that they wouldn’t have had otherwise, really through

no fault of their own. It is their parents’ circumstance that has brought them in the shoes

that they are in. It also really drives me to want to make the school district better,

because yet again, when these kids leave, that is the only education these kids are going

to get. So, to me, I really wanted to make that as good as we can, and if that is helping

them find their path at Cumberland Perry, or wherever that may be, that experience in

admissions really drove me.

Ellen saw her position at work and at school board meetings as helping the community.

When asked what experiences as a young girl led her to become a leader, Linda responded:

It was really in second grade that I thought, “Oh I want to be a judge. I can do this.” I

can help and guide people to the best solution, and I realized I have to be a lawyer before

I can be a judge. That’s when I made the decision to be a judge. It’s been one of my

characteristics – even as a parent of children, I do the same thing. Let’s stop – let’s look

through this. I’ve had people tell me, “Wow! You have made me look at things a

different way.” 180

In childhood, Linda viewed becoming a judge as helping people. Equivalently, Betty viewed her role on the school board as helping. She said, “I think my reason for running is solid

[Not political gain]. I wasn’t looking for notoriety or accolades or anything like that. My reason for running was to help children.” Terry described her role as a leader in her office:

With being a leader, it is not about what you are going to accomplish, and what you are

going to do. It’s about empowering others and empowering your staff. Thinking in my

office right now, that is what I did coming in. The first thing is showing respect for all of

those around you, not just your employees, but everyone that comes around you, and

comes in contact with you, and helping them become the best people they can be. I have

seen a few results from my office, and I am just tickled pink. That to me, is out of all the

other things I’ve done since I came into office. That is one of my best accomplishments,

is empowering these women, and giving them more self-confidence.

She saw herself helping other women. She did not describe herself as direct, decisive, or an authoritarian. Terry is responsible for thousands of county records and deeds stored in the

County Courthouse and hires staff to work under her. Her descriptions of her own leadership skills, like many of the women interviewed, fit the structure of the female stereotype.

The influence of gender biases on experiences prior to politics, voice, leadership skills, and identifying themselves as politicians, did not stop these women from becoming political figures. Many found ways to adapt to their circumstances and even form organizations to help women work against discrimination in future campaigns. How they perceive themselves as leaders and public servants played directly into the perceptions people have of women in political positions. How the popular culture consumed by these women played a part in shaping their perceptions is presented next. 181

The Influence of Popular Culture

The last main theme that emerged from the interviews was the influence of popular culture. The women interviewed had difficulty remembering, reflecting on, and making connections to women in popular culture and their own lives. Indeed, there are not many political figures in popular culture that represent women running for office or holding a political position. It is also significant to note that they took more time in answering questions relating to popular culture than they did in answering any of the other questions during the interviews and often responded with short answers.

Some participants talked about childhood authors that were women writing about girls and teenage issues. Television characters were mentioned, albeit a few times. Of the few book characters and television shows, the strong women characters they brought up had overcome gender discrimination and had many obstacles in their lives to surmount. Some of them made connections to the lack of strong women leaders on television and in books growing up and at the time of the interviews. A few of them had quotes from famous leaders that inspired them; however, not all the famous leaders mentioned were women. Two of the women could not think of any women characters they admired growing up or in today’s television, books, and movies.

Women Characters in Books or Television

Several women gave generic answers when asked about women figures in popular culture that may have influenced them to become leaders or run for a political position. Several times, I had to prompt them with some titles of television shows, book titles, or movies, because they could not think of any themselves. My prompts seemed to help them think back to an earlier time period, although they did not use any of my suggestions in their answers. I asked Betty which books she gravitated toward while growing up. She said: 182

The Boys in the Boat was one of my favorites. It was about a group of men who grew up

in terrible situations and made the best of it and went on to the 1936 Olympics and won

the gold medal for America. Any kind of book with a strong protagonist who has done

something extraordinary and is unbroken.

Likewise, Jean responded:

I enjoyed reading about the underground railroad and the people that escaped slavery.

You know, independence was important to me. Hopefully, I raised my kids to be

independent. I am not one of those people that cried when it was time for their kids to go

to college. Helen Keller – someone who struggled I guess. I liked survival books and

things like that.

Meg could not remember the name of a character in her favorite book, but she explained:

There was a book called – I can’t think of the name of it. It was written about a woman

in Norway from birth to death and the life she led. I found it inspirational. It was written

by a woman who ended up winning a big award. It was a long book and I read it twice

and I found it so inspirational.

Some of the women did give more specific answers. From these specific answers, two topics emerged: Characters from television or books, and a popular quote from a famous person. Some women gave the same answers to television shows and books. Jean said:

I loved Nancy Drew growing up. I liked strong female leads. I liked Little House on the

Prairie, too. There were a lot of obstacles back then and Laura Ingalls was a strong

woman to write about those things back then. I loved her and she became a teacher. She

was not the norm at that time.

Nancy Drew was popular among some of the participants. Terry said: 183

I remember even when I was much younger doing the Nancy Drews series. I was big

into that. I loved Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends poetry. Nancy Drew is

probably the one series and I wanted to read all those books – again a strong woman. She

was the detective and the one giving answers.

Two participants named Eleanor Roosevelt as their favorite historical character or book. Ellen, described her as:

I have to say from a female perspective, I read this great book, and this was later on, not

growing up, and I had never thought about Eleanor Roosevelt all that much, and I read

that incredible book called No Ordinary Time. The focus is on Eleanor and Franklin

during the war years. She was so inspiring. How she was able to be her own person in a

time when women weren’t really doing that, and it was just really inspiring to me. I

don’t know that I had ever been an outward feminist, as maybe I started to be after

reading that book, and I still don’t necessarily think of myself as a feminist, or outwardly

political about anything, and certainly reading that book was inspiring to me.

June said, “I always was a fan of Eleanor Roosevelt. She was a ground breaker just thinking about politics for women. I read her books and I went to visit her home.” Meg also had a historical character she admired. She described her and other characters in popular culture she admired:

Hillary Clinton was a hero for a long time. I still feel devastated. I understand when

people say she ran a very good campaign. It’s like there were so many hurdles and

obstacles and that was very difficult. I feel like Super Woman, because I loved the way

she stands there with her hands on her hips. Last year we went for a meeting in Los

Angeles. We went for a meeting in the studio and I think it was Universal Studios and 184

they had a Wonder Woman exhibit. I was like, “Oh yeah!! I stand in that stance. I do

that!” I did it recently. I am not a very tall and you kind of have to really make yourself

bigger sometimes.

Terry also liked super heroes, and explained:

I would say Wonder Woman!! I had her lunchbox and she was all over the place. Her

strength! Yes, she was beautiful, but her strength!! That time for us as women. I was

born in 70. I loved the super heroes. The Avengers kind of person, but Wonder Woman

was the only woman for us at the time. I loved Spider Man, and Super Man, and at one

time Bat Man. But, Wonder Woman was the only woman! Her strength!!

Maria watched a television show that marked a milestone for women in the workforce.

She said:

Mary Tyler Moore was a time when really, I would have been in high school at that time.

The fact that she was by herself in what was seen at that time as a man’s career. Things

that she had to go through! TV shows that I think back then would have been influential.

Meg also spoke about being drawn to books about women going through hardships and succeeding despite them. When asked about her favorite books, she responded:

To Kill a Mockingbird. I also liked Catcher in the Rye and so were books that I read

about women growing up in very disadvantaged situations and figured out how to

conquer their life. I really liked those books. I like biographies.

Contrastingly, Meg chose two male-dominated novels that were probably assigned for her to read in high-school. Ellen was the only participant that mentioned a political show presenting a woman in a powerful role. However, this show just aired within the last few years.

She said, “We like watching Madame Secretary. We like political shows. Tia Leoni’s character 185 is such an incredibly strong and interesting character.” June talked about the progress Geena

Davis made in bringing women’s issues to the public eye. She said, “Geena Davis, I saw some of the things that Geena Davis did, and I liked the documentaries about girls being raised to be leaders. I thought as an adult that girls need to see these things. I wish they had that when I was growing up.” June understood the issues women face when considering leadership.

