Home
Archive
Newsletters
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Female Vets Put Military Mettle in House Races

By Allison Stevens, Women's eNews. Posted August 7, 2006.


Four female veterans running for Congress are challenging stereotypes about women being weak on foreign policy.
32381078-s
girlvet
Advertisement
Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg

When Maryland Democrat Mishonda Baldwin is on the campaign trail, parents often ask if they can introduce her to their daughters.

That's partly because she is such an anomaly, says Baldwin, a decorated veteran of the first war in Iraq who has also served as an intelligence officer and as a U.S. delegate to Egypt and Jordan for the American Council of Young Political Leaders, a nonprofit organization that sponsors international exchange programs.

"When you lay out my background and my experience and my young age, most people are absolutely flabbergasted," she told Women's eNews. "Women in particular are just absolutely thrilled; they're like, 'This is the best thing since sliced bread!'"

Baldwin is one of only four women with military experience known to be running for Congress in this year's midterm elections.

That small number also happens to be a record, says Gilda Morales, a researcher at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. And it is one that she says will go a long way toward changing the popular perception that women are less capable than men on foreign policy and national security.

"These women have more face credibility," says Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, a group in New York dedicated to electing a female president. "Whether men have been in war or not, people project that on to male candidates because people have seen men primarily on the front lines in movies or in history. Women are still having to prove their toughness." Sea Change in Attitudes

But Wilson takes heart from a recent "sea change" in voter attitudes. She cites a 2005 poll commissioned by the White House Project that showed "a growing belief" that men and women are equally suited to handle the complex issues of foreign policy and national security. Fifty-four percent of those polled said a female leader would be no different from a male leader in handling issues of foreign policy and 55 percent said there would be no difference between a male and female leader on issues of homeland security.

That is a "stunning" shift in voter attitudes, Wilson says. "Traditionally that's been a real sticking point for women."

But Baldwin and her fellow female veteran congressional candidates -- Democrats Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Republicans Heather Wilson of New Mexico and Martha Rainville of Vermont -- are shielded from any lingering stereotypes.

"I can talk about health care and I can talk about the FISA courts," Baldwin told me, referring to the controversial federal court that handles requests from the FBI for warrants to monitor suspected foreign agents within the United States. "We're like this new untried commodity in the political sphere. What people are finding is that we're tough, we're credible, but by the same token we haven't lost sight of our progressiveness."

While there are only four known female veterans in the House races -- compared to well over 100 male veterans running for election or reelection to the House -- their impact is often expanded by media attention. Duckworth, for instance, was little known when she threw her hat in the ring last year. But since then she has become a central figure in the Democrats' bid to retake the House of Representatives. That's due in great part to her compelling story about co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter that was struck down in November 2004 when a rocket-propelled grenade hit the cockpit and exploded.


Digg!    Share on facebook   submit to reddit    Bookmark on Delicious   Stumble This  

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from World! Sign up now »

Advertisement
Advertisement

 

Comments Turn comments off sitewide Give us feedback »
Comments closed.
The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.
View:
Clinton is one example of a warmonger
Posted by: autonomie on Aug 7, 2006 12:22 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hillary Clinton is one example of a warmonger politician. Not all women are weak, if "strong" means picking fights and killing innocent people.

From the Clinton presidency, Janet Reno is a great example of a bully. She oversaw a mass imprisonment campaign that gave the US the highest imprisonment rate in the world. She even heald a guy named Kevin Mitnick without trial or charges for several years.

But on topic... seriously, women have a lot more to offer than equality in military violence.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» More military experience?? Posted by: FauxPorteno
» RE: good point. Posted by: marklar
We Need Diplomats, Not Soldiers
Posted by: christininrome on Aug 7, 2006 1:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Maybe I'm just a softy progressive, but when did soldiering status or having billions of dollars (Kerry) or being a CEO (all the Bush people) become a progressive beacon of ideology-regardless of sex-for stake in upcoming White House seats?

