Gender & Politics @pols-338-karmally - Tumblr Blog

Wendy Davis lost to Greg Abbott on Tuesday by nearly sixteen percent of the vote. Wendy Davis’ loss does not come as a surprise in terms of the fact that Texas hasn’t had a Democratic governor since the 1990’s. According to Nia Malika Henderson from The Washington Post with Davis’ loss came the...

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Wendy Davis' loss in this race gutted me. Between her and my candidate, democratic women had a rough election in Texas this election cycle. However, hopefully their losses will turn into eventual wins for more liberal politicians in the long run, as their campaigns managed to garner a lot of support and media coverage. Wendy Davis' name is certainly a household name at this point, and I do not for one second think that this is the last we've seen of her in politics.

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Sherri Ybarra won her election! She is another woman to hold office. The race was close from the very beginning - and was the closest of all the elections happening in Idaho. As more votes were reported, it really showed how close of a race it was going to be.

She represents women, and she represents the Republican majority in Idaho. She is also representing “women’s interests” that were talked about in the Celis et al article by becoming the leader of education in Idaho. Education and children’s interests are labeled as women’s issues (which I find humorous because the two posts I’ve seen against Ybarra on my facebook page are both from men - one who is a teacher, the other who is very involved in politics (but could bother to spell her name correctly), the women teachers that I’m friends with have yet to mention anything about the election).

She is offering descriptive representation for females, teachers, and the Mt. Home community. Whether or not she will be showing substantive representation is yet to be seen. This was obviously a very important election to the people of Idaho, as there have been many problems in the system pf education that have been going on for quite a while.

As the CAWP article talks about the importance of geography - I think this plays greatly into Ybarra’s success. If people were solely voting for their party, this gave her an advantage over her democratic contestant, and this seems to be what is most at play because the candidates (both being white women with similar stances on many issues) were very similar, and only differed greatly in their party.

We shall see how she represents women, and if she changes anything greatly in regards to education in the state of Idaho.

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It will be interesting to see whether Ybarra manages to provide any substantive representation for women and girls in the public school system. She provides it descriptively, but I hope that she manages to do some good work for the school system, considering you say that the system has a lot of work to be done. She's cleared the hurdle of winning the election - now it's time to see whether or not she can deliver with good solutions.

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Sandra Fluke endured a tremendous defeat to fellow democrat Ben Allen in her run for California’s 26th district representative seat, losing by a whooping 60.8% to 39.2%.

Given that Sandra ran for an open seat in an urban majority-minority liberal region, CAWP’s research suggests that Fluke was...

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I think the concept of political experience and native roots are an important one - and one that is something only time can help. Though this might not have been the year for Sandra Fluke, these two obstacles that she faced during her campaign are ones that will only get easier with time. With more time in the political arena, Fluke will gain more experience and hands-on understanding of how campaigns are run. Additionally, more time spent in California and in its politics will hopefully ease the gap between herself and native Californians as she becomes more familiar and integrated into the communities that she hopes to represent.

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Diane Black was re-elected to serve as representative for Tennessee’s 6th congressional district with 71.1% of the vote! Black’s victory over Democrat Amos Powers and Independent Mike Winton is no surprise. As a white, conservative Republican and incumbent Black has proved to be a reliable...

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Your candidate' re-election reminds me of my candidate's opponent, who won her district based on a number of similar circumstances. Like Black, Laubenberg is an incumbent republican in a staunchly conservative area, two factors which greatly aided their re-elections. Though I think that your district might be slightly more conservative than mine, the geography of both areas were innumerable in their importance the re-election of these candidates.

Election Recap

Sameena Karmally unfortunately lost her race for representative of Texas House District 89, which covers most of Collin County, an area just north of Dallas. This district is majority white and majority Republican, making it a difficult race for Karmally, a Democratic woman of color. Additionally, she's the first democrat to run in this district since 2006. She lost to her opponent, the incumbent Jodie Laubenberg, who has held her seat in HD 89 for 12 years, which as shown by the CAWP reading, makes a difficult climate for newcomers to out-run long standing incumbents. Unfortunately, for this and a number of other reasons, Karmally's loss doesn't come as much of a surprise, especially considering her position as a democrat in such a heavily red district and state.