The second topic that emerged from the Popular Culture category was a quote from an inspirational person. Many of these women had a popular quote from a famous person either in their office framed, or in their memory. Some of them brought the quote with them to the interview that resembled their quest to run for office.

Inspirational People

When asked about bringing an item to the interview that represented the decision to run for office, Jan pulled out a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson. She read out loud, “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” She explained she knew how difficult it would be for her to run for office, and she recognized that she was going to have to become somewhat of a trailblazer. Linda also used a quote for her item and explained that she picked this quote for a fun contest at work years ago. She said:

The judge coming in could pick the quote and what spurred this was right before Martin

Luther King Jr. Day. Searching his quotes to put up on FB, to recognize all the major

holidays. The one that stood out to me, and I sent to her as an example, was ‘The Time is

Always Right to do What is Right’. I thought, can you imagine sitting in a court room

and witness, a plaintiff, and defendant, and you are sitting there looking up at that quote –

‘The Time is Always Right to do What is Right’. I thought that would be so powerful for

someone who is waffling on their presentation to look at that and think to do what is right 186

is powerful. One of the standing principals in the Air Force is integrity and that’s what

integrity is doing, what is right when no one is looking, and I used that. That is a guide in

my life.

Maria also had a Martin Luther King Jr. quote for her item. She expressed her thoughts:

I think it’s about passion and speaking up, Martin Luther King Jr., ‘Bad Things Happen

Because Good People are Silent’. You must speak up! Even if you say things that are

wrong, you can’t be silent. You can’t worry about not being elected again because you

pissed somebody off. You must speak up!

Eleanor Roosevelt was mentioned again in a quote. Meg revealed two strong women in history behind her beliefs about running for office:

Eleanor Roosevelt – there’s a quote and I have a quote sitting behind me. Something

about doing something that you are afraid of because that is how she lived. She was an

incredible woman: “Never allow a person to tell you ‘no’ who doesn’t have the power to

say yes.” - and Abigail Adams. When you read about these women that did things, it

just really is amazing.

The women participants chose people who spoke about the belief that life is hard, and obstacles will be in the way. One of the women brought a mini-size Ruth Bader Ginsburg doll to the interview as a representation of why she ran for a political position. Brenda explained, “She sits on my bench. She represents the quest for fairness. Simply put. She persevered! As many women did.” Most of the women related to women historical characters and how they endured through time. They related to the obstacles they faced and how these women fought against gender bias. 187

The women participants had difficulty relating themselves to women figures in popular culture. Several of the women claimed they did not watch much television growing up. That could have an effect on their memory and possibly could mean that television had little or no effect on the influence of these women to run for office. The lack of strong women role models in popular culture may play a role in how women in politics perceive themselves. In addition, it may feed into the gender disparity of women who perceive themselves as capable politicians.

Chapter Summary

The data for this study was collected using semi-structured interviews with women in elected positions who served for at least one year. The findings of the study were broadly presented in four main themes: (1) barriers for women (2) gender discrimination and influence

(3) identification as politicians and (4) influence of popular culture. The first main theme focused on the various obstacles that women running for a political office endure and surmount.

Some were more explicit than others, but most of the women mentioned the good old boys club.

They became familiar with how it worked, noticed it as a problem for women, and developed ways to navigate it. These women also spoke about family responsibilities, and lack of women role models.

The second finding focused on gender discrimination and influence prior to politics.

Most of these women experienced gender discrimination prior to their political candidacy.

However, many of the women shared their solutions and ways they navigated through the hurdles. Voice was an integral part of running for office and in how they perceived themselves.

Using their voice to stand up to others as well as speaking for others became issues for them.

Having their voices heard was often an obstacle. They viewed listening as an effective and 188 necessary skill to utilize for effective leadership. They listed listening, collaboration and compromise as important leadership skills.

The third finding focused on how these women did not consider themselves politicians.

Even though they were all elected officials, and most of the women ran a campaign, none of the women looked at themselves as political figures. They did not perceive themselves as somebody who would run for an elected position, and in addition somebody other than themselves had to present them with the idea. Furthermore, they perceived themselves as helpers in the community. This finding centralized around the issue of the perception these women had on the connection between their political office and helping the community. They viewed their role as service to others.

The fourth finding pinpointed how popular culture played a part in influencing these women to run for office. They had difficulty articulating any characters in books, television shows, or movies that they enjoyed in their childhood or even in their present lives. Their answers reflected book titles and television shows with women characters who struggled through difficult times. Many of the women had quotes from famous leaders that resembled overcoming obstacles or difficulties when asked about an item that represented their decision to run for office.

The finding of this study mirrors the many obstacles women must surmount when running for office. Gender roles affected their lives and identities as mothers and leaders. These women identified with public servants in the truest sense. They saw themselves as helpers in the community. Some of their responses revealed how the women themselves are so entrenched in patriarchal influences that they conformed to many of the gender roles assigned to women.

Unfortunately, White males with political power continue to govern with a patriarchal mindset. 189

Chapter five will reveal the study in-depth. I will elaborate on the connections to the research questions and the findings, theoretical frameworks, and the literature that informs the study.

190

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of this qualitative research study is twofold: (a) to explore how elected women officials construct their identity as political leaders and the factors that influence their decision to run for office; and (b) to understand their perceptions of popular culture in the process of constructing their political identity. The research questions that guided the study are:

1. How does the public perception of women in politics influence women’s decisions to

run for elected office?

2. How do their perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women in

politics influence women’s decisions to run for office?

3. How does popular culture influence the development of the self-perception of women

in politics?

To explore these questions, the primary means of data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews with 11 women elected officials. I transcribed the interviews and analyzed the data collected in light of the theoretical framework of critical feminism and public pedagogy.

Through these frameworks I examined the perceptions of these women in relation to how they see their own political leadership identity and their outlook on family, education, role models, and popular culture in their identity development process. These critical viewpoints provide insight into the causations of the underrepresentation of women in American politics.

As noted by The Center for American Women in Politics (2019), women are not taking on political leadership roles at the same rate as men and remain marginalized. Gender equality is not found in any level of political governance in the U.S. (Preece, 2016). Few women characters are portrayed in powerful positions in popular culture, either. In view of the fact that women can 191 be influenced by popular culture in how they construct their own identity and that of others

(Guy, 2007; Wright, R. 2007), popular culture as public pedagogy may play a role in how women elected officials perceive themselves as politicians. The absence of women leaders in political roles and in popular culture can have dire consequences for women who are qualified to run for office, and yet do not aspire for elected positions.

This chapter provides a summary and analysis of the findings of the study discussed in the previous chapter, which include barriers for women running for office, gender discrimination and influence, identification as politicians, and popular culture influences on the identity development of these women. In order to interpret the relationship of these findings to how women construct their identities as political leaders and the role of popular culture in that identity, I begin this chapter with a summary of the findings in light of the theoretical framework of the study. Next, I will explain the implications for theory, practice, and further research. In conclusion, I will present some final reflections and suggestions for further study.

Findings Summary in Light of the Theoretical Framework

This study, informed by critical feminist theory and public pedagogy, examined how elected women officials constructed their identity as political leaders, the factors that influenced their decision to run for office, and their perceptions of popular culture in that process of constructing their political identity. Critical feminist perspectives allow me to pinpoint issues connected to power and privilege within the learning process of these elected officials and to detect beliefs influenced by patriarchal control. As such, the findings related to ongoing obstacles these public officials face directly relate to critical feminist theory. Power and privilege are awarded to men when they run for a political position. Looking through the lens of critical theory at these gender barriers is an example of what Bogdan and Biklen (2010) refer to 192 as being “critical of social organizations that privilege some at the expense of others” (p. 21).

Critical feminism is fitting, also, because of the society-wide, gender-based inequalities involving social and personal relationships, work, politics, and the culture of sexuality

(Brookfield, 2005).

