1/26/2008

in

Has Clinton found the perfect balance between personal and public life?

Roxanna Bain

Hillary Rodham Clinton carried out duties for twelve years as First Lady of Arkansas. At the same time, she managed a home -- complete with a husband and child -- worked as a full-time partner of a law firm and chaired an education committee that set public school standards in Arkansas. Now, she wants to be president of the United States.  
  
The fact that Clinton seems to juggle her life so well and find time to follow all of her dreams brings up the question of why more women do not follow her lead. Is it more difficult for a woman to find a balance between personal and public life than a man? Perhaps this accounts for the fact that, historically, more men have run for higher political offices than women.  
  
According to Jennifer Lawless, an assistant professor of political science and public policy at Brown University, in her home state of Rhode Island there are fewer women in the general assembly now than there were 20 years ago and eighty nations surpass the United States in the percentage of women holding elective office.  
  
Lawless, co-author of the book *It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run For Office*, said the three most common reasons that women cite for not running for office are family responsibilities, doubts about their qualifications, and that they haven't been specifically asked to run.  
  
In a survey of thousands of men and women about their views on holding political office, the subject of children was mentioned by women 60 percent of the time, while only three men mentioned it. Additionally, men were much more likely to think of themselves as qualified to run for office. Lawless adds that, "Even by fourth grade, boys overestimate their abilities and girls underestimate their own."  
  
Even though Lawless herself tried to find the perfect balance and lost in a Democratic primary in her state, she still believes "Any man will run for office, but women hold themselves up to an unrealistic bar. When women run, women win."  
  
We will soon know if Lawless's theory holds true for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and if Clinton has, indeed, found that elusive perfect balance.