Chapter 5 Highlights 1

Running head: CHAPTER 5 HIGHLIGHTS

Women and American Political Parties

Evelyn Cooper

Mississippi Valley State University

PS366 Women in Politics

February 20, 2010

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Women and American Political Parties

The political party system has oftentimes been unwelcoming and

unresponsive to women. The two major parties, Republican and Democrat,

were a barrier to obtaining women’s suffrage. Politics were seen as “men’s

work” (Harrison, 2003, p. 99). The majority of participants in partisan

politics were mostly male, while only a few women participated. After

suffrage was won, the relationship between political parties and women

changed. The political parties realized the influential impact that women

votes would have and began to include women in political party committees.

Women fought diligently for an equal share in political parties. By the

1950’s women had won a “50 percent stake in the important committees

that determined the direction of the political party” (p. 102) and they were

not just figure head but they the power to make an impact.

The modern women’s movement, which emerged decades later,

initially eschewed the political parties. But that trend came to a halt in the

50’s. Many women who were well-educated joined the League of Women,

voters, a nonpartisan organization, and gained knowledge and experience on

policy issues and leadership skills.

Women participation increased in political parties and there were

“radical changes in how women, politics, and parties were considered” (p.

103). Overtime women became more involved in the Democrat and

Republican parties in top positions. Between 1972 and 1976 the National
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Women Political Caucus (NWPC) established tasks forces the advocated for

women to have positions on the national party agenda. These tasks forces

made sure that the parties supported issues that were important to women.

Their efforts proved highly successful. Women had “infiltrated one of the

strongest bastions of traditional male political power” (p. 118). The

Democratic Party was taken up and supported by the feminists because the

Democratic Party was a platform for women issues. Women who did not

hold to the feminist view took to the Republican Party.

Women became a vital asset for political parties and made their

presence felt. By 1993 women chaired 8 Democratic state parties and

served as executive director of 25 Democratic state parties (p. 108).

Republican women comprised 36 percent of their party’s delegates and

Republicans “took great strides to highlight their women politician” (ibid).

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Reference

Harrison, B. C. (2003). Women in American Democracy. In B. C. Harrison,

Women in American Politics (p. 4). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson

Learning.