The learned behaviors of gender socialization play an important role in how the women participants view their experiences. Men have traditionally held political roles in society and women continue to be the minority. The women participants in this study seemed to struggle with family responsibilities and their traditional roles as mothers and wives, while trying to run a campaign or network with colleagues. The political landscape appears to be very different for these women. They appeared to struggle with their own gender expectations of themselves, while, at the same time, aspiring to obtain a political position. Gender roles are defined by society and women’s ways of understanding these roles and how these roles are perceived in the political realm are vital to this study. Cultural issues relating to how women are characterized or defined are at the heart of this research, as well as power relations between men and women.

Therefore, I utilize critical feminism to uncover these experiences and perceptions. The social and cultural positionality of gender in the U.S. places women at a disadvantage in political leadership, as well as in many other areas of their lives. This social disadvantage women encounter is evident throughout popular culture.

Popular culture characterizations of gender are essentially a reflection of gender roles in

society and present the ways in which women are defined in society (Sandlin, Wright, & Clark,

2011). Women in political office and other leadership roles are viewed as being more

compassionate, emotional, and honest. They tend to seek harmony more than men (Dolan,

2010). Women are also viewed as being more involved and vocal on political issues related to 193

children, families, education, health care, and the environment (Bauer, 2013; Dolan, 2010), and

conversely, as less competent than men on issues of war, foreign policy, and crime (Dolan 2010;

Lawless 2004). The women politicians interviewed in this study had perceptions of themselves

as political leaders that seemed prevalent in their responses of how they viewed themselves as

elected officials. The leadership strategies they perceived to be their strengths were listening,

collaborating, and compromising. Certain gender role assignments are detrimental for women who want to attain political leadership, as Dittmar (2010) points out, voters utilize gender

stereotypes when assessing leadership characteristics of women candidates. Women are capable

of much more than listening, collaborating, and compromising. While these are excellent

leadership skills, they are also passive. Women leaders need to be tough and assertive, despite

their socialization to the contrary. Women elected officials must overcome these projected traits

in order to attain female political leadership. As noted in Chapter Two, popular culture enforces

societal norms and social stereotypes and represent the ideal man to be logical, rational, brave,

strong, and emotionally stable (Anderson & Collins, 2016). Images of women as weak,

hysterical, and emotional were found in popular culture discourses (Sandlin & Maudlin, 2012).

Therefore, popular culture and public pedagogy are utilized in this study to uncover how women

learned to overcome their oppression and run a successful campaign.

All of the participants interviewed are elected officials as of this writing. The participants were all elected officials between the ages of 45 and 73. All were married at least once, and three were divorced. Only one woman did not have children. Seven women were

Republicans, and four women were Democrats. One woman identified as an Independent. Ten of the 11 were college educated. The findings of the study, detailed in Chapter Four, highlight four main themes about the experiences of these participants: (1) the persistence of gender 194 barriers to women in politics; (2) gender discrimination and its influence; (3) identification as politicians and (4) popular culture influences on the development of a political position. In the upcoming section, I discuss how these findings relate to the theoretical frameworks and my research questions.

The Persistence of Gender Barriers to Women in Politics

This section will address the gender barriers that these women had to surmount when they decided to enter the political field. The findings related to the persistence of gender barriers to women in politics are systemic barriers, family responsibilities, and lack of female role models. These women encountered the barriers, yet persevered and won an election, and as of this writing, continue to serve in elected positions.

Systemic barriers. Critical feminist theory uncovers power and privilege found within our societal and cultural systems (Brookfield, 2017). The overrepresentation of men in politics created gender-specific hurdles for these women, as they had to rely on men for guidance and acceptance into the good old boys’ clubs. These findings revealed that the hurdles they faced may be embedded within the cultural and structural systems of society. These hurdles were evident when women referred to the “good old boys,” who created problems for these women when it came to gaining support for their campaigns, getting endorsements, and learning the election system. More men have these connections than women due to early political socialization and opportunity (Lawless & Fox, 2008). As noted in chapter two, women’s choices in organizations and civic engagement are different than male dominated organizations in that the focus for women tend to be on the arts, education, and health care (Dow, 2008). The social connectedness of these choice organizations does not flow into politics. The patriarchal system entrenched in the political process became apparent to these women candidates when they began 195 creating their campaigns. Many of these women learned they had to be brought into the systems by a man. Their experiences reflected the understanding that a qualified woman with an excellent resume and years of work experience was rarely considered for the men’s endorsements. For example, Linda realized she was not going to get the endorsement from her political party the first time she ran. Her responses indicated that she was not a golfer and that she could not socialize with the men on the endorsement committee in the same way as her opponents. She had to find new ways to break through these systemic barriers in order to gain support.

The good old boys combined business, politics, and networking into their club of loyal members who tend to choose candidates for their own benefit. This led to power and control of campaigns and endorsements. This was evident in the ways the women talked about the difficulties of breaking into the good old boys’ club. They knew they had to infiltrate the club and gain support from members. The systems within society that favor men over women contribute to the marginalization of women in politics. Political organizations also favor male members. Lack of civic engagement among busy mothers was also noted in the women’s responses as barriers for them. None of the women were involved in any political organizations prior to running for office. This finding correlates with research suggesting that women tend to seek entry into groups and organizations that do not flow into politics (Dow, 2008). This seems to be a systemic sociocultural problem for women which can lead to lack of ambition, or even the belief that it would be impossible for them to run for office. Based on this exclusion based on gender, none of the interviewed women knew how to run an election or gain support. This finding is consistent with previous findings from Lawless and Fox (2010). Women’s lack of knowledge concerning the minutia of politics was apparent in their early campaigning, which is 196 also consistent with Dow’s (2008) research on factors that play into the political gender gap.

Additionally, this lack of political knowledge appears to be a systemic problem for women. The women interviewed had very little political knowledge on how to run for an election, how to organize a campaign, or even how to get their name on the ballot. Research confirms that women must break through this systemic barrier in order to understand the political process

(Lawless & Fox, 2013), but it is typically much more difficult for them than their male counterparts.

Nevertheless, the women participants running for office in this study overcame the numerous systemic, cultural, and familial barriers. They learned how to navigate the good old boys’ club, political socializing, and comfort with the political system. Sadly, it does not seem like these barriers will be lifted any time soon. How women are defined within the family also played a part for these women candidates as the gender roles associated with women is one of caretaker. Having a family was an additional barrier as these women were responsible for most of the childcare duties. For anyone seeking a career in public service, the time needed to campaign conflicts with family responsibilities; however, this difficulty is exponentially greater for women.

Family responsibilities. The women interviewed seemed to have traditional family perceptions of the role of women as mothers in society. The interview questions allowed me to look at different aspects of these women’s lives, and issues around family was a repetitive theme in many of their answers. I utilized a critical feminist lens when I examined how family responsibilities affected these women when the role of mother appeared in their responses. Their answers reflected how their own beliefs of family and the mother’s responsibility were likely influenced by religious and patriarchal traditions in society. Social and cultural practices that 197 oppress women naturally extend to families (Freeman, 2007). The participants struggled with traditional family structure. Most of the women had to juggle their role as a mother with efforts to run for office. It raises the obvious question: If women are taking care of children in the evenings while male politicians are out socializing and participating in political/social organizations, how are women going to acquire the political knowledge needed to run for an elected position?

