Elizabeth Dole and America’s Second Woman President

The early failure of Elizabeth Hanford Dole’s Presidential campaign disappointed but did not surprise me. Despite Libby Dole’s impressive résumé, she did not fit the profile of the candidate about to break the gender barrier. She did not present herself as a woman who was tougher than the men (Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir are the prototypes), nor was she the wife, daughter, or widow of a revered or martyred leader (such as India’s Indira Ghandi, Sri Lanka’s Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, and the Philippines’ Corazon Aquino). Although being wounded in World War II may have helped Dole’s husband, Bob, obtain the Republican Vice Presidential nomination in 1976 and the Presidential nomination in 1996, it neither got him elected nor rubbed off on her Presidential bid.

Elizabeth Dole’s sugary North Carolina accent reflects another time and place, but does not help her break down stereotypes about female politicians. Her sweet manner of speech made her more acceptable to Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush who appointed her to important political posts. It fit their stereotypes, which included a belief that bright, hard-driving, powerful, and ambitious women should hide these traits behind a feminine veneer. Thus, what helped strengthen her résumé also weakened her in the eyes of voters looking for the first woman President. Heading the American Red Cross and being married to a partially disabled man also put her in a “caring role” associated with women.

Pioneering women who have achieved presidential power in a democracy without being stand-ins for men have done so by being stronger and tougher than the men. In Israel, they liked to joke that Golda Meir was the only one in the cabinet with “balls” and David Ben-Gurion used to say that Meir was “the best man” in his cabinet. Margaret Thatcher was unquestionably Britain’s most combative Prime Minister since the younger Churchill. Both women were tested by war and assassination attempts, as were Bandaranaike and Gandhi. Bhutto was forced from office.

The testing of women in administrative and political positions is not something that I have observed only from afar as a scholar and a citizen. Early in my academic career, I worked alongside the first woman administrator in my educational institution. The administrative “boys club” never found her acceptable, with the result that her department suffered a lack of resources and ultimate extinction.

The first woman academic vice president under whose auspices I worked was a Harvard-trained European historian of some distinction. (She had also been an attendee at Erik Erikson’s Well Fleet Seminars and joined the psychohistory group I was leading at the time.) In the midst of a financial crisis, she was ordered to eliminate a department and detenure faculty. Though she proved how “tough” she was by carrying out her assignment, the stressful situation she was forced into brought on a recurrence of her cancer. Shortly afterwards she died. (This dying woman hardly missed any time from work as she showed “the guys” that she could take the pressure.) In retrospect I felt strongly that the detenuring was unnecessary from an economic standpoint because, when all was said and done, those who were detenured were given other jobs at the university.

It is noteworthy that the second generation of female academic administrators has not had to face unusual testing for their offices. At the present time, virtually all of the major administrative officers at my college are women.

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All recent American Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt through George Bush have listed military experience on their resume as a way of establishing that they were tough enough to do the job. Much of the abuse that Bill Clinton endured in the early years of his Presidency stems from distrust of a man who did not prove his toughness by serving in the military. After a string of Presidents with military experience, his draft evasion and anti-war activities added insult to injury in the eyes of many, especially male, voters. Elizabeth Dole has no such military experience, which greatly weakened her candidacy.

Norway, Ireland, and other smaller European countries not likely to engage in war, do not have to worry about having a military leader as president. This makes the decision to elect female presidents much easier for voters. However, the U.S. President-as-war-leader is still part of the job description in the country that remains the world’s only superpower. No one should underestimate the need for American Presidential candidates to appear tough to be elected. This makes it likely that the first woman President will be someone who does not appear to be a sweet-talking Southern woman, but rather a politician tougher than her male counterparts, modeled on Thatcher or Meir.

Though Elizabeth Dole did not have the right public persona to come close to victory in the Presidential sweepstakes, other women may not be far from achieving the Presidency. Recent American Presidents have often overcome traditional political wisdom to gain the highest office in the land. In the last 40 years, conventional political wisdom said that a Catholic, a Southerner, a divorced man, or someone who had not served in the military could not be elected to the highest office. In 1960 John Kennedy overcame the barrier against a Catholic as President, in 1976 Jimmy Carter demonstrated that a Southerner could be elected, in 1980 Ronald Reagan proved that divorce was no barrier, and in 1992 Bill Clinton showed that one need not have served in the military to occupy the White House.

A pool of women is forming who are developing the drive and résumés for one of them to become the highest leader in the land. I am encouraged by watching some high school girls look at their leaders with the same look of awe that 15-year-old Billy Clinton gave President Kennedy when they met in a public ceremony in 1963. Viewing women governors and senators at the political conventions this summer leads me to think that some of these individuals may be ready to succeed in the Presidential sweepstakes in my lifetime. Some like Christine Whitman and Dianne Feinstein are developing strong résumés, but it remains to be seen if they have the fire in the belly for the job.

In fact, I most enthusiastically await the second American woman President, while worrying about the pressures put upon the first woman President. While the first woman President will be pressured to prove that she is tougher than the men, subsequent women Presidents will be able to bring the special attributes of their gender to the job and, if we are fortunate, disinclined to play the traditional male war games. I wish them all well in the complex and difficult business of leadership.

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