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Chapter 8
The Presidency
Male Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Female Narrator: There is a new woman chancellor in Germany, a woman president in Liberia, and also in Chile, but when it comes to the United States why is a woman in the White House still just the stuff of Hollywood?
Female Speaker #1: We have a cultural issue about the masculinity of the presidency. I mean it’s a guy game, so you really have to work at it.
Female Narrator: And Marie Wilson is trying to do just that. She runs the White House project, a non-partisan organization dedicated to encouraging and training women to run for all types of public office, especially the big one.
Female Speaker #1: Once a woman is running the support will come. Our job is to get that ready.
Female Narrator: Let’s get right down to it. Much of the buzz about a woman president focuses on Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. There is also growing pressure on the Republican side for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to enter the race.
What is your bet about whether there will be a woman presidential nominee or vice-presidential nominee?
Female Speaker #1: It’s going to happen and it really could happen in 2008.
Female Narrator: Former Representative Geraldine Ferraro, the one woman ever nominated to run for vice-president on the national ticket says that in this country a major obstacle remains. The question of whether voters will feel comfortable with a woman in charge of national security and foreign policy.
Geraldine Ferraro: I had been in Congress not a tremendously long period of time, but I certainly had more knowledge about foreign affairs and other things than Ronald Reagan did when he became president of the United States, so I was secure, I didn’t have a problem with how I would deal with the Soviet Union. But the press did, Ted Koppel did. And it was like taking a test every time I went in for an interview.
Female Speaker #2: I Madeline Korbel Albright.
Female Narrator: But that’s changing. Madeline Albright became the first woman Secretary of State, while current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has also served as National Security Advisor. And Senator Blanche Lincoln scoffs at the idea that women are somehow softer than men.
Senator Blanche Lincoln: It’s unfair to women. I think when you are talking about fighting wars and defending freedoms, defending home and family, let me tell you, you can’t find anybody stronger or more determined than the mother and her children.
Female Narrator: But will Americans really vote for a women president? In this just released CBS News/New York Times poll, 92 percent of all Americans say they would vote for a woman for president if she were qualified. Up from just about half in the 1950s, but only 55 percent think America is ready for a woman president. And guess what? Women are actually more pessimistic than men.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: I have been a Senator for 13 years. I do not think if you ask a Texan about their woman Senator that they would relate to that, they think of me as their Senator.
Female Narrator: Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison is one of the Republican leaders in the Senate. Hutchison is often mentioned as a Republican vice-presidential candidate. She says that in 2008 quality and qualifications will be more important than gender.
Senator Hutchison: It’s just the right woman who wants the job, who will run for the job with the right credentials. I really think we’re there.
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