How the family is structured and how these women adjusted their role within the family was critical to their beliefs about their own ability to run for office. Jan recruited her mother to help drive the car with her children in it, so she could go door to door, in order to make sure they did their homework. She commented on how she felt the need to wait until her children were older to run for a position with the Township. It appeared that many of these women politicians had to find ways around the gender role assignment of being a mother. For them, mothering was a full-time job and they were made responsible for most of the childcare duties. Most of the women reported that family responsibilities were a hinderance to their campaign, but also played a part in their decision to run for office. Yet, they questioned whether they could handle both childcare and running for office. This finding is consistent with current studies that examine why women choose not to run for office, even when motivated by current events (Carol &

Sanbonmatsu, 2010). Being a mom was a significant part of their identity and with that came an overwhelming sense of responsibility. Ellen, also a mother of two elementary-aged boys, shared how she thought motherhood and having family responsibilities can be a barrier for women in politics. She described the core of the family as motherhood. The morals and values many associate with being a mother may prevent women from achieving political success. This kind of gendered thinking reflects how mothers are viewed, and often view themselves, in U.S. 198 society and culture (Freeman, 2007). This conflict is also mentioned in the context of the future for women running for office. These elected officials did not see this changing anytime soon.

This finding explains how women’s role in traditional families hinders women from running for office, and how this hinderance seems insurmountable, even for those who have done it on the local level. Lack of female role models for these women was an additional barrier.

Lack of female role models. Women need female role models in politics in order to increase female representation (Morgenroth, Ryan, & Peters, 2015). However, other women did not help these elected officials learn to run for office. It seemed that there were not many women in the positions to act as guides; rather, their reflections on support were all male allies who were willing to teach them the political system. One woman had help from her father, another relied on her husband, and others had male friends already in political positions who were willing to promote their candidacy. As noted above, critical feminist theory asserts that society is historically structured by and, therefore, favors men. This finding coincides with that foundational belief. The women candidates had husbands, male friends in the political realm, and/or men in the good old boys’ club that either recruited them (for reasons unknown) and/or taught them the process of campaigning. The meager number of women role models in political positions hinders efforts to increase the numbers of women running for office. Lack of female role models in politics is a perpetuating problem that leads right into the lack of female candidates (Mariani, Marshal, & Matthew-Schultz, 2015), and confirms present studies on the effect of women role models on women running for office (Moyer, 2017). The media treats women politicians unfairly, paying attention to their hair, makeup, and clothing, instead of focusing on issues of substance, as explained in Chapter Two. If women continue to have few role models in politics, the number of female candidates running for office will continue to be 199 low. However, the 2018 national election saw a major increase in women in the House of

Representatives. This increase, and the white pantsuit statement they have made, combined with the Women’s March in January 2017 and subsequent protests, may inspire more women to get involved in government.

Gender barriers persist for women in politics and these women participants encountered them throughout their campaign and within their political position. The systemic barriers, family role, and lack of women role models demonstrates how difficult running for office can be for women candidates. These experiences contribute to a deeper understanding of how gender norms are ingrained in politics. The participants seemed to develop strength and fortitude as they continued to surmount the difficulties they confronted.

Found Strength and Fortitude

The women interviewed developed ways to navigate gender issues, understood their role as helping, and discovered their voice. Traditional gender role assignments in society affected how these women experienced their lives. It appears that the power relations between men and women in the political realm presented these women with the challenge of reacting to oppressive situations. The women political leaders interviewed had to deal with the assignment of traditional gender roles in their families, and discrimination in their professional careers and in their political campaigns. This finding correlates with studies regarding how historical gender socialization still plays a key role in modern politics (Lawless & Fox, 2008). However, the women found ways to navigate through these situations with strength and fortitude. Some women even established organizations to help other women run for office, like Emerge. The women candidates viewed their role as an elected official as helping the community. Finding and using their voice effectively became a key factor in their professional growth and leadership. 200

Developed ways to navigate gender issues. The gender role assignments and behaviors established by the patriarchy are harmful social constructs for women and especially harmful for women who want to enter politics (Lawless & Fox, 2008). One of the ways these women dealt with gender bias in their political pursuits was to create solutions for some of the obstacles.

They took matters into their own hands and devised community support systems. This was evident in the creation of Emerge, an organization that recruits women Democrats to run for office. Taking power away from the patriarchy and putting power into their own hands provides women with a support system they can utilize to counter male dominance within the campaign system. Another participant helps attract more women to get politically involved and support women running for office by being a member and serving as the Treasurer in the her County

Political Women’s organization. She serves on committees and helps the organization recruit more women to become politically active. In sum, several of the study participants were aware of the obstacles women encounter when considering running for a political position, and they wanted to contribute to social change.

Understood their role as helping. The women politicians interviewed understood their gender role as being helpers. After all, that is the definition of public service and should be the reason anyone, regardless of gender, runs for political office. However, the gender roles assigned to women are not leaders in that sense. This understanding confirms how gender can be disadvantageous, and how the social construct of woman hurts the perception of how women think of themselves and their own role in society (Walters, 2006). Women’s historical role of helper, nurturer, and caregiver may conflict with leadership skills of assertiveness, confidence, and dominance. This hegemony is shaped by the patriarchy to control women (Freeman, 2007) and is evident in how these women saw themselves and their role in society, even though they 201 wanted to run for political office. Considering most mothers work, as women cannot afford to be primarily mothers, women need to be politicians to change the fact that the U.S. is the only first world country without mandatory paid maternity and parental leave (vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/).

If women see themselves as housekeepers, mothers, and helpers, it may be harder for them to identify with political leadership. They did not see themselves as political leaders. This perception of themselves is dictated to them by how U.S. society views women and mothers— primarily as caretakers and nurturers, rather than political leaders, CEOs, and professionals

(Bauer, 2013; Dolan, 2010; Koch, 2000). These false perceptions of women are damaging to the progression of women, especially in realms of great power like politics. A critical feminist perspective can reveal the learned behavior of gender socialization. Even though these women succeeded in winning an election, the difficulties they encountered were problematic for other women who do not have the resources, contacts and support needed to campaign within the political realm. This may help explain why so few women run for office. If women see their main role as caretakers, gender becomes influential in determining their career path.

Women’s societal subordination flows right into how women perceive themselves as political leaders and can contribute to how society views them. Even though these women overcame the structural barriers running for office, they continued to see themselves in traditional roles while in their elected positions. The women interviewed told stories of mental toughness and tenacity throughout their lives and in their careers, both political and non-political.

However, they did not assign those traits to themselves. Moreover, these women were asked to run for office by a White male. If most women who run for office are being asked by the good old boys to run, does it increase the ability for all women who aspire to an elected position to run for office? This finding suggests that women must learn how to critically analyze the political 202 system and the power relations associated with gender in order to run for office. The women interviewed did not have political aspirations prior to being asked, nor did they seem to even think about it as a possibility. The perception of themselves as helpers with passive leadership characteristics may have related to their political ambition, which was non-existent until they were asked to run for office. After they were elected, these women had to find and develop their voice.

Discovered voice. These women had to identify with their lack of voice and how crucial it was to use their voice in a powerful way. Looking through a critical feminist perspective revealed how voice equates to power in politics and how these women were lacking in power, whereas men came to their positions with a strong voice. Women’s voices have been undermined throughout history (Beard, 2017; Jamieson, 1995). As discussed in Chapter Two, historically, women’s political voices were muted. Not having a voice allows others to define who you are. Public speaking is imperative when women run for office. Voice became an issue for these women. This was apparent in their explanations of not being heard at some point in their lives and/or not being heard in their political position. Ladies do not interrupt, talk loudly, disagree with men, or become heated during discussions which puts them at a distinct disadvantage in today’s political arena. The women politicians interviewed had to find a new way to interact with the public.

Some of the women said they ran for office to have their voice heard, and another said she ran so others could be heard. However, when they started to speak on issues during meetings it appeared that they were not listened to. Learning how to be assertive with tone and language became a necessary lesson for them. Interrupting others, and speaking so that others would not interrupt them, became skills they had to master, and they did. Many of the women said they 203 had to find their voice. Finding their voice meant they had to speak with authority and aggressiveness.

A woman’s position in politics and her experience of this social institution is different from a man’s experience. These women politicians noted that the men they worked with did not have issues with using their voice forcefully to lead. However, they had to find a way to use theirs effectively in order to lead. These women realized they needed to speak with authority and had to find a way to change their style of communicating. Historically, this has been a problem for women worldwide (Solnit, 2014). It is rooted in the very first democracy in Greece when women were not permitted to have a public voice (Beard, 2017). Religion can also be a serious barrier for women. Many religions still do not permit women to lead, and these messages are entrenched in Bible passages. For example, in the New King James version, 1 Timothy,

2:11-14, “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” And in 1

Corinthians, 14:34-35, “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.”

