THE WORLD & I: In the world, many countries have or have had women leaders - Great Britain, Israel, all the nations on the Indian subcontinent, and others. America is viewed as being a very progressive nation, yet America has failed to put a woman at the top. Does a woman have to be a warrior queen in order to become No. 1 on the American ticket?
FERRARO: No. But she does have to come from the universe from which the American public expects their candidates to come, and that is either the U.S. Senate or the governor's mansion. I was a first, which is why it was acceptable to put me on the ticket with just three terms in Congress. It really is not where your candidates traditionally come from.
If your look historically at the past 50 years, every single person who has achieved the White House, except Dwight Eisenhower, has been either vice president of the United States, a member of the U.S. Senate, or a governor.
I would think that with the number of women who are running for the Senate and with the number of women who are running for governorships in this election cycle - and by looking at their chances of winning those seats in this election cycle - that by the end of the decade you will see a woman running in a primary. I think that is how the next woman will achieve national office, by participating in the primary process. I see a woman running in the primaries, on the foundation of having the necessary experience that the American public expects.
W&I: Are you satisfied with the progress that women are making?
NORTON: If you look at the figures, it is hard to be satisfied, with women occupying 2 percent of the Senate, and 5 or 6 percent of the House. We even have regression in some ways. For example, if I go to the Congress I will then be the second black woman to do so. In the 1970s, we had five black women and we went down. We cannot afford to go backward, when we have such a distance to go.
I think women have made more progress as a political force than they have made in political office. Women, however, are insurgents, and whenever there are insurgents in a democratic society the people who know the ropes and have been on the inside make it harder to get in.
Those foreign countries you talked about, the difference between those countries and ours is that every last one of those women, it seems to me, is an anachronism, not reflecting the status of women in their society, not reflecting the progress women have made, whereas in a real sense I think Gerry's analysis is right. The way it is happening in this country - albeit much too slowly when you consider how far women have come professionally over the last 20 years - is the way it has happened for men: you go up the ladder until you finally get to the top post.
And look where we have finally gotten. We have a small critical mass of women finally running for the Senate. We have a small critical mass of women now running for governor. All of them have a good chance. It is not the kind of fun they would have made 20 years ago, which would have been symbolic. Those are the powerful posts in the society and until you get at least some of those posts occupied, you are not
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