We’ve heard a lot this week about a nasty word one campaign aide said in a voicemail recording. But California voters deserve to hear a lot more about women’s equality and women’s health. And we should know about the records of candidates for Senate and governor and whether they would stall or step up progress for women in our state.
Messages from Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman aren’t encouraging. Their ads suggest women in California should know their place in society and rue the day in the 1970s when we ever let Jerry Brown be governor.
Are they serious? The TV ads by these two women candidates are wrong about history and how women in our state have made headway.
Fiorina’s spots against Senator Boxer feature an exchange with a brigadier general who testified before her. They all but condemn the three-term Senator for daring to speak up for herself. Whitman’s ads discount Brown as a failure. But they ignore the fact that he was an advocate for women’s rights who helped us break the glass ceiling in public service.
The gist of the attacks ads doesn’t square with my experience in the workforce or in politics. Much of our progress in California, from access to education and reproductive health care to protection from discrimination, has come not from shrinking from leadership, but by speaking up. It also has come from showing up to vote, an area where both Whitman and Fiorina have a skimpy track record.
Speaking of participation, the 1970s were a time of breakthroughs in public service for women. Brown was among the smart leaders who rewarded our skills with opportunities to take part in state government through agencies, panels, and commissions. He also strengthened the safety net with services vital to women’s health, such as AB 3881 granting women benefits during pregnancy.
Standing up for ourselves and advancing our goals through solidarity with friends have proved effective for women’s progress over the past generation. They remain key strategies in preserving our right to privacy, which is still under attack, and continuing the gains we have made in the workplace.
I know exactly where Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown stand on equal pay for equal work by women. But it’s unclear whether this standard, or its enforcement, are a priority or not for Fiorina or Whitman.
And don’t look for leadership on women’s health from them, either. Fearful of alienating the right-wing fringe of her party, Whitman sidesteps questions about women’s right to choose. Fiorina, who carries an endorsement from Sarah Palin, would set back our progress even further, saying she would overturn the landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade. These are bad choices for women’s health.
Fiorina compounds the setback with an ad that seems to disparage not only her opponent’s assertiveness, but also her appearance. Did she really need to go there? Being judged on our credentials, our character, and our performance instead of how we look is struggle enough for working women in relation to male colleagues. If she’s trying to turn a Senate race into a fashion show, Fiorina does an insult to women, and the voters of California.
The progress women have made in California, in policy, public service, and health care and other measures of quality of life, hasn’t come easily. Nor do women of all races, incomes, or areas of our state share in it equally. But even in the state capitol, I’m reminded how far we’ve come and how fast.
It was only a generation ago, in 1976, that the first female state Senator, Rose Ann Vuich, a Serbian American farmer and accountant from the Central Valley, arrived in Sacramento. She scored an upset victory over a five-term lawmaker.
Vuich, who passed away in 2001, had to risk being considered pushy to gain basic acknowledgment in the legislature. Her arrival triggered conversion of a closet near the Senate chamber into a women’s restroom. She famously brought a bell to her desk to ring each time a male colleague presumed to address the full gathering as “gentlemen.”
Female lawmakers now fill a quarter of the seats, and we no longer need to ring bells. But speaking up for ourselves and developing solidarity with friends who support us are still good strategies to achieve our goals.
Fiorina and Whitman don’t seem to get these lessons of how women have gained access to education, health care, and a greater voice in the democratic process. Both women are very rich, but when it comes to valuing outspokenness and solidarity, they have a deficit. By contrast, Boxer and Brown appear to have a healthy understanding of these values, all the more for being criticized when showing them.
Salas represents San Diego County residents of the 79th Assembly District in the state legislature. She is a mother of two, a former chapter president and national board member of MANA, a national Latina organization, and the first Latina elected to the Chula Vista City Council.
