What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power (57 page)

So there’s just so much to do and the work is . . . it’s more than interesting, it’s consuming. I mean, we just passed the Violence Against Women Act again. It took a heck of a fight this time, but it took us until 1994 to pass it in the first place and I was involved in the first passage of the state laws in the seventies. . . . So it’s been a continuous struggle. But I can’t get over it—in 2013, we have the Republicans fighting the bill. But on the other hand, we win. And you know how many people you’re going to help? It’s a lot. But now you’ve got to fight for its implementation—and that’s just one thing. And we still have all these economic fights. But I think that one of the ones I take most pleasure in is the fight for Title IX, and then the fight to reinstate it when the Reagan administration guts it and the Supreme Court restores it—all that taking place in the eighties. But it sure is worth it; look at the difference in the college agendas. Of course a lot of people think it’s just sports, but they were opposed to women going to college and admissions up through the seventies. We sued almost every medical school and law school in the nation—when I say we, I mean the women’s movement. Wouldn’t it have been something if we fought to get women in law school and medical school and engineering and opened the doors to have no one walk in? We helped open the doors and they flooded in!

MARSHA BLACKBURN

“As we think to help our girls . . . what we want them to do is not be restricted or restrained by, ‘you have to do this’ or ‘you have to do that,’ or push too much one way or another. I think there is a confidence that comes with being comfortable with who you are and what you’re about. You do not doubt yourself. And as girls grow into young women and are looking for career advancement, when they do not doubt themselves
—
when they know at their core they’re firm and what they’re really good at, and then also have an understanding of what they’re challenged by
—
then they are going to do a better job of pushing forward and expanding the boundaries for other women who are going to be coming behind them.”

A
S A SMALL-BUSINESS
woman, author, mother, grandmother, and member of Congress, Marsha Blackburn is dedicated to making Tennessee and America better, more prosperous, and freer places. Blackburn began her elected service career in 1998 as a Tennessee state senator. Blackburn’s Senate career was marked by her commitment to fiscal common sense and governmental accountability. Blackburn’s reputation for focusing on individual freedom and free enterprise boosted her from the Tennessee Senate to the U.S. House of Representatives. Blackburn was first elected to represent Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District in 2002, quickly becoming a leader in Congress and a leading voice advocating for
a small, efficient federal government that is accountable to its citizens. Blackburn has earned a special reputation as a bipartisan leader and policy expert on telecommunications issues and intellectual property rights. She has strong ties with Tennessee’s recording industry and the songwriters and performers who make it great. In 2003 Blackburn founded and still serves as chairman of the Congressional Songwriters Caucus to give the nation’s creative community a voice on Capitol Hill. In 2007, she was awarded the Congressional Grammy by the Recording Academy and the White Hat Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association.

Blackburn was selected to serve as vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for the 113th Congress, where she will continue to serve on four critical subcommittees: Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade; Oversight; Health; and Communications and Technology. She serves on the House Budget Committee and is a founding member of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee.

MARIANNE SCHNALL
: Why do you think we’ve not yet had a woman president? What do you think it will take to make that happen?

MARSHA BLACKBURN
: One of the reasons I think that we have not had a female president is because women have a tendency to travel a different route than men in their careers . . . and it’s a more circuitous route. They take time off for families and to care for elderly relatives, and they take a job that is more demanding, and then maybe they move to a job that’s less demanding in order to accommodate those opportunities to work with their family and children. So I think that is one reason. The second reason, I do believe, has to do with the fact that it was a long struggle for suffrage and for women to get the right to vote. Women still have not been in that
political process and they do not have the networks within that process that many men have. Women have traditionally not raised—especially conservative women—as much money as men in the political process. So all of those are items that are barriers, if you will, and have slowed the process for the advancement of women in the political process. Take a state like Tennessee: We still, to this day, have not had a female U.S. senator
or
a female governor. And there are many states that still have not elected women to those top positions. You look at corporate boards and look at the governance of those boards and the small percentage of women that are entrusted with making those decisions and providing that leadership in the corporate community. I think what you have is that women do very, very well when they are in an entrepreneurial setting and when they are provided the opportunity to chart their own course. They will do very well with that. But facing gender bias or limited opportunities within an institutional or corporate type structure seems to be a problem that still exists.

MS
: Is it that women aren’t running or that they’re running and not getting to those positions? What do you see that’s holding women back—or is it on both ends?

MB
: I think part of it is that they are not the next in line, as I call it. And so many times when people are recruiting a candidate or looking for a candidate, they go for whom they think is the next in line. Maybe it’s a state-elected official or a local-elected official who has kind of been in the process for a period of time. Look at the number of women that come into the political process straight from the private sector or straight from community involvement—they look for that opening and they step forward, if they have that desire for public service. When they see that opening, many times they will pop in and take that opening, which I think is a very good thing.

