Southern Women “As Fragile As Coal Trucks”

by John A. Tures

Associate Professor of Political Science

LaGrange College

“The biggest myth about Southern women is that we are frail types, fainting on our sofas…nobody where I grew up ever acted like that. We were about as fragile as coal trucks.” That quote, from author Lee Smith, seeks to repudiate the myth of Southern women as “the delicate flower,” unsuited to politics. Yet some don’t seem to get it.

In the May 10, 2009 Politico article “GOP Women: A Minority In A Minority,” Erika Lovley buys into the myth. While she’s correct to point out that Democratic women outnumber their female Republican counterparts by a more than 2:1 ratio in the U.S. Congress, she makes plenty of untested assumptions, partially blaming “the South” for the problem.

Lovley contends “The problem is also geographical. As political realignment shifts the GOP territory south, Elder [a political science professor from Hartwick College in New York] said female candidates are vying to get elected in a region least hospitable to women, while Democrats are getting elected in the West and Northeast - areas that are more welcoming to female candidates.”

I wondered whether the South was really “the least hospitable to women.” To test this myth, I counted the number of women in elected positions, in the U.S. Congress, Governor’s office, and elected executive branch positions. When looking at the Southern states (Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia), I find 18 Republican women and 22 Democratic women in elected positions. So while Democrat women have a 55 percent -45 percent lead over Republican women in the region, the gap is much narrower than it is nationwide.

Now compare this to the Northeast. I counted the number of women in these same elected positions in the following states: Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Here, Democratic Party women outnumber GOP women in elected positions 21-3, a 7:1 margin. Overall, the number of Southern women in elected positions (for both parties) is nearly double that of women in the Northeast, in a place supposedly “more welcoming to female candidates.” When controlling for the state Electoral College power, the ratio of women is roughly equal to that of votes, indicating no regional difference.

Part of the problem is also ignorance. For example, Lovley states “Indeed, Rep. Kay Granger - the first and only Republican woman to represent Texas in the House - says Republican women have to work to make sure they’re even represented at public events in the first place.” Ms. Lovley needs to look up “Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.” Sometimes, the media can perpetuate the problem by ignoring those who have served, if only for a few months.

Another reason has little to do with wimpy women who can’t take a tough campaign. It’s that Republican women in Congress are increasingly being targeted by the powerful Democrat fundraising machine…witness the attacks upon the Anne Northrup, Elizabeth Dole, Thelma Drake, Sekula-Gibbs the way the GOP went after Southern white male Democrats, because Republican women represent a special threat to the new Democratic Party majority that is gender-based.

Yet Northrup and Sekula-Gibbs returned to the arena within a year or two of their losses, to try again in tough races. Democrats who think Southern Republican women are easy targets because of their gender or the region are likely to find themselves with coal truck tire tracks on their backs in 2010, in statehouses in Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma and the U.S. Senate in Missouri.