In wake of election, more women indicate interest in running for office in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — Women pushing for gender equity in political office are disappointed but not discouraged that Hillary Clinton was unable to shatter the glass ceiling to the nation's highest office.

'I'm fond of saying out of everything bad comes something good,' Mary Ellen Miller, executive director of 50-50 in 2020, said of the presidential election results. 'We didn't get our first woman president as many thought we might.'

However, that Clinton woman to capture a major party's nomination for president is stimulating women to 'step up and say, maybe I should get engaged,' Miller said Friday. She was speaking during the taping of Iowa Public Television's Iowa Press.

Miller said she used to get one query a month from a woman interested in running for office but has drawn several a week since the election.

Also, she said, as a result of the presidential election outcome, 'we're finding a generation of younger women saying, this can't go on.' They want to be part of changing women's representation in politics, Miller said.

50-50 in 2020 has set a goal of helping to bring gender balance to the Iowa Legislature in three years, in time for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. In 2017, women will hold fewer than a quarter of the 150 seats in the Iowa Legislature.

While Clinton's loss disappointed those who want to gain gender equity, Mary Rae Bragg, a former political reporter and president of the Iowa League of Women Voters, said this is an opportune time to get more women involved. That's because many people were traumatized by the tone and tenor of the presidential election.

'Both political parties have left a lot of people behind,' Bragg said, and that presents an opportunity to invite people who want to deal with issues in a bipartisan way. That involvement might mean running for office or informing voters about issues.

Melissa Gesing, who stepped down as president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women because she said she couldn't support Donald Trump, is encouraged that she now is hearing from young women who are starting to pay more attention to politics and elections. Many are starting to think they want to be involved, she said.

'I don't know that they necessarily want to run right now, but they're taking that first step of paying attention and wanting to volunteer or do something more than watching the news at home,' Gesing said.

She called Clinton's defeat a temporary setback for women in politics but a catalyst for getting more women involved. 'So I think, overall, it's optimistic.'

The trio also believe that Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds' anticipated move into the governor's office when Gov. Terry Branstad become ambassador to China also is a positive development for involving more women in politics. Reynolds, a former state senator and county treasurer, was a presenter 50-50's most recent workshops.

Bragg called her 'very inspiring' to young women 'and I'm talking fifth-graders on up, looking and seeing a woman in a place and that makes it possible. That's what Kim does.'

Iowa Press can be seen at noon Sunday on IPTV, at 8:30 a.m. Saturday on IPTV World and online at vwww.IPTV.org.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com