It's important to note that with Karmally's loss, HD 89 loses not only an opportunity for more bipartisanship and diversity, but a significant loss of substantive representation for women and people of color. Though Jodie Laubenberg is a woman who has been successful in the political sphere, her representation stops there. As a white, well-off republican woman, her interests have proven to lie with her race and her party, authoring and supporting bills that seek to inhibit everybody from pregnant women, to low-income youth, to immigrants of color. Her most notorious act in office was co-authoring the anti-abortion bill that Wendy Davis filibustered last year, but she's also known for continually voting in favor of bills that unfairly regulate the lives of women and minorities, giving them fewer rights and harder-fought battles. When it comes to gender specifically, her legislation leans toward the almost staunchly anti-woman, voting against everything from equal pay for women to warning pregnant women about the risks of mercury in fish.

Karmally's representation could have been quite wide-reaching, as her descriptive representation provides common threads between both gender and communities of color, and (at least based on the platforms that she was running on) her substantive representation would have echoed this once she reached office. Her issues ranged from providing fairer health care for women, to ensuring the equal right to vote for immigrants and ethnic minorities. Though she had the support of her party in Texas and a number of democratic backings, unfortunately that didn't have as much sway in such a conservative area as it might have in another area. Geography played a huge role in this race, as it greatly benefited Laubenberg while providing a seemingly endless number of obstacles for Karmally.

Texas had a really republican-strong election in general, with democrats losing their races all over the state, up to and including Wendy Davis' run for Governor. However, as Sameena put it on her twitter, "The future is up to us. We made the Republican party pay attention to us and now we're going to to pay even closer attention to them." Half the battle of politics is getting people to pay attention and making them aware of what other options are out there. The fact that Sameena and other democrats in Texas put up such a fight and got their names and platforms out there is singularly important in the face of their losses - if and when voters find that they are continually displeased with the direction of the politics in their districts and states, they'll know that there are other options out there other avenues to pursue. They may have lost this race, but there's always still the longer marathon to win.

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In Htun’s article she notes that gender is “a unique form of social difference” and “unlike ethnicity, race, and religion, which are socially constructed and changeable categories, sex is universal and permanent.” According to Sylvia Agacinski, “sexual duality is the only universal difference...

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I like that you've broken Wendy Davis' platform down into these pieces - it really clarifies the extent to which she is representing the women in her state and in the US at large. She presents the descriptive traits through her image and her words, but by clarifying the issues that she's tackling like this, it shows her plans and intention for substantive representation as well.

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This week’s readings concentrated on the importance of substantive representation. The first reading that directly related to my candidate, Christina Gagnier, was the article, “Constituting Women’s Interests through Representative Claims.” In the article Hanna Pitkin describes substantive...

pols-338-karmally

Gagnier's approach to bringing women's issues into the modern era is extremely interesting, and she puts a new twist on a lot of topics that have been tossed around for quite a while. A woman's right to privacy and to safe internet access are refreshing additions to the many things that might constitute "women's issues". Additionally, her approach on job opportunities also widens the pool of what can be considered as these issues, as her focus extends past wage gaps and workplace safety and into opening up more fields and opportunities where women should and can be accepted and successful.

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In the article “Constituting Women’s Interests through Representative Claims” Karen Celis et al. broke down the current definition of what falls into the category of Women’s issues. Instead of looking at descriptive representation in regards to electing women into office; Celis et al. turn to...

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The concept of substantive representation is interesting, especially in the case of a female representative. Though she is descriptively representing her fellow women (and in some cases, fellow people of color), she is also responsible for hearing and acting for her entire constituency - which often means stepping outside of platforms that she might be expected to tackle and into other territories, thus being a representative of items that aren't solely "women's issues", but rather issues that just happen to be endorsed by a woman.

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The readings this week, focused on substantive representation and descriptive representation and whether they can be interchangeable. I found that Mala Htun’s “Is Gender like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups” and “Constituting Women’s Interests Through Representative...

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I found the part of Celis' argument about how women's issues have become homogenized towards a particular type of woman very interesting, and it's nice to see candidates who subvert that. Many people assume that women's rights have only to do directly with women and only affect women, but in fact women's issues are actually far more wide reaching than that and have correlations between many different aspects of society.

We meet people saying, “I thought I was the only Democrat who lived here,” everywhere we go.

Substantive Representation

Mala Htun’s article, Is Gender like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups, focuses on the concept of guaranteed spaces in the political process for women and ethnic minorities, whether through means of quotas or reserved seats. She argues that being a woman crosscuts many issues and party lines, whereas ethnic minorities tend to represent only one side. In applying this theory to Sameena Karmally, I think it’s interesting that it’s difficult (though not impossible) to apply both elements to her, despite that fact that she is both a woman and a person of color. Her campaign literature focuses very strongly on her identification as a woman, a mother, and a Texan. She emphasizes her feminine qualities in order to crosscut many party lines and issues that many people tend to focus on. She instead focuses on what she has in common with voters - her position as a woman automatically creates a common thread with at least 50% of the population, whereas her position as an Indian woman would create a common thread with a much smaller group of people in her district.

