Earlier this month Chicago Sun-Times' columnist Carol Minor wrote a piece called 'Why aren't women running for office?' In the article she lists each of the state-wide offices and how many woman are running for each of those offices (if any are running at all). Seven offices, numerous candidates- six women. To be clear, Kathleen Thomas is not running just because she is a woman, although she does bring this up from time to time. But this article got me thinking, why aren't more women running in Illinois?
The article mentions that one of the biggest obstacles for women is becoming part of the political structure. This is something Kathleen Thomas says she has felt. She mentioned that she sometimes feels as though people don't know what to do with her and it doesn't help that people don't try to figure out what to with her. She mentioned to me that after a speech someone came up to her and basically said, "wow, I had no idea you were so smart." Well, why didn't you know that? The only answer I can come up with is that they didn't even look into voting for her based on exterior factors.
Overcoming the negative mindset and entering the political male-dominated arena you would think are the only issues for a female candidate, but apparently there are still neanderthals out there. This summer volunteers for the campaign were at the Duquoin State Fair collecting signatures. A volunteer approached a man and asked him for his signature. "Oh no, I never vote for women," he said. The volunteer thought he was joking and said, "But really, can we have your signature?" His response, "Really, I never vote for women." This really happened? What? I wouldn't expect this to happen in the 21st century let alone the United States, but it did.
Hopefully, Kathleen Thomas will inspire other women in Illinois to realize that it can be done. Gender should not be an issue anymore.
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