MS
: My hope is that this book will not just expose some of these problems and obstacles, but also hopefully begin to look at solutions. Do you have a sense of what concrete changes could be made to foster more women, especially in Washington and in leadership positions?

MB
: I think that the number-one change is a change of perspective. It is people beginning to say, “Who is the most qualified person for the job?” and not to look at their friends or whom they are closest to, but to look at their qualifications. And we’ve seen study after study showing that if you blind test résumés with qualifications and then you put gender on that résumé, it is referred to differently, or rated differently. And in this day and age, that is unfortunate.

MS
: Why is this important that we have more women’s voices represented?

MB
: It’s the perspective that women bring to the process. Women have a tendency to think long term. They want to find a long-term solution that will get to the heart of the problem and solve it, so you’re not having to revisit it. I think many times men want to do the quick fix on something and get it off the plate. And I see that in business, as well as politics. And helping get that balance of perspective where you are looking at the long-term ramifications, saying, “Where does this get us twenty years, thirty years, forty years from now? What kind of liability does this place on us in twenty years, thirty years, forty years?” I think that’s an important perspective to have, because we look at the next generation, not necessarily the next election.

MS
: In my interviews I’ve been hearing that there may be psychological issues for women and men in terms of being able to envision a woman as president, dealing with all the challenges that a president would have to
confront. Do you feel like our consciousness is ready to perceive a woman filling a position like that?

MB
: Well, the best way to change that perception is to make it a reality. I think what we have to do is, there again, it is that perspective of saying it’s the best person for the job and looking at the qualifications and the track record of an individual for addressing problems and solving those problems. What was their decision-making process? What is their philosophy of government? What is their philosophy of life? That’s going to tell you how they’re going to move forward.

MS
: Earlier when we were talking about the problems women face running, you said you felt that conservative women have even more problems raising money. Are there specific challenges that you think women of the Republican Party or conservative women have to deal with?

MB
: Well, I think they’re somewhat for
all
women, and, yes, I think we have to work a little bit harder to raise the same dollar. And, of course, there is less disparity now than there was when I started out. And, of course, through the years you have seen there have been plenty of studies talking about the difficulty of raising money. I think for women that are trying to get into the process but don’t want to put their families at risk, that’s a big part of it.

MS
: I’m definitely hearing, even from women in Congress that I speak to, that part of what’s holding women back are these challenges of balancing work and family, and the reality that there are very few women in Washington who also have babies or young children because it’s so demanding. Is there anything that can be done to alleviate that? Do you see that as being a hurdle that is holding women back?

MB
: Well, there again, you’re going to take something like that on a case-by-case basis, and people are going to have to find what works for them. What we need to do is make certain the tools are available to make it work. We’ve got a piece of legislation coming up on the floor, which is flextime—allowing people to take more time off if they would choose. That’s an important thing to do. You know, I always find it interesting: men want power and money, women want time and control [
laughs]
. So it’s important—that’s just another tool in the toolbox to being able to manage and control your time, and time is definitely a resource.

MS
: What has your experience been like being a woman in Congress, in terms of the challenges you face? Are you aware of feeling like a minority, since there are so few women represented overall?

MB
: I think that if you wanted to say you feel like a minority, you absolutely could find a way to do that. I think that anybody could. I just choose to take it from the positive, and what I’m going to do is to do my best. I am not going to focus on things that are restrictive, but look for opportunities for empowerment and outreach. I prefer to be proactive instead of reactive.

MS
: And I was very curious—I know that you refer to yourself as Congressman Blackburn rather than Congresswoman. Is there a reason behind that?

MB
: Yeah, there’s a little story that kind of goes with it. I had written about it in my book I put out a couple of years ago on leadership and women. I was out campaigning. A reporter was following me. I was working in this little café on one of the town squares. And bear in mind, I was the first woman in Tennessee to put her name on the ballot and run and be elected in her own right to Congress (we have a couple that had followed
a deceased husband). I was going table to table, and I went up to this guy and handed him my palm card with my information on it and introduced myself. I said, “I’m state Senator Marsha Blackburn. I’m running for Congress, and I sure would appreciate having your vote.” And he looked at me and said, “Well, little lady, what qualifies you for the U.S. House of Representatives?” And I thought,
I’m probably not going to get his vote
. I said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ve been the three-year-old choir director, the room mother, the room mother chairman, and the Girl Scout cookie mom. And if you can handle those jobs, you can handle the U.S. House of Representatives.” So then I went on and visited with the other patrons there in the restaurant and got ready to leave. He motioned me back over to his table. He said, “Little lady, if you win this thing, what we going to call you? Congressgirl—Congressperson?” And I looked at him, and I said, “Sir, Congressman will be just fine.” So that was basically the crux of the article. But it taught me something: People who had never voted for a female in that position, they were more comfortable with a “congressman” because that was what they knew.