Boston Globe
April 02, 2011
IN HER thoughtful piece about the late Geraldine Ferraro (“Ferraro grasped import, pitfalls of historic role,’’ Op-ed, March 29), Joanna Weiss makes an important point about the overall decline in young women’s support for women candidates.
As we saw in 2008, many young women were not moved to make history by electing our first woman president — including young women whose mothers had woken them up that night in 1984 to watch Ferraro deliver her historic acceptance speech as Walter Mondale’s running mate.
Our forthcoming research on women’s 2010 gubernatorial campaigns confirms that, like most voters, women under age 35 do not feel that it is important to support a qualified woman candidate solely because she is a woman. Still, these young women appear more conflicted than dismissive of women candidates. The same research also shows that a majority of younger women think that there are not enough women in elected office. They also were more likely than older women to say it is generally important to support qualified women candidates, despite their votes to the contrary.
Barbara Lee
Founder and president
Barbara Lee Family Foundation
Cambridge
Boston Globe: After Ferraro, question remains
Boston Globe
April 02, 2011
IN HER thoughtful piece about the late Geraldine Ferraro (“Ferraro grasped import, pitfalls of historic role,’’ Op-ed, March 29), Joanna Weiss makes an important point about the overall decline in young women’s support for women candidates.
As we saw in 2008, many young women were not moved to make history by electing our first woman president — including young women whose mothers had woken them up that night in 1984 to watch Ferraro deliver her historic acceptance speech as Walter Mondale’s running mate.
Our forthcoming research on women’s 2010 gubernatorial campaigns confirms that, like most voters, women under age 35 do not feel that it is important to support a qualified woman candidate solely because she is a woman. Still, these young women appear more conflicted than dismissive of women candidates. The same research also shows that a majority of younger women think that there are not enough women in elected office. They also were more likely than older women to say it is generally important to support qualified women candidates, despite their votes to the contrary.
Barbara Lee
Founder and president
Barbara Lee Family Foundation
Cambridge