Clockwise from top left: Rachael Cabral-Guevara, Dianne Hesselbein, Sara Rodriguez, and Jodi Emerson.
Women in office, clockwise from left: Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein and Rep. Jodi Emerson.
Women still face more challenges running and getting elected to public office and are subject to more criticism and social media insults than men, four Capitol leaders say.
At a Wisconsin Women’s Council meeting on Dec.1, the officials from both parties related personal experiences illustrating the continuing gender gap in political opportunities and experiences.
Republican Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, who was elected to the Senate last year after one term in the Assembly, said she has had her car and home vandalized because of her political career.
A nurse practitioner with four children, Cabral-Guevara also said Appleton police have had to be “outside her home” on days controversial issues are being discussed and voted on in the Capitol.
“The choice that I made to run has directly impacted my children,” Cabral-Guevara added. “You definitely have to have a thick skin.”
Cabral-Guevara said she often challenges women who inquire about running for office, asking them, “Why the hell not?”
Democratic Rep. Jodi Emerson, of Eau Claire, said women who chose to run for office are always asked, “What are you going to do with your kids?”
“Men aren’t asked that question,” Emerson added. “We’re held to a different standard.”
Emerson said critics on social media have asked why she is wearing the same clothes when the Assembly is in session, and Assembly actions are broadcast on WisconsinEye and covered by news organizations, that she wore on the last session day.
In one of her three campaigns for the Assembly, Emerson said she was warned a critic had “found her address” and she was advised to “think about moving somewhere else for a few days.”
“There’s a lot more [social media] trolling that happens with women than with men,” Emerson added. “We get attacked more.”
Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein said in the final days before an election, opponents will circulate a name and picture of someone who they want to lose with a blunt message — “She’s wrong!” — that includes the candidate’s address and phone number.
“That kind of stuff happens in campaigns,” Hesselbein said.
Hesselbein lamented “dark money” — large donations to third-party groups that don’t have to disclose the size or the source of the donations — that both parties rely on to elect or defeat candidates.
Democratic Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who is ending her first year in office after serving in the Assembly for two years, said men “self-select” and decide to run for public office while women have to be asked “six or seven” times before agreeing to run.
Women must believe that “if you see it, you can be it,” Rodriguez added.
When she first ran for the Assembly in 2020, Rodriguez said a threat was left outside her family’s Waukesha home near their son’s bedroom window. “I had a lot of death threats,” which were reported to police, Rodriguez said. As lieutenant governor, she and Gov. Tony Evers have a security detail assigned to them.
When talking to seventh graders from Waukesha County before the Women’s Council meeting, Rodriguez challenged them to vote and consider running for office.
Voters between the ages of 18 and 25 are the “least likely” to vote, Rodriguez told the students. As a result, “Your parents and grandparents are making decisions about your future.”
Rodriguez added that, although Wisconsin has been a state since 1848, it has never had a woman governor and she is only the fourth female lieutenant governor.
Of Wisconsin’s 132 legislators, 40 — or 30% — are women, including 20 of 35 Assembly Democrats and 12 of 64 Assembly Republicans. Eight of the 33 senators are female; three of 22 Republicans and five of 11 Democrats.
The Women’s Council says that 50% of Wisconsin residents were women last year, but they held only 25% of the more than 13,000 elected offices statewide.
A 2022 report, “Women in Public Life,” by Alverno College’s Research Center for Women and Girls, summarized the challenge this way: “We must understand and improve the various pathways that women take to public office and the reasons they do not…We must encourage girls to see themselves as playing an integral role in democracy, encouraging them to participate in civic engagement, become involved in local organizations promoting inclusive democracy, and support them in their efforts to insist that their voices be heard.”
Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.
