Together 'Sweet 16' Say They Can Do Anything

Jan. 18, 2007 — -- The Senate "Sweet 16" -- the 16 women U.S. senators -- say that together they can do anything.

The oldest is 72 and the youngest is 46. They have more than two dozen children among them, not to mention grandchildren.

One walks three miles every morning and another hit the campaign trail in sneakers. One of them was the first in her family to graduate from college and admits a kind of passion for the TV show "Project Runway."

They are 16 women who decided to try a kind of political experiment -- leaving partisanship at the door to seek legislation. Together, they have changed the world, securing retirement funds for homemakers, including women in crucial medical clinical trials, and pushing for family and medical leave.

However much they disagree in their meetings, they agree not to lose sight of the goal.

"When we have come together, ever since I've been here, when the women have come together on an issue, we have won," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, told "Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer.

Sawyer asked the senators to play a game of the fill-in-the-blank. The first sentence was "Women as leaders are more ___ than men."

"Collaborative. Collegial," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said.

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., said "consensus builders."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said "bottom line."

According to Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, women leaders are more "pragmatic" and "hardworking."

Newcomer Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said women leaders were better multitaskers than men.

"I think we're better at doing four or five things at once. And, frankly, that's a skill that's incredibly important around this place -- is being able to do four or five things at once," McCaskill said. "Being a mom of three kids and a single mom for a while, it was great training for the organizational skills you need to bring to this endeavor."

Another newcomer, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., could relate to multitasking.