Don't we need diplomats in the White House? How about different pre-requisites for heading to Pennsylvannia Avenue?: 1. Candidate must speak at least two languages, other than English, fluently; preferably one eastern and one western. 2. Candidate must have a history of active defence of human rights, not military aggression against them. 3. Candidiate must have a Ph.D. This last one may seem a bit strange, but why not include an academic requirement?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» Soldiers fear war more Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: Soldiers fear war more Posted by: marklar
» Hell Yes!!! Posted by: sirossisofliver
» RE: Soldiers fear war more Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: We Need Diplomats, Not Soldiers Posted by: concerned Canadian
» RE: We Need Diplomats, Not Soldiers Posted by: christininrome
» RE: We Need Diplomats, Not Soldiers Posted by: Chickensh*tEagle
» RE: We Need Diplomats, Not Soldiers Posted by: christininrome
Less murder, please
Posted by: kit79 on Aug 7, 2006 4:10 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What we need is diversity, between genders and races and religions and orientations and viewpoints. Now we've got straight, white, conservative, religious male. It doesn't matter if these canidates are female when they're pushing for more of the same and are just trying to be "more manly than the men" to get there. It's still the "conservative" that's the problem, still the same values.

It might sound corny, but I want to vote for some who represents everyone, not just their own little special group. Millitary experience is kind of irrelevent.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

If NO difference..then what's the point :)
Posted by: ekipnrut on Aug 7, 2006 6:36 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
August 7, 2006
Exchanging Hitler for a Post Doc Eva Braun or an
Ivy League educated Ilse Koch...solves nothing.
Furthermore if one is going to discuss issues of
trend setting and power dynamics of women in the
American political Machine...well, we have to look at ALL
obvious and significant cases ....e.g. 'I'm ready for my
closeup now Mr. Deville' Florida Senate candidate....
(Recall her pivotal role in the fascist Coronation)
Ms. PeloSIEG (Never met a Black colleague against whom
she wouldn't LEAD the lynch mob feeding frenzy of righteous
indignation)....the current dissembling warmonger NYS
Senator ... I Know... :) ..... and on and on........

As for getting academe involved as Presidents or Senators,
you have.... got... to... be .....kidding.....

Do you mean the academe that just within the last twenty
five years or so ....SAT thru Reagan's dismantling of the
unions and his pro corporation pandering and obsequious
acquiesence to its every mega greed driven whim...SAT
thru Iran Contra...SAT thru Gulf I.....SAT thru a decade of
murderous barbaric sanctions against Iraq..SAT thru
Rwanda..SAT thru the ongoing Cuban embargo...
Is THAT the academe we are talking. ???
For the most part these self serving hyper elitist ass wipes
in academe have demonstrated that they are manifestly
unable to serve anything other than their own self
aggrandizing agenda of job security (tenure), pay
raises and little else. Academe is absolutely trenchant
with racism...corrupt to a fault (peer review)..and for
the most part self justifying with few checks and balances.
..To paraphrase:the fault isn't in a dearth of Supermen or
Superwomen who glide about over water doing the extra-
ordinary on a regular basis...the fault is in ordinary people
who fail to do the plainly right thing in an ordinary feasible
way.....
For want of a nail......
PS...Remember Woodrow Wilson had a Ph.D...
check out the Wikipedia article about the former US
President and President of Princeton.....ALL of it.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

This is sad.
Posted by: WitchyNy on Aug 7, 2006 7:15 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Back in the 60's- the whole point of the feminist movement was to have men be more like WOMEN. Share child care, equal pay, so on. Somehow it has all got turned around.

The women's movement was born from the anti-war movement.
The idea was to stop all war, not for a woman's equal right to support war and kill and die 'just like a man'.

If this is equality- no thanks.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Tammy DeadDuck-worth is a DLC/GOP HACK !!!
Posted by: maxpayne on Aug 8, 2006 4:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0317-29.htm

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]