These attitudes are common among “religious” men and are interpreted to mean that a woman’s purpose is to be used for sex, procreation, and anything men do not want to be responsible for, like childrearing and housework, while they go have a career and a life. This problem prevails for women in U.S. society. Women have fought to be heard in all aspects of American history in women’s movements. The experiences these women shared of discovering their voice and using it in a new way suggests this problem persists for women wanting to run for office. 204

Popular Culture Influences and Public Pedagogy

Public pedagogy is an important component of a woman’s knowledge construction

(Trier-Bieniek, 2015). Considering that adults can learn from popular culture (Giroux, 2004;

Sandlin, Schultz, & Burdick, 2010; Wright & Sandlin, 2009), and that adults can learn with whom to identify through public pedagogies (Sandlin, Wright, & Clark, 2011), books, movies, and television may have impacted these women’s identity and their own perceptions of themselves. Why did they believe they could break the glass ceiling of politics? Popular culture has the power to influence how women perceive other women as leaders and how they perceive themselves as leaders, teaching them through one of the functions of popular culture as public pedagogy. Consequently, these women found a way to interpret the dominant cultural gender messages found within popular culture (Giroux, 2004; Wright, 2007) that demean women, as explained in Chapter Two (Anderson and Collins, 2016; Douglas, 2010; Friedan, 1963; Sandlin

& Maudlin, 2012; Wolf, 2002). Furthermore, the women interviewed succeeded in obtaining a political position. Their gender did not prevent them from identifying with women in power, contrary to the cultural gendered representation of the few women political leaders represented in popular culture. It appears that the women candidates rejected how the media portrays women politicians in the media as described by Meeks (2012), and Ryan (2013) in Chapter Two. Given their success, perhaps it is not surprising that the women politicians had few influential female characters from popular culture in their lives. Instead, titles of books and television shows with themes of overcoming adversity, discrimination, and quotations from famous leaders about facing and overcoming adversity and discrimination were discussed in their interview responses.

The responses reflect the power of interaction between popular culture and women’s perceptions 205 of themselves, as well as the issues they may be dealing with in their lives (Wright & Sandlin,

2009).

Lack of influential characters. Relating to popular culture and characters in movies, television shows, or books seemed challenging to these women politicians. I had to remind them of some book titles, shows, movies, and women characters of different time periods that were popular during their childhood and adolescence. They could not respond to most of my suggestions, nor could they come up with many of their own ideas. This became the most strenuous task of the interviews. Interestingly, several women said they did not watch much television or go to the movies when they were children and teenagers. Very few women were portrayed in strong leadership roles in popular culture when these women were growing up, and this could have played a part in their not identifying with a specific character. Growing up with these messages can be limiting, but we are seeing more women in leadership roles. It is possible that they could not identify with most of the gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles presented in films and books, as Friedan (1963) similiarly explains how women could not identify with the public images of maternal women at that time period, discussed in detail in

Chapter Two. While they may not have been able to come up with a role model, they were doubtlessly influenced by those they did not see as role models. Even as adults they could not think of many characters they could relate to or that they emulated. Only three women came up with characters from television shows, and nine could not think of any specific person in shows or movies.

Themes of Overcoming Sexism. People are consumers of popular culture and the media, which contains the norms and values prevalent in society and is enmeshed in books, magazines, film, television, and books (Trier-Bieniek, 2015). As noted previously, media 206 presentations can shape our perceptions of gender roles and gender equality. As presented in

Jubas, Tabor, and Brown (2015), critical perspectives on popular culture as pedagogy describes watching fiction as a form of learning, and that movies and television can guide people to observe or understand their world differently. The women participants appeared to resist the gender stereotypes of women in subordinate roles and gravitated towards themes of resilience, difficult times, and rising above circumstances. The women participants were attracted to books and films that contained plots and stories about adversity, discrimination, and overcoming challenges. The books mentioned were about actual women in history such as Eleanor

Roosevelt, Abigail Adams, and Helen Keller, all strong women. A couple of participants talked about the fictional character, Nancy Drew who, interestingly, has recently been resurrected as an even stronger character in a popular new television series on CW. The television and movie industry are beginning to focus more and more on women leads, portraying tenacious, intelligent women leaders. Titles such as To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, 1960), and Catcher in the Rye

(Salinger, 1951), were mentioned by older women elected officials and do not contain women leaders as characters. No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in

World War II (Kearns-Goodwin, 1994) was mentioned in the context of living life through very difficult times and making difficult decisions. Television shows included The Mary Tyler Moore

Show (Brooks & Burns, 1970), Little House on the Prairie (Landon, 1974), and Madame

Secretary, (Hall & Grae, 2014). The participants made comments concerning discrimination and growing up during difficult times. Likewise, the participants chose quotations that reflected the theme of overcoming discrimination and adversity as representations of why they ran for office.

They seemed to think the quotes they chose were a depiction of their lives as women and elected officials. 207

Overcoming adversity and discrimination from famous leaders. Women have long struggled for equal opportunities to run for office and are not legally barred from doing so; however, the power structures within society can restrict a woman’s interest in and ability to pursue political positions (Dow, 2008). It is important to note that the women interviewed seemed to know the right people in their social circle to seek out support, however, they were primarily men. Considering the challenges that gender presents to women who pursue a career in politics, acquiring fortitude and strength to seek out these pathways to political success may be a quintessential component of their character. As shown in Sandlin and Wright, (2009) and

Wright (2007), popular culture can shape women’s identities and perpetuate harmful ideologies that can limit women’s options in society. Therefore, social stereotypes enforced by the media and popular culture can limit women’s career choices and self-efficacy (Wright, 2007). The women identified with capable, intelligent leaders, and several were historical ones, like Eleanor

Roosevelt. Several women were also drawn to inspirational quotes from famous leaders like

Martin Luther King, Jr. The District Magistrate identified her work with Supreme Court Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsberg and kept a miniature RBG doll on her bench. Considering the history of women in this country and the overrepresentation of men in politics and in strong leading roles in popular culture, this finding is not surprising.

The findings from this study, when viewed with critical feminist theoretical and public pedagogy lenses, present the gender-based inequalities the elected women officials experienced, as well as how popular culture characterized the gender roles reflected in society. These findings align with Tapscott’s (2009) research that affirms the public has the ability to decipher and make their own meaning from cultural representations. Results from this study also show how these women identified, in part, with popular culture and how they found their identity in alternative 208 public figures. In this case, the women participants identified with strong women leaders and famous leaders in American culture who fought for social change. As popular culture can shape a woman’s identity, so too can the public’s perception of women in politics.

Influences on Women’s Decisions to Run

The findings from the study help answer the first two research questions on the influence of the public perception and the participants’ own perceptions of women in politics on their decisions to run for office. At the core of any discussion about how society influences decisions is Weedon’s (1997) idea that the social world affects how and what we learn, and that there is a correlation between this social world and individuals’ unconscious and conscious thoughts.

Smith and Taylor (2010), likewise, emphasize that constructions of identities, self-concepts, relationships, and beliefs are produced by our experiences of creating meaning and in the ways adults understand themselves.