Karen Celis et al. provides information regarding what might be considered “women’s issues”, and gives the opinion of one researcher who found that women’s and men’s differing life experiences thus influence what their political aims are. So where women have historically been sidelined to deal with issues of home, wellbeing, and family, these topics then follow through into their political agendas. Though Karmally has experienced both sides of this divide – working both full time as a lawyer and academic, and as a mother and homemaker – she highlights the feminine much more emphatically. The issues listed on her website include things that many people can focus on because they tend to be family-oriented, such as education, health care, and providing food for disadvantaged children and families. Relating back to Htun’s piece, the one issue listed on her website that could be construed as a race, rather than gender, issue is her stance on the “right to vote”. However, race and ethnic minority status is not mentioned whatsoever – she simply outlines that everybody should have the right to vote and that she will work to “encourage voter participation”. Though this is an issue in the south that is largely seeded in race relations, she instead presents it in a much more egalitarian and vague manner.

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Before we examine how Maria Chappelle-Nadal challenges or re-enforces our CAWP Inventory reading, I want to establish a basic profile of who she is as a politician. Maria Chappelle-Nadal is a mixed descent (Puerto Rican/African American) Democrat Senator for District 14 in the state of...

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It seems like Chappelle-Nadal has quite a few things stacked in her favor for this election cycle, which is really refreshing to see for a female candidate in a conservative area. Her position as an incumbent woman of color, following a previous woman of color places her in an interesting position as somebody who can continue the trailblazing that came before her. Additionally, you mentioned the free press coming from the situation in Ferguson. The voters in Missouri are likely going to want a public servant who is active in fighting for their rights and is willing to throw themselves into the center of the problem in order to create change. What the system, especially in Ferguson, needs is change - and seeing such an involved candidate will certainly be a positive for everybody involved.

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Continuing with the research conducted by the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP) Congresswoman Diane Black supports the fact that women in state legislative office are more likely to have backgrounds in female dominated fields such as health and education than their male counterparts....

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The media coverage regarding Black's financial situation is interesting. Though the money may be fairly attributed largely to her husband, it's something that is almost never even an issue in media coverage about men. Whereas men are almost never questioned about the marriage of their professional and personal lives, this seems to be at the top of every journalist's question list. Additionally, even women who make their own money and support themselves are given a hard time about it. Wendy Davis, for example, comes under constant attack about working and going to college instead of being at home all day with her children. It really just goes to prove that there is almost no winning or pleasing everybody if you're a woman in politics.

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Wendy Davis is the Democratic candidate running for Governor of Texas against the Attorney General Greg Abbott. She served on the State Senate since 2008 as a representative for District 10. Before becoming a state senator she was a member of the Fort Worth City Council for nine years. While on...

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What's most unfortunate about the unfair treatment of Wendy Davis in the media is that it's absolutely not an uncommon occurrence. The regimented fashions in which she, and other women, are made to present themselves to the public become more apparent the further up the "political ladder" the women climb. Wendy Davis, running for a rare position as a female Governor, will come under similar attack that Hillary Clinton often does. Though they present themselves in ways that are demanded of them by the media and the public and try to appear more masculine and detached from their families and personal lives, they are still ridiculed and come under attack about their personal and family lives in ways that men almost never are.

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Pathways to the State Legislatures

“Women are more likely to have backgrounds in health and education” and yes my candidate certainly does. And this is actually really helpful because she’s running for state superintendent and if she wasn’t, then that could be seen as a bad thing. On the other...

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This strikes me as a case in which women should appear, on the face, more advantaged towards this type of office. If people with law and business backgrounds (overwhelmingly men, unfortunately) tend to fall into legislation, then it leads to believe that those with health and education backgrounds would go into public service types of office, such as Superintendent. However, the fact that this is still a rare occurrence despite the fact that most of our country's teachers are women points towards a much more systematic disparity between men and women in public office. With the possible election of Ybarra, hopefully it will be another step in the right direction towards fixing that disparity.

Descriptive Representation (2)

The CAWP report spends time discussing the development of women gaining endorsements and positions of power within their party organizations. To this day, there is a clear dearth of women in positions of high leadership in state and federal party organizations, which in turn reduces the likelihood of women gaining party nominations, endorsements, recruitment, and positions of leadership within the party. Despite this unfortunate fact of our party systems, Sameena Karmally has gained the endorsement of Democracy for America, Collin County Young Democrats (the county in which she is running), Far North Dallas Richardson Democrats, and the North Texas Asian Democrats. Being a minority party candidate in a predominantly conservative and republican district has its disadvantages, but one can’t deny that it encourages those to stand with their own in the face of a difficult opponent. Sameena has gained the endorsement for a number of local and national Democratic Party organizations, which only solidifies her legitimization in the face of a difficult election.

