Women in Politics

Despite being slightly more than 50% of the population, women in Orange County only represent slightly more than 30% of the people holding elective office at the local level. On a global level, women’s participation in politics is slightly more than 20%. Right now there are 17 female heads of state while there are nearly 200 nations. These findings prompted a seminar on “Women in Politics”, sponsored by the Diversity Council of Orange County. Barbara Kogerman (Mayor, Laguna Hills), Trish Kelley (Former Mayor, MV, and now a City Council candidate), and Leah Basile (City Council candidate, Lake Forest) spoke for over an hour about their experiences as women in the political arena. The seminar will be available for everyone to see on You Tube. Meanwhile it’s relevant to talk about some of the commonalities as the three women shared a common path to their involvement in local politics.

NOT POLITICIANS

The women agreed that they didn’t see themselves as “politicians” but rather as “public servants”. None of them were doing this as a “career” or were looking for higher appointment.

GET INVOLVED

All three had been heavily involved in their communities, either with their HOA (Basile), church (Kelley and Basile), and civic groups (Kogerman).

FIND AN ISSUE

All three reported that their entrance into politics started with an issue. For Basile it was Saddleback Ranch Rd and the poor behavior of the Council. For Kelley it was the decision to get rid of a recreation center. For Kogerman it was the high pay for the City Manager.

GET A LITTLE MAD

Finding an issue and getting a little upset about it was seen as an important step. All three women were fighting for something that was important to them, and they felt intensely about succeeding.

SEEK BALANCE

All three reported that for a woman, gaining balance was important. All three felt that the family caretaker role responsibility was placed more on women than men, so any activity that took away time from that needed to find a proper balance.

However, because all three were already involved in a multitude of activities, taking on one more task was relatively easy, especially when the City Council was seen as an extension of what they were already involved doing. For Basile, her fight to get Saddleback Ranch Rd was partially fueled by the fact that she was the President of her HOA where more than 600 families were being impacted.

WAIT FOR THE WAVE

All three reported that it was important to time the decision so that it fit in with their current life demands. Each woman got involved at a different stage of life. Basile has young children, Kelley had teenagers, and Kogerman had a grown daughter. So the particular circumstances weren’t as important as the understanding of the circumstances.

GET SUPPORT

All three said that they had great support from their husbands and from many members of their communities.

FEW BACKLASHES

The idea that a woman’s place is in the home is pretty old fashioned, and none of the women reported that there was ever a serious hassles about their sex.

PEACE MAKER

All three women believed that one of the big advantages for some women was their ability to manage disparate points of view without being aggressive or obnoxious. Needless to say, all agreed that doesn’t apply to all women, but it did for these three.

ENRICHING

Everyone believed that their journey into elective office was, on balance, positive.

Hopefully there are lessons to be learned here for any woman who aspires to get involved in elected office. Not all of their comments are restricted to women, and anyone thinking about running for elective office will benefit from watching the video.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in November at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.