In the context of this study, then, and as noted in Chapter Two, society’s gender stereotypes influence the public’s views of candidates’ policy strengths (Dolan, 2010;

Eichenberg, 2003; Sanbonmatsu, 2003), as well as their decision making (Bauer, 2013; Bratton

& Haynie, 1999; Howell & Day, 2000). In addition, perceived culturally traditional male and female characteristics assigned to government issues has an impact on public opinion (Filla &

Larimer, 2011). The public perceives female leaders as having concerns for education, childcare, and inequality, and may view them as better decision makers on issues concerning social welfare, education, and families (Bauer, 2013). Unfortunately, culturally constructed views of men as better decision makers on topics of defense, foreign affairs, and crime prevent women from being seen as capable political leaders (Dolan, 2010; Koch, 2000). These studies indicate the stranglehold cultural constructions of gender roles have on our collective 209 consciousness and how those beliefs extend to politics, including those of the women who may consider participating in politics. As mentioned previously and supporting the prior research discussed above, the women in this study perceived themselves foremost as helpers as, indeed, the term public servant implies. This perception of themselves mirrors the public’s view of women’s roles (Bauer, 2013). Helping is a trait that society values in women candidates. They did not talk about political issues in their answers; and, furthermore, many of the women said they did not see themselves as politicians. This perception of women helping society may encourage some women to run for office. However, it appears that cultural sexism is so ingrained in these participants that they find it difficult or even impossible to imagine themselves in ways they view as powerful and political. There appears to be a lack of critical self-awareness in their answers. People should run for office by virtue of servitude towards community and country, not for power and glory as is oftentimes the case.

Significantly, men prompted most of these women to run for office. Most of the women could not see themselves as candidates, until a man suggested they run for office. The women’s perception of themselves as candidates was fueled by men suggesting they run for office, which seemed to boost the perception of themselves as political candidates. Moreover, the women interviewed learned the campaign and election process from men. This finding extends the findings from Lawless and Fox (2013) that discuss the gender gap in political ambition, as women are exposed to less political information than men due to the organizations and career paths that interest them, and corresponds to Dow’s (2008) study claiming that men score higher on political knowledge. In addition, some of the women, uncommonly, developed support- systems for other women running for office, as noted previously. 210

Gender roles that society assigns to women in politics was evident in how the women candidates saw themselves and how public perceptions influenced their decision to run. The women candidates saw themselves as helpers in the community. They needed the help of men to encourage them to run and to show them how to do it, which is not surprising considering women are underrepresented. These factors correspond to how the public views women’s roles.

Public perceptions of women in office appear to have an impact on a woman’s decision to run and addresses research question one. In addition to gender role constraints for women running for office, additional obstacles exist.

Impediments to Women’s Political Success

Ironically, women’s political success seems to depend on men even though, or perhaps because of another hinderance to women’s decisions to run for office, is the ongoing issue of the lack of women role models in powerful positions in politics (Campbell & Wolbrecht, 2006;

Mariani, Marshal, & Matthew-Schultz, 2015; Moyer, 2017). The women interviewed commented on men helping them and men having political power in groups and organizations around them. Most of the women did not mention any women political figures they learned from; only one participant mentioned that she was helped by another woman. Although none of the women mentioned female role models in politics directly, they apparently were advised by men. This lack of role models for women politicians may combine with the poor public perceptions of women in politics to fuel women’s exclusion from the good old boys’ club, as these groups continued to thrive in the local politics of the women participants. This finding, together with the lack of role models, causes most women to identify with other positions in society rather than running for political office. It appears that the good old boys sustain political power as a male domain. If women must break through this barrier, like the women interviewed, 211 they may view running for office to be an uphill battle. Appointing more women to political offices and creating mandatory gender appointments would certainly ease this barrier for women.

Building upon previous research on the low numbers of women running for political seats compared to men in the U.S and in other established democracies (Brechenmacher, 2018), this research confirms that there are hinderances for women who wish to run for office and that women role models are rare. This hinderance for women coincides with Moyer’s (2017) data demonstrating that increasing women’s representation in state legislatures equates to more women running for office. More women role models in politics may eventually lead to the diminishing of the good old boys and, in turn, influence more women to run. The women interviewed found ways to navigate and prevail under these circumstances; however, they are in the minority, considering that so few women make the decision to run for office.

Gender roles assigned to women affect every aspect of life and flow right into politics.

Many of the gender issues the women politicians encountered with motherhood and family responsibilities reflected the current research (Carrol & Sanbonmatsu, 2010; Lawless & Fox,

2008) on the difficulties women have juggling child care and career. Maternity leave issues abound in politics as they do in any job. On the other hand, focusing on the responsibilities women assume in the traditional family overlooks the deeper problem of how women perceive their own roles and what effect that has on their lives. This addresses research question two, which inquired on how women’s perceptions of the role of women in society and the role of women in politics influence women’s decisions to run for office. As described above in the findings, women continue to struggle with balancing careers and having a family as women are left with more of the childcare responsibilities. In this study, the women’s perceptions of their role in society as mothers had a direct effect on campaigning and influenced their decision to run 212 for office. It also affected them during their campaign. This decision was difficult for them. For example, they considered the age of their children as well as their husband’s support and his schedule regarding the timing of their campaign. The new younger group of Representatives in their childbearing years may have to grapple with the issue of having children while in office.

Whether or not men also consider these factors when they are making the decision to run for office is interesting to consider. It appears that men have the freedom to have a family and be gone most evenings while women are at home with childcare duties.

Another impediment to running for office by women is political efficacy. It remains a problem for women needing education on how to run for office, as most of the women interviewed did not know how to start the process and had to have a man teach them (Dow,

2008; Lawless & Fox, 2010; Visvanathan, 2012). This finding adds to the research and, sadly, continues to hinder women wanting to run for political office. If they perceive themselves as having a lack of political knowledge, they must seek out others to teach them. If women are not joining the organizations and careers that lead to political positions, they are not surrounded by people they can reach out to for help. In addition, not all women have the confidence to reach out to others for the guidance needed to run for office, and not all women would have the time and energy to learn due to childcare responsibilities. This research adds an understanding of how women elected officials perceive their gender roles and how they interpret them when they consider running for office. The women interviewed in this study had to discard some of these roles defined in society and create their own identities. Most of the women had to learn how to become vocal and use their voice aggressively in order to be heard. Most of the women stood up to gender discrimination in their jobs prior to running for office and had to break through the good old boys. They became strong leaders and fighters for gender equality. 213

Popular Culture Influences

As discussed in the previous section, the findings indicate how important the women’s self-perceptions were in their decisions to run for office and how important gender roles in society contribute to those perceptions. The development of those perceptions can come from popular culture, which was addressed by the third research question. Guy (2007) and Sandlin &

Wright (2009) demonstrate how popular culture can help shape identity and how we think, as discussed in detail in Chapter Two. Thus, asking the women about influential characters in television shows, films, and books indicated what they may have learned through public pedagogy. Narratives of television shows can impact identity and can be influential in shaping and reflecting our roles in the world we live in (Ryan & Macey, 2013).

Contrasting with this literature, it appears television and movie characters were not strong influences on the participants, in part because there are so few strong women lead characters.

Instead, they found their own person to emulate from historical figures and referred to famous popular quotations concerning discrimination and overcoming obstacles. These women candidates found strength and identity in other ways women were represented to the public. The women politicians seemed to reject the women characters that were ingrained in popular culture during childhood and as adolescents, like Donna Stone in The Donna Reed Show (Owen &

Roberts, 1958), Lisa Douglas in Green Acres (Henning,1965), Ginger and Mary Ann in

Giligan’s Island (Schwartz, 1964), Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie (Sheldon, 1965), and Wonder

Woman in Wonder Woman (Cramer, 1979). They resisted the oppressive gender roles assigned to women in television and movies at that time. Like Sandlin & Wright’s (2009) study confirming that popular culture can limit women’s opportunities by supporting harmful ideologies, it appears that these women politicians gravitated to positive influences of women in 214 the public forum. This finding contributes to knowledge about how some women leaders and politicians shape their identity and reject some of the gender roles assigned to women in popular culture, as they did not seem to be negatively influenced by how women were portrayed in most television and films, as described fully in Chapter Two. They appeared to take a feminist outlook on popular culture (Trier-Bieniek, 2015). Due to the fact that it is hard to be conscious of feminism and popular culture’s influence, I was possibly receiving people’s perceptions, ot necessarily their consciousness, which can be hard to articulate. It is also possible that their consciousness comes from post-feminist era in the 1980s when the issues of women’s discrimination had supposedly been solved and there was a backlash in to feminism as explained in Chapter Two.