Additionally, the CAWP discusses how, though it can be extremely difficult for women to gain endorsements from their party, they are often given the full and enthusiastic support from women’s organizations and women recruitment organizations. This appears to be the case for Sameena as well, as she has gained the support of the Women Organizing for Women Democrats – an organizations that crosses identification borders and signals the endorsement of both a women’s organization and a party organization. Even further, as a woman of color, she has gained the endorsement of the North Texas Asian Democrats, again expanding her reach beyond only one group of people. She presents a very intersectional ticket, supporting and being supported by minority groups, women’s groups, and party groups.

Karmally’s image is an interesting one, as the persona that she presents in her biography is one that largely ignores party distinctions and instead focuses on things that many people (especially women) can relate to regardless of political affiliation. However, her vast support by various party organizations presents a different ideal – one who is loyal to her party and determined to bring a different perspective to Republican Texas.

Finally, the CAWP discusses the percentages of women and men in state legislatures coming from health and educational backgrounds versus backgrounds of law and business. While women are more likely to come from Health and Education backgrounds, the trend is quickly moving away from the norm and women are becoming more and more likely to come from other career and educational routes. Sameena represents this change, as she has a JD and was a practicing lawyer in Washington DC and North Texas before making the choice to work as a full-time mother. Again, through this she emphasizes both her experience in the professional field and her experience as a stay-at-home mother.

Descriptive Representation (1)

Sameena Karmally is an Indian-born American citizen running to represent House District 89 in Northern Texas. Her family moved to Texas from India when she was a toddler, and she’s spent most of her life immersed in her home state - living, working, attending university, and starting her own young family in Texas. After years of practicing law, she is running as a challenger to the current assemblywoman, Jodie Laubenberg. Laubenberg is a Republican woman who has held her seat since 2002, in the time authoring and co-authoring many bills related to abortion restrictions, sexual education restrictions, and more. Against Laubenberg, Karmally seems to face a few disadvantages as a challenging Democrat woman of color in a largely white, republican district. Her opponent, on the other hand, has the advantage of her state’s politics on her side as well as being an incumbent. However, according to the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP), there is a trend in American politics in which women tend to run either against fellow women or for an open seat due to the fact that these elections tend to have a more favorable outcome for placing women into legislatures. According to this, Karmally faces fewer disadvantages than she would if she were running against a man.

According to the CAWP women in politics are often compartmentalized into legislating for what are considered “women’s issues” - health care, childcare and children’s rights, education, and matters considered to be in the interest of women. Predominantly white male politicians often overlook these particular issues (whether through ignorance, over thought, or a feeling that these issues are unimportant) and as a result of this lack of fair representation in American legislatures, these issues often fall into the hands of our elected women. Whether this hand dealt for women in politics is a fair representation of what female leaders want to be legislating on or not, it appears to be what Sameena Karmally has built her ticket on. In this way, she follows very closely what the CAWP has found to be typical patterns for women in politics. Her website’s “About Me” sections outlines her education, her work experience in practicing law, and her family life. Here, however, she strays from what the CAWP says is common of women in politics. Whereas the CAWP claims that women often feel that they must emphasize their accomplishments and leadership experience while downplaying their home life and more “feminine” qualities in order to appear equally qualified to their male counterparts, Karmally seems to do the opposite. Though she is highly qualified and lists her degrees (a BA, MA, and JD) and law experience, her emphasis is put largely on her home life and family. She explains her choice to switch from her full time law practice to being a full time stay-at-home mother and the charities and organizations she participates in - many of them in the realm of children’s interests and health care.

This choice is an interesting one, especially once you consider the demographics of her district, her state, and her region. It’s no secret that the socioeconomic politics of the south tend to side with the more traditional and the more conservative. Though this pattern is changing and there are certainly exceptions, a large part of the culture of the south remains based in social roles and tradition. Karmally’s choice to emphasis her role as a mother and a caretaker in the face of a politically conservative region of the Greater Dallas area is one that, by design, avoids party lines. Instead of emphasizing her position as a Democrat in a red district, and a woman of color in a majority Caucasian district, she focuses on something that is a common experience for many - family and their well being. Whether Republican or Democrat, family is a common thread between both sides of the aisle.

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