Hathaway Weighs in on Women in Politics

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Government inadequate without women’s voices

…Indiana can elect more women if more women will run.

Anne Hathaway, executive director of the Lugar Series, a political leadership development program for Indiana Republican women, said it’s more difficult to recruit women as candidates because they tend to think more about the effect it will have on “family, their marriage, their career and the balance of it all.”

“So, after watching the political process over the last few years and observing the pain and wear and tear it has had on candidates and their families, women are opting to become involved in other ways,” she wrote in an email. They instead are serving in appointed roles in agencies, on boards and commissions and elsewhere.

It’s also a fact that politics continues to be a “boy’s club.”

“Female candidates struggle with point of entry into the process and with fundraising. Contributions from women to support other women lag,” she wrote. “Women can sometimes be the worst enemy of other women. I tend to believe that might be driven by jealousy.”

Still, Hathaway said she believes we will see more female candidates in the next few years.

“Women as a whole are feeling marginalized – it’s not just the women who participated in the Women’s March nor those that have joined the group Women4Change. It is women who seek to learn more about issues and advocacy through groups like The Policy Circle. Women are doing what they do best – they are doing their homework, gathering information, assessing how and where to engage.”

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