Messages of overcoming adversity and discrimination seemed to influence these political leaders to learn the political system and to run a campaign. Due to the obstacles women must surmount when running for office, these women political leaders identified with women and men in history and famous quotations pertaining to discrimination and the challenges associated with overcoming hardships. It appears that these women knew early on in their career path to a political position that it would be an uphill battle, and they tended to gravitate to figures and mantras of endurance and perseverance. This conclusion is crucial for women who want to run for office in terms of their understanding of how difficult the political process may be for them and contributes to the literature on characteristics these women candidates possess in order to break through gender barriers within the political process.

Some of the findings in this study add to and coincide with the previous studies mentioned in this section and in Chapter Two. They expand on previous research in the field of women in politics. How women understand their roles in American culture, how the public 215 views women in politics, and how these women leaders view women in popular culture, can have an impact on their identity development and in turn serve as a compass to direct their future achievements and goals in the political realm. When considering the obstacles women encounter running for office, the data on the exceedingly slow progress women have made attaining political seats, and the growth rate of women in Congress, the findings of this study demonstrate that women candidates who succeed in elected office learn how to redefine some of the gender roles created by society and remain steadfast in their goals.

Implications for Theory and Practice

This qualitative research study examined how elected women officials construct their identities. In Chapters One and Two, I presented conceptual and empirical literature on women in political positions in the U.S., the factors related to running for office, the history of feminism, critical feminist theory, and the role popular culture as pedagogy plays in the construction of adult identity. This relates to adult education for which women learn to run for office against the normal or dominant ideology of the current gender role perceptions of women in society and popular culture. Wright and Sandlin (2017) assert that culture plays a part in shaping our identity and calls for educators to consider the impact of public pedagogies on adult learners.

The women politicians interviewed have developed certain characteristics that have enabled them to confront and overcome certain gender barriers. They took on a critical stance and, in some circumstances, created a system of change. They learned how to navigate gender discrimination and, in addition, managed to be the primary caretakers of their family while pursuing a career. They formed an identity through determination. They learned to find and use their voice effectively for political governance. Ultimately, these women politicians rejected the underlying belief that women should not have a voice and do not belong in the political realm. 216

This notion exists throughout our society and remains prevalent in public leadership roles and political positions for women. It disempowers women and takes away their voice. Women in office have learned how to maneuver around the systemic barriers on the way to a political seat.

These particular characteristics are valuable in understanding how women become political leaders and how we can help further equal representation.

Critical Feminist Theory

Critical feminist theory uncovered the historical and social aspects that created barriers for these women. This theoretical perspective contributed to highlighting the current status of women politicians and presented their experiences of gender inequality throughout their lives.

Systemic barriers were evident in the good old boys’ club. Family responsibilities associated with motherhood as an identity created hurdles. In many instances, they had to recreate their own identity and reject how the public views women’s status in society. Even though they rejected many of the gender norms associated with women in powerful positions, they saw themselves as helpers of society and not particularly as politicians. This finding aligns with public perceptions of women leaders. All politicians should not only care about business and the economy, but also education, healthcare, women’s rights, maternity care, and social equality.

These issues assigned to women need to be assigned to all politicians. Their own perceptions of themselves exhibiting leadership skills, like listening, collaboration, and compromise, are skills associated with the traditional role of women. These findings seem to suggest that American culture continues to reinforce the existing system of gender inequality by assigning women politicians these qualities instead of understanding that these traits should be common in both genders within public service positions. Therefore, the paucity of women in political positions 217 in the U.S. will continue across the country in all levels of office. However, these women persevered and won an elected position.

In addition, women elected officials and educators need to teach women how hegemonic systems work. Instead of accepting how the patriarchal political system functions, women must be able to notice when people are trained to be male-identified. Women will be able to change the system when they can pinpoint the injustices.

This study contributes to critical feminist theory in adult education by expanding its application to the political realm and adding to the importance of how assigning gender definitions to women’s social lives can influence perceptions of themselves as capable leaders that can run for an elected position. Furthermore, this study extends critical feminist perspectives with additional understanding of the role the public can have in women’s decisions to run for political office. Brookfield (2007) explains that critical feminism engages an analysis of power that exists between genders and lies within society. The women candidates also had to think critically regarding how gender-based inequalities permeated systems of power within politics and could possibly prevent them from achieving office. This critical knowledge from a feminist perspective, identified as such or not, may have helped them learn how to navigate these systems of male dominated power and define themselves as political candidates.

Public Pedagogy and Gendered Identities

Combining a critical feminist viewpoint with popular culture allowed me to pinpoint the influence of gender representations within popular culture, including in books, movies, and television. These women were exposed to dominant cultural images and messages presented to them in popular culture and could not often relate to women characters in books, television, or movies. They rejected the traditional roles assigned to women and developed characteristics of 218 perseverance, fortitude, and determination. How the women candidates shaped their identity in relation to popular culture as public pedagogy is an example of what Sandlin, Wright, and Clark

(2011) describe as gendered identities that can be influenced and negotiated by public spaces.

The women seemed to connect with stories of women and other social justice figures related to adversity, gender discrimination, and overcoming obstacles. Famous quotations from historical figures represented their tenacity in securing a political position and serving in one. These beliefs suggest that they identified with discrimination in their own lives and learned to overcome gender obstacles throughout their own experiences. This determination led to the required stamina to run a campaign and to their success in political office. In view of substantial teaching and learning that occur within public pedagogies among adults, scholars are acknowledging the influence of popular culture on adult development and identity (Wright,

2007; Wright & Sandlin, 2017). Like with critical feminist theory, this study extends the knowledge base of the influence of public pedagogy to women political leaders and the ways in which they formed their own identities with popular culture. They embraced their own gender identity found within strong historical figures, stories of overcoming adversity and gender discrimination, and quotes about social justice.

Implications for Practice

The findings of this study suggest that media makers, adult educators, policymakers, and government leaders can have an impact on the future of democracy in the U.S. and equal representation. The perceptions of women’s roles in American politics can influence women not to run for office. The percentage of women leaders may be increased by changing the perception of a woman’s role to the role of public servant. Increasing the number of positive role models of women politicians in popular culture, creating more organizations to support women entering 219 politics, and establishing gender appointments for all political seats would attract more women into political leadership and create an atmosphere within society that would accept and promote women into the societal structures that have been historically controlled by men.

Increase role models of women politicians. The women in this study had to reject how most women are presented in popular culture and find their own historical leader with whom to identify. They found, intentionally or not, women who could overcome adversity and rise to the top. This result is similar to other research (Campbell, 2006; Mariana, Marshal & Matthew-

Shultz, 2015) that explains the relationship between more women participating in politics to increasing numbers of women entering politics, as well as strong women leaders made visible to the public. Exposing women to female candidates in the news, in social media, and in films and television may also increase the political ambition of women. The news media covers the few women at the upper echelon of government but does very little to include women in local, state, and municipal positions in their reporting. In addition, more television shows with strong political female leads would provide women with characters to whom they could relate and with whom they could identify. Public pedagogy is a powerful part of adult learning. Adult educators must teach critical media literacy in order to highlight and promote social justice issues, such as gender equality (Wright, 2010). In addition, providing women with more positive examples of women leading the country can enhance women’s interest in governing, like Madame Secretary,

(Hall, 2014) and Parks and Recreation, (Daniels & Schur, 2009).

