I am no quitter! I intend to keep fighting

I went to college in the 60’s for a computer science degree.  I sat in many classes where I was the only female.  A woman working in a technical field was highly frowned on back then.  When I graduated, I wanted a job as a computer programmer. I kept getting passed over in interviews because they believed a male applicant was better suited (and after all, I would only get married and pregnant, so why should they invest their time on me?)  That was the way the corporate system was back then.

I sat in the personnel office of one company every day, for over a month.  They finally got sick of seeing me and gave me an entry level position.  Well, I clawed my way up the ladder and proved to them that my education and knowledge was useful and eventually got my programmer’s job.  But, that was not the end of my battles.  I had to fight, emphatically, for every promotion; evey rung of the ladder.

I know, first hand, how tough breaking through that glass ceiling is and what it is like to fight in the arena I call the ‘good ole boys club’.  I know, also, the vicious games that some men will play to keep a lady ‘in her place’.

In the US, women have made up a majority of our population for decades (52% at last census).  And, yet, our congressional leadership has a mere 16% of female representation. Out of 100 Senators, only 16 are female and out of 441 House Representatives, only 72 are female. Doesn’t seem right; does it??

If you look at these women, most of them are from my generation. Since I know what I went through, I can only imagine what a tough fighter you must have to be to make it into a National political office. (I am listing their names below, so they can get the recognition they deserve.)

Is the country biased against having female leaders? I don’t know. But, the Democratic party leadership, this year, has definitely shown me that they do not stand behind their women, the way they stand behind their men. Each time Barack Obama was overly criticized by the press, the Democratic leaders made statements that supported him. That same public support was not extended to Hillary Clinton, when the media was making extremely sexist statements about her.

Even now, at their biggest event of the year, Hillary Clinton is not getting the recognition she deserves. That WE deserve! Hillary got more than 50% of the popular vote. The majority of Democratic/Independent voters went to the polls to vote for her. She received the majority of the delegates, based on cast individual ballots. Yet, the Democratic Party does not have the common decency to give her, and all women across America, the recognition for this great accomplishment by allowing a fair floor vote count.

NO! The ‘good ole boys club’ of the Democratic party dare not do that. If they do, they might have to relinguish more of those coveted leadership positions to women. They might even have to allow women to have a fair number of representatives in our government!

Women fought hard and won the right to vote in 1893; in a time when they made up 49% of the general population. Fifty Seven national elections have passed since then. Women have been the majority sex in the US for decades. Yet, in all those national elections, we have only been able to fight our way into 16% of the Governmental Leadership roles in this country. WHY????

We have the sheer numbers. We have the clout. But, do we have the moxy to stand up to the ‘good ole boys’ club? If you do, stand up and be counted NOW. Demand a roll call on the Convention floor. Give the voter’s delegate representatives the ability to cast their votes, according to their balloted votes. Stop letting the party leaders tell you what you can and cannot do. Stand up and be counted! Stand up the way the suffragettes stood up for you, so many decades ago.

And, after you have done that, make a committment to change this male dominated political system that tells you what you can, and cannot do, with many facets of your personal life. We need to change this system that does not give us equitable representation to a ‘one person, one vote’ system. And, we need to stand behind the ladies who are willing to fight their way into that system. How many more decades are we going to allow this inequality??

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Senate - Barbara Boxer, Maria Cantwell, Hillary Clinton, Susan Collins, Elizabeth Dole, Dianne Feinstein, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Amy Klobuchar, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Clair McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Lisa Murkowski, Patty Murray, Olympia Snowe, and Debbie Stabenow.

House - Melissa Bean, Shelley Berkley, Mary Bono, Madelaine Bordallo, Nancy Boyda, Michele Bachman, Tammy Baldwin, Judy Biggert, Marsha Blackburn, Corrine Brown, Virginia Brown-Waite, Lois Capps, Kathy Castor, Yvette Clarke, Barbara Cubin, Shelley Capito, Donna Christian-Christensen, Susan Davis, Rosa DeLauro, Thelma Drake, JoAnn Emerson, Donna Edwards, Anna Eshoo, Mary Fallin, Virginia Foxx, Gabrielle Gifford, Kirsten Gillabrand, Mazie Hirono, Jane Harman, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Darlene Hooley, Stephanie Jones (deceased), Sheila Jackson Lee, Marcy Kaptur, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Barbara Lee, Zoe Lofgren, Nita Lowey, Connie Mack, Carolyn Maloney, Doris Matsui, Carolyn McCarthy, Betty McCollum, Cathy McMorris, Candice Miller, Gwen Moore, Marilyn Musgrave, Sue Myrick, Grace Napolitano, Eleanor Norton, Nancy Pelosi, Deborah Pryce, Laura Richardson, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Linda Sanchez, Loretta Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, Jean Schmidt, Allyson Schwartz, Carol Shea-Porter, Louise Slaughter, Hilda Solis, Jackie Speier, Betty Sutton, Ellen Tauscher, Niki Tsongas, Nydia Valazquez, Maxine Waters, Diane Watson, Heather Wilson, and Lynn Woolsey.

Copyright, Sharon Lane

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