Did women win in 2008?

By Claire Shipman
@ClaireShipman
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I like the idea that Secretary of State is now almost by default preceded by the title Madame. I would like it even more of course if her boss had that title too. Now that HILLARY CLINTON’Sname is so firmly out there in public as a candidate for America’s top diplomat it would be pretty tricky for team Obama to turn round and say no to all the women who have got so revved up about the prospect. But whether or not Clinton, and I mean Bill not Hillary, survives the vetting process, the mere floating of the Senator’s name has revived that favorite election argument – was this a good year for women or not?
Did the fact that a woman ran for the Democratic nomination outweigh the fact that she lost? Did the prospect of the Republicans putting a woman into the Vice Presidency trump the ticket’s failure?
According to the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR this was not a good year for women hoping to ride either Clinton or Palin’s skirt tails into public office. Women made a pathetic gain of just one seat in the Senate, bringing the total to 17 out of a 100 and only gained three extra seats in Congress, moving up from 71 to 74 out of 435 seats. Not a lot of pink power on that august Hill.
These dismal numbers notwithstanding, for me it was a more a year of extraordinary female potential, than dashed feminine hopes. Think of it this way. The next time a woman runs for the White House we won’t fall off our chairs in horror, wondering whether she has the chops to command in chief. We won’t wonder whether turquoise pant suits are too pretty to be powerful. We’ll have been there before. In the end, neither made it, but both Clinton and Palin definitely helped change perceptions. For that, thank you.