Jane Swift: “Nobody Asks Those Questions of the Guys”

Rick Klein, from ABC News’ The Note, Reports: Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, earlier this year became the second sitting governor in US history to have given birth while in office.

Former Gov. Jane Swift, R-Mass., was the first. In 2001, after ascending from the office of lieutenant governor when Paul Cellucci became ambassador to Canada, Swift gave birth to twin girls, her second and third daughters.

(As a reporter for The Boston Globe, I was at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston waiting for those bundles of history to be delivered.)

I caught up with Swift in St. Paul this afternoon, thinking she might have some interesting insights on what Palin is going through these days.

She said she definitely detects “sexism” in the media’s coverage of her candidacy — particularly when commentators have wondered aloud about how she’s able to balance her parenting duties with governing.

“Nobody asks those questions of guys,” said Swift, who left office in January 2003, after Mitt Romney elbowed her out of the 2002 GOP primary and won the governor’s office. “The ‘good mom, bad mom’ stuff is ridiculous, and there’s no place for it.”

“I think there have been some aspects of the coverage where she’s been held to a different standard,” she added. “People have used tired old gender stereotypes to describe her, and where that happens, women who see that I think have an obligation to stand up and call folks on it, and hopefully that creates a better atmosphere for my daughters.”

Swift, whose oldest daughter is now 9, and whose twin girls are 7, said she and her daughters were rooting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to win the primaries — even though she endorsed McCain early in the primaries.

“My daughters are old enough now, they actually have been following the campaign, and we rooted for Hillary Clinton to do well — absolutely,” Swift said. “We don’t want her to win,” she added with a laugh.

“But that was great for my girls, to see someone of Sen. Clinton’s accomplishments and strength out there every single day. It’s a great role model for my girls — role models are important.”

As for what Palin is facing now, Swift said she has sympathy for the way her life has been turned upside down in the space of the past week.

“The level of scrutiny and the reality that your entire life becomes an open book,” she said. “There’s no doubt that there were times when the focus on my private life prevented me from talking about the important issues I was working, and that was frustrating.”

She said she made plans to come to the convention without plans to play an active role — but felt compelled to join other prominent Republican women in speaking up, with her girls in mind.

“There haven’t been enough of us where we could get a good research group,” Swift said. “These are things that, hopefully — when we don’t continually have firsts — we’ll start to be able to change and address.”

Sam Donaldson and I will be chatting with Swift during out ABC NewsNOW coverage from the convention tonight, starting at 7 pm ET. Check out abcnews.com/politics for the link to live, gavel-to-gavel coverage.