Organize to support women’s political campaigns. Politically ambitious women continue to have challenges once they enter the race for a position. Throughout the underlying systemic cultural barriers created by gender inequality and the patriarchy exists the myriad of campaign challenges women candidates must overcome. Once women commit to running for 220 office, they must surmount challenges, such as funding the campaign (Barber, Butler, & Price,

2016), which requires a great deal of time and effort. Time away from family obligations in order to campaign was an obstacle for women with children in my study, making it difficult for them to schmooze with organizations and businesses for monetary support, which requires relationship building and community involvement. In addition to the time commitment, and building on previous research, my study concluded that women lack these community connections when they begin. Some of the women interviewed in my study understood the gap in gender disparities and created an organization similar to Emily’s List, Emerge, to advocate for women candidates to run or joined a local group designed to help women join their political party to support other women candidates. As such, more organizations are needed to get women’s campaigns off the ground, so they may become reliable contenders in political races.

Moyer’s (2017) study supports the notion that public financing for women candidates promotes female representation in the state legislatures. Aside from this support, increasing appointments for women to political positions is another solution for increasing female representation, as well as changing gender assignments within our culture. Additionally, adult education must work to prevent the reproduction of gendered social relations that allow women’s underrepresentation to continue. When adult learners are prevented from developing a critical conscious, passive positions endure (Freire, 2003). Adult educators can teach power relations and inequality issues associated with gender and politics in order to encourage more women to run for office and for men to recognize this injustice within the political system.

Appointments and further research. Increasing women officials equates to more women seeking a political seat (Moyer, 2017). Adult educators can assist in teaching gender equality within public administration and public policy courses. Public policies that require 221 gender quotas may bolster the number of women officials who take an interest in running for office. Designating women to meet gender quotas at all levels of government would assist women’s visibility in official positions and may spur a change in the perception of a woman’s role in society. Assigning women to political seats predominantly occupied by men may advocate fair representation and adding women to positions of power may also increase fairer policy making for gender equality throughout all levels of society. In order for this to occur, policies providing maternity leave, breast feeding rooms, and childcare must be established.

Placing more women in executive positions creates a public perception conducive to voting for women and for hiring more women for powerful positions. Women need this visibility in order to increase or, at a minimum, maintain the degree of representation for their gender. Equal gender representation throughout all government positions ensures a more democratic government and creates a fairer playing field for women campaigning for an elected position.

The findings of this study imply further research is needed in the realm of understanding how women elected officials make meaning of their lives and how popular culture can influence their identity. The gender roles women assign themselves to appear to be important factors that shape the course of a political career. How women learn who they identify with and what their roles are in society seems to relate to their belief in themselves and their future.

It is imperative that adult educators begin teaching women political knowledge.

Universities need to add subjects and classes to the curriculum that address the need for more women in governmental positions. Like Freire (2003) believes, the educational system itself must be transformed to promote critical thinking and to uncover social injustices. So too, must our educational system change for women to be recognized and taught to be contenders for political candidacy. 222

Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research

This study contributes to women’s ways of understanding gender roles and to identity construction of women political leaders but with several limitations. This section explains these limitations and offers recommendations for further research.

The first limitation of this study is that there are only 11 participants. These stories do not necessarily reflect the experiences of all women elected officials. Additional participants would have expanded the knowledge gained from the study, possibly with different viewpoints and perspectives. Additional research with more women candidates, perhaps at a higher level of political positions, may add more perspectives to the study. The second limitation is that these women were all similar in age, race, and sexual identification. Younger women may also have a different outlook on their journey to a political position, as these women were between the ages of 45-70. Women of races other than White may have different experiences, so race may be a limitation here. All the women elected officials were heterosexual and married or divorced.

Single women and women in the LGBTQ community may offer different perspectives and experiences. Further research on women of different races, sexualities, and backgrounds would enhance this knowledge gained from this study.

A third limitation is that all but one woman interviewed had children. Women without children may have different views on the struggles they endured to become an elected official, as well as on their roles in society. My study is also geographically confined to small towns and one mid-sized city in a mid-Atlantic state. Women from big cities could provide additional viewpoints, as well as women from the Southern and Western states. Studies of women in higher or national positions, such as Governors and women in Congressional seats, would add to this field of research. An additional limitation is that I know several of these women personally, 223 and I, despite best efforts, may have made certain assumptions based on my knowledge of these women’s lives and experiences, including the fact that I am an elected woman in politics. These assumptions could have affected my data collection, analysis, and interpretation.

Despite these limitations, this study contributes to why women are underrepresented in politics in America, and how women perceive themselves and women in political leadership.

The findings enhance our understanding of how cultural and societal norms can affect a woman’s career choice and opportunities for political leadership. It is important to note that these successful elected women did not conform to all the gendered norms of society, but, instead, found their identity in leaders who experienced adversity and showed resilience in times of difficulty. The gendered expectations that are embedded in culture transgresses to the process of electoral politics. These women found a pathway to negotiate their own gender identity and prevail. Future research for the underrepresentation of women in political positions may be to study in-depth how women reject the dominant ideologies of men in power in order to run for office.

Final Reflections

The conceptual and empirical research for this study adds to the discussion on the importance of challenging traditional gender roles embedded in cultural norms, values, and beliefs. The primordial forces at play in systemic societal structures have influential determinants on the functions of gender deep within systemic structures where power lies.

Challenging these forces requires practitioners and the public to recreate gendered expectations for the role of women. These expectations must translate to popular culture and throughout the media in order to transform current perceptions of women. 224

This study is also a reflection of my own experiences as a woman in the political terrain.

Throughout this research project, I have reflected on my own experiences as a local politician in my home town. I served on the Zoning Hearing Board, as the only woman of five appointed board members, and ran a township campaign for Township Supervisor. I won the primary and the general election, and, yet again, serve as the only woman on a five-member board. In 2020, it appears that these notions of gendered expectations of women in politics remain. As a mother,

I have had to resist societal norms and expectations in order to meet my own political career goals.

To conclude this study, I would like to reveal my own personal journey of growth and lifelong learning. The Adult Education program at Penn State has given me a life-changing education. I have struggled with my gender role expectations of juggling motherhood and career. Thinking critically about the world around me has led me to new pathways of leadership and community involvement. I have become a soldier for women in leadership and have committed to several organizations that strive to help women in unfortunate situations. I have joined the Domestic Violence for Cumberland and Perry Counties (DVCPC) and learned the importance of making the public aware of women in crises. I speak to legislators at the State

Capital and educate them on funding needed for women in our shelter to be able to start a new life away from an abusive spouse. Educating the public on women’s issues has become a goal of mine. I am now a member of the County Commission for Women. Our objective is to provide professional development training and networking opportunities for women and to support women in politics through the election process. I am currently working on a community outreach project that teaches women the electoral process. 225

I am grateful for having this educational opportunity that has enabled me to deepen my understanding of the injustices in this democratic nation. My professors have challenged me to develop intellectual civility, contribute to social justice, and question the accepted social rules of society. I believe education holds the key to freedom and pursuing this degree has given me the confidence and ability to join forces in the fight for a fairer society.

226

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SHELLY L. CAPOZZI

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS: • Ten years teaching experience in the public school system • Served on teacher and principal interview committee and on many district committees • Served as a school board member for 8 years for South Middleton School District, 3 years as Vice President, 1 year as Pesident, chaired Education Committee, Policy Committee, Technology Committee, and served on Negotiations Committee • Zoning Hearing Board two terms • Current South Middleton Township Supervisor

EDUCATION: The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg Campus, Middletown, PA • Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education 6/1994 • Masters of Education in Teaching and Curriculum 12/2000 • Doctorate in Adult Education 4/2020

TEACHING EXPERIENCE: Northeastern School District, Manchester, PA 10/97-7/06 • Taught at-risk eighth grade students English, Reading, and Social Studies • Taught Reading and English to sixth and seventh grade students • Taught second grade

Cumberland Valley Eagle View Middle School 12/95-7/96 • Taught summer school to sixth and seventh grade students • Taught eighth grade English as a long-term substitute

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: • Volunteered at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and chaired and hosted first annual fundraising gala • Volunteered for several political campaigns and hosted numerous fundraisers for candidates for Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Governor of Pennsylvania, and United States Senators and Congressmen/women • Volunteered at Brethren in Christ Church to welcome new families • Hosted Carlisle Cares homeless shelter fundraiser 2011