I'm not as closely involved with the Caucus, particularly in recent years
when I've had so many other things. I hope that the Caucus will be
regenerated. It was at its height, I believe, during the ERA movement.
Since that time, I suspect, and you'd have to ask someone more directly
involved than I, I suspect the Caucus doesn't enjoy quite as large a
membership. I do attend some Caucus meetings, particularly when we were
invited. The Caucus makes a real effort to keep in touch with the
people, the women that are elected, the women who run. I have been
fortunate to have the endorsement of the Caucus all of the times that
I've run for the General Assembly. Then they invite us to a dinner,
whether we've won or lost, to recognize those persons that they endorse,
and that's always a very nice event. I feel very honored because of it.
But the numbers, I believe, are not as great now. There, perhaps, has
not been the one focus, the cause, which does tend to generate interest
when you have one particular cause, and the ERA did that for women all
over. The state was brought into some focus, and without that, it's a
little harder sometimes to keep the enthusiasm going. But I'm very
hopeful the Women's Political Caucus will get new energy because I think
it serves a role, it plays a role, it serves a purpose that no other
organization does because it gets directly involved, as an organization,
in campaigns. Now, Equity does not do that, and Women's Forum does not
do that. They're a different
Page 30 type of effort. But
the Women's Political Caucus does do that, and it's the only
organization specifically toward women candidates and other candidates
who favor women's issues or favor the Caucus' position on certain
women's issues. It's the only one that does that, and we need that.
We still have not nearly the numbers of women elected to positions in
this state as we should have. That takes a lot of encouragement for
women. Politics is tough. Campaigning is tough. It's expensive. People
need to have some kind of organization behind them that will help with
the expenses of the campaign. The Caucus does that. Women need a support
group. When you go out in politics, it's a scary experience sometimes
when it's your first time out, or you haven't been around it enough to
know that it's tough. There's a need to stick together and feel that
kind of support organization behind you. Women need more encouragement
to run for office, need more support once we get there. It's not easy
running for office, and I think that women tend to be more susceptible
to wanting to please, wanting to be popular. It's a part of our culture,
at least for women my age. Maybe that's becoming less and less true, and
I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's important to care about
pleasing. All of that's important. But in politics you can't please
everybody, and you have to be ready to take unpopular positions without
it getting at you personally, without it being destructive to your own
inner ego. It takes a lot of ego to be in politics. It's hard to be
humble in politics because you're forced all the time to not be. You
have to appear to be strong. You have to appear, in order to
Page 31 get elected, you have to appear to have things
pretty well under control. And the truth is that you may not have it
under control at all, because if you retain your sensitivity, you're
going to be torn inside by these issues. But you don't want insensitive
people to be elected. You don't want callous people to be elected. So
it's tedious to balance between a personal inner sensitivity and the ego
that it takes, or this appearance of strength that it takes, and the
appearance of not being affected by whatever is being thrown at you and
still maintain the sensitivity which you think the people really want
you to have to the issues. That's a tough place. That is a tough balance
to get to. I can remember early on when I was on the Board of
Commissioners, having to deal with that, having an issue that I just had
to deal with it. Was I going to be intimidated by an angry public or was
I going to retain, was I going to be strong enough not to be
intimidated, but still retain the sensitivity to deal fairly and
even-handedly with people on both sides of the issue? Because I have
felt intimidated. When you're in a public hearing where there's a lot of
emotion and where you're being, publicly a lot of things are being said
that seem to be personal attacks on your integrity or on your judgment.
That's tough, and I think maybe in our culture men have been a little
better prepared to deal with those, with that kind of adversity. I
remember a story once, I heard in a workshop or in a speech, the example
being that of a small boy who had been assigned a task that became too
difficult, and he felt he could not accomplish it. Approached his
father, who said to him, "Oh son, you can do
Page 32 it. I
will show you how." And a small girl, facing the same situation, saying
"Daddy, I can't do it." Daddy would take her on his lap and say, "Don't
worry about it, honey, I will do it for you." That kind of early culture
there, I hope that that is not as true as it was when I was a child
because it teaches you to have someone else to do it for you, or it
teaches you that it will be okay if you can't handle it yourself. There
will always be help there, and that's tough to overcome. So that's sort
of the situation I think many women feel themselves in when they want to
get into politics. "Can I handle this myself? Can I do this?" And that's
tough to come out forward and do.