A (Sex) Change You Can Believe In!

OK, now that I have your attention; not that kind of sex change. In the euphoric response to the triumph of President-elect Obama, we may be overlooking another aspect of change that has been sweeping the American political landscape for some time. It is not that this particular change has gone unreported. However, due to the global, if not intergalactic acknowledgment of the dawning of what some people think of as the Obama Era, this continuing phenomenon has garnered less broad discussion and a lack of prominent emphasis that might have occurred otherwise. The issue at hand is the steady increase in the number of women elected to key positions.

Take the U.S. Senate for example. Through the 2006 elections, only 35 women had been appointed or elected to serve in the Senate. To put that in perspective, consider those 35 women comprise 1.85% of the 1,897 Americans to hold the post since the inception of the institution in 1789. You may ask, just how few is that in the grand scheme of things? The number is so few, that when Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th, there will instantly become a greater percentage of black men to have held the American Presidency (2.27%), than women who have served in the U.S. Senate. Consider that, 12, or more than 1/3 of those who served were appointed (7 to fill unexpired terms held by their deceased husbands), not elected, and it puts the matter squarely into historical perspective.

Senators Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), and Kay Hagan (North Carolina) will be sworn in January 6, 2009, when the 111th Congress convenes, bringing the total number of women in the Senate to 17; most ever at one time. This will eclipse the previous record of 16, during this year’s 110th Congress. Hagan defeated Senator Elizabeth Dole, so the total will increase by only one. With the election of Senator Hagan, North Carolina becomes the first State to have sent women from both parties to the Senate. The election of Shaheen and Hagan also elevates the total number of women elected to the Senate, in the history of the position, to 37.

In the lower house of Congress, ten women will be added in January, bringing the total number of women in the House of Representatives to 74, also a record number. The previous record was 71, set in 2007 elections (for the 110th Congress). Ironically, with 17 Senators, and 74 House members, the percentage of women will be 17% in both Houses of Congress during the 111th Congress.

Of course, here in North Carolina, in addition to Senator-elect Hagan, we had another intense political battle in which a woman triumphed. Governor-elect Beverly Perdue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverly_Perdue), the only female newly voted in as Governor in the 2008 elections, defeated Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. Christine Gregoire, the incumbent from the State of Washington, was the only other woman to win a gubernatorial race last week. With that, the number of women Governors held steady at 8.

While women’s success in American politics is clearly trending upward, despite the failure of Senator Clinton and Governor Palin to achieve their objectives, consider two States in particular as makers of this case. First, the State of New Hampshire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire), which as previously noted, also added a U.S. Senator. The Granite State became the first to make women a majority of its State Senate. Thirteen of the State’s 24 Senators will be women, when the body is sworn-in this January. Believe it or not, this nugget has been highlighted in the news. I bet you missed it though.

OK, savants, I hear you saying underneath your breath, “But that was in New Hampshire, for God’s sake. ”Let’s talk about someplace not located virtually in Southern Canada.”

Fair enough. How about the Southern United States? The Tar Heel State; good ol’ North Carolina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina) is another example of women bringing home the political bacon. The Northern Carolina, which turned blue for Democrat Obama, the first time since Jimmy Carter’s successful 1976 Presidential bid, and elected its second-ever woman to the U.S. Senate, also elected women to 6 of its 10 Council of State positions, including, governor, treasurer, auditor, secretary of state, labor commissioner and superintendent of public instruction.

By contrast, despite the furor over the President-elect and the ensuing debate about whether his successful candidacy single-handedly transforms America into a post-racial society, the number of blacks in Congress remains relatively flat. In fact, the Presidency’s gain will in turn be the Senate’s loss, as Obama has gave up his Senate seat this past Sunday. There were no new black Governors elected November 8th either. So, if 2008 marks a shifting of political fault lines, it appears in the broad scheme of things it may be a sexual, I mean gender, revolution, not the post-racial quake, diversity optimists have prematurely hailed, spinners have deftly sold, and pessimists have fatalistically rued.

If it sounds as if I am not quite ready to just act as if the past never happened, there is a good reason. I’m not! On this question, I am reminded of the words of two noted writers. One, George Santayana, wrote in Reason in Common Sense, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The other, William Faulkner, wrote in Requiem for a Nun, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” In fact, Obama even paraphrased this Faulkner quote in his now famous Race Speech, A More Perfect Union (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU) (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-t_n_92077.html), which he delivered March 18th at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Now, let me be clear, President-elect Obama assembled a superior team, ran a brilliant campaign, faced an opponent who made a series, of key errors in strategy and judgment, and benefited from a calamitous financial crisis, the likes of which America has not experienced since the Great Depression. In short, though he was aided by external influences, he won a hard fought and well-deserved victory. Of that, there should be neither doubt nor question. “I’m just saying…” as we stagger under the influence of adulatory pride in “our signal societal accomplishment,” understand that we still have significant work to do. Moreover, there are other fundamental changes occurring before out very eyes, including, "A (Sex) Change You Can Believe In!" Don’t sleep on them. I’m done; holla back!

Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_United_States_Senate

http://www.feministing.com/archives/012014.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_state_governors_in_the_United_States

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/11/05/women-become-majority-in-new-hampshire-state-senate/

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=The+new+majority&articleId=4412c7e7-7e29-4a5e-aa57-96537e6ddcd7

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80422

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Women+make+up+majority+in+state+Senate&articleId=858eb085-15c9-4d7d-b9b6-3e6ee1c28099

http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_311085137.html?keyword=topstory

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/304710.html

http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/3904408/

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1285572.html

http://news14.com/content/local_news/triad/601153/women-lead-new-state-government/Default.aspx