In a surprising move, Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton criticized several current female Republican candidates as being anti-feminist during a speech at the University of Wisconsin Women’s Executive Leadership Summit Wednesday morning.
Lawton, who is not running for reelection, said the numerous conservative women running for public office across the country this year could damage the credibility and chances of existing and future female candidates.
“There are – this year – a lot of feisty Republican women nationally on the ballot, but that represents feisty, not feminism,” Lawton said. “Unfortunately they open us to a higher vulnerability for discrimination.”
Among those “feisty” women running for a state office is Republican lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch, who has drawn many comparisons to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president.
Jill Bader, a spokesperson for Kleefisch and her running mate Scott Walker, said calling Kleefisch and conservative women like her “anti-feminist” is completely unfounded.
“We’re proud that we have lots of Republican women running for offices. These women are very active and engaged because they care about their country and their state,” Bader said. “They’re getting involved because they want to change the state for the better and make Wisconsin a good place to live again.”
In addition to running for office, Bader said the campaigns have numerous female volunteers, supporters and donors involved in helping Republicans reclaim the government.
Lawton also spoke about the other difficulties facing women in the political realm, including how hard it is to recover credibility in the face of male criticism and the fact the U.S. is lagging behind other countries in female government participation.
Lawton said only 17 percent of the U.S. Legislature is composed of women, placing it at 37 in the world for legislative gender dispersion. At the state level, Lawton said things are not better.
“We see the [Wisconsin] Legislature with fewer women than the time before for the third time in a row,” Lawton said. “There are only 31 or 32 women running for the Legislature.”
She also pointed out how there are currently three female Supreme Court Justices, a feat which took slightly more than 200 years to accomplish.
But the political realm is not the only area where women face adversity; Lawton also highlighted the ongoing discrimination and harassment in the business world, particularly in the financial sector.
“Sexual harassment is still a problem in finance. Some of the numbers have come down a little bit, but the occurrence is still there. These acts of sexism accrue and weigh down women’s advancement,” Lawton said.
Above all, Lawton stressed the need for women to support other women in order to help advance their positions as a whole. Alone, Lawton said, women are more vulnerable but together they prove a force that can “stop traffic.”
“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women,” Lawton said, quoting former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
