The problems faced by women in Illinois politics became public last year when the state Democratic Party decided to slate a politically obscure woman to run for a statewide office over the objections of seasoned women politicians in the party. The ticket fell apart when the woman, Aurelia Pucinski, daughter of Chicago Alderman Roman Pucinski, and another candidate were defeated in the primary by two members of the extremist Lyndon LaRouche party.
Since 1984, the state Democratic Central Committee has been required to have an equal number of men and women. But Netsch and others say the power remains unbalanced.
When it became clear the Democrats were going to run only men for the five statewide office, Netsch helped form a women`s caucus to apply pressure. Party leaders eventually decided to slate a woman against a popular Republican incumbent, Secretary of State Jim Edgar.
”At the last minute, basically we were likely to be offered secretary of state, which was considered a losing proposition. I found it a very unhappy and discouraging thing,” Netsch says.
Netsch and Braun predict the LaRouche upset will change the way their party does business in the future. Says Braun: ”For them, it was just a matter of picking a person who happened to be female based on some decision-making and power brokering between men. It had nothing to do with whether that person had the support of the women in the party. As a result, the Democrats lost badly. I think there was a sense of betrayal.”
Breslin also faults Democratic women for failing to grasp the reigns of leadership. ”That is not to say they have to become obnoxious about it. But women heretofore in the party have not exerted leadership, they have not tried to be more than envelope stuffers.”
Republicans currently have more women in the state legislature than Democrats: 17 Republicans to 12 Democrats. One woman from each party is a member of the Illinois Congressional delegation.
”I think that Republicans so far-I don`t know that their women have any more voice in policy-making or issue-making-have certainly done better in terms of getting and supporting women candidates for office. One has only to look at (Supreme Court Justice) Sandra Day O`Connor or (former U.S. Secretary of Transportation) Elizabeth Dole. They are responsive to women in a way that our Democratic colleagues might do well to look at,” says Braun.
Topinka`s experience, however, contradicts the idea that the Republican Party, at least in Illinois, is more supportive of women.
”As a woman, you get tremendous training. If you can`t go through the front door, you`ll go through the side door, or the back door, or the transom.. . .It might take a tad longer, but you know,” says Topinka, a genial Republican who has worked as a newspaper reporter and later as a lobbyist for the medical industry,
Topinka, who represents a largely blue collar district, was initially urged not to run for office by a Republican committeeman who, she says, told her that although she was a hard worker and well-qualified for office, she had no right to run because of her sex. ”I just smiled and walked away and ran.” Some legislators say that as women enter the work force they are becoming more aggressive about politics and interested in government`s role in their lives. As an example of the change time has wrought, Breslin cites a meeting of the Downstate Streator chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution she attended earlier this year. The women in the group, which had opposed the ERA a decade ago, told her that if the amendment came up again, the DAR would support it. And, Breslin says, the women were even supportive of the comparable worth concept.
”They had definitely had their consciousness raised by going to work. A lot of these ladies were a little older. When ERA came up, they were moving their families through school. Now they had gone out and worked, and things were a little bit different than they were 10 years ago. It was very interesting.”
Slow evolution also is occurring in the organizations that do business with the legislature. During the past 10 years, there has been a 6 percent increase in the number of women lobbyists registered in Springfield. The number has risen from 22 women in 315 lobbyists 10 years ago, to 71 in 517 lobbyists last year.
And compared to other states, Illionis falls about in the middle in terms of the numbers of women elected to the statehouse according to researchers at the Eagleton Institute, a women`s political study organization affiliated with Rutgers University. New Hampshire leads with 32.5 percent; Mississippi is in last place with 2.3 percent.
Nationally, according to Eagleton figures, there were 301 women elected to legislatures in 1969. Today, there are 1,163.
Nationally, women are not well-represented in statewide office. There are three women governors and five women lieutenant governors in the country, according to Eagleton Institute figures. Illinois has never elected a female constitutional officer, possibly because the major parties didn`t put a woman on the state ticket until 1982.
Nonetheless, most of the women in Illinois state government seem optimistic that the days of unilateral male-rule are passing, and that they will, sooner or later, be sharing power in the Statehouse.
”There has been a change in the women`s movement,” says Braun. ”What I sense is a growing sophistication. We now have women`s think-tanks, nationally we have women`s political fundraising. So a lot of the feminist bashing has stopped.”
”Sometimes I get discouraged,” Geo-Karis says. ”But you have to understand that for a long time there was maybe one woman in the Senate, one in the House. I think the world is opening up more and more for women in politics, just as it is opening up to women in professions.
”In my profession, when I started, a lady lawyer was unheard of. But I was determined to be a lawyer ever since I was a little girl. There are some men who will always feel threatened. But it is those of us who do want to progress in our professions who will be the fairest to them.”
