By LINN ANN HUNTINGTON, Fort Hays State University
Women make up 50 percent of the population in the United States.  But they comprise only 16 percent of congresspersons, 18 percent of the nation’s governors, and 28 percent of state legislators nationwide.
Those figures were provided Monday at the “Unconventional Women” symposium, held in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The simple message delivered to the more than 2,000 women in attendance was: “America needs more women involved in the political process.”
I have served as the director of journalism at Fort Hays State University for 18 years.  My Political Reporting class this week is covering the convention for The Hays Daily News’ special Web site, HDNews.net/DNC08/.  I wanted to attend the symposium because I wanted to hear one of the keynote speakers, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives.  She became the first woman in history to assume that position in 2007.
My class of four students happens to be all women, and I invited them to attend the symposium with me.  Two of the students did.  I wanted to gauge their reaction to Pelosi and to the other speakers, many of whom are actively working to encourage young women to run for office.  You can read the reaction of one of my students, Nicolene VanSittert, a senior political science major from Hays, in her blog, “Pelosi keeps her cool.”
But, here I wanted to share my own perspectives on Pelosi’s speech and the whole theme of the symposium.
I emphatically agree with Pelosi that “it is absolutely essential that we (women) open doors for each other.”  As a female instructor at FHSU, I feel that being a mentor and positive role model to my students—especially my female students—is an important part of my job.  
Pelosi said when she was first elected to Congress in 1988 there were only 20 women in Congress.  Today there are 80.  Pelosi, who has written a book about her journey from housewife to speaker of the House, had five children in six years.  She and her husband, Paul, will celebrate their 45th anniversary this year.
“Count being a mom as part of your work experience,” she advised the women in attendance, noting that moms are executives, organizers, chauffeurs and peacemakers.  All of that past experience has suited her well in her current position, she said.
The title of her book is “Know Your Power.”  She told those in attendance, “It all comes back to the power within you—what is your passion?”
Ilana Goldman, executive director of the Women’s Campaign Forum, said that in 2007 her organization recruited 1,500 women from 40 states to begin the training necessary to run a successful political campaign.  The organization is hoping to recruit another 1,500 the year, she said.
Pelosi stressed that the country needs increased participation by women not only as political leaders on the national level, but as community volunteers, local officials and state legislators.  But she admitted that “running for office is not for the faint of heart.”
She said when she sought the Speaker’s position, the male leadership in the House asked, “ 'Who said she could run,’ as if I needed their permission.”  To succeed in fields traditionally dominated by men, she said, “Women have to know more about everything than they do.”
I can relate to Pelosi’s experiences.  When I first started in newspaper journalism in 1975, I was the first full-time woman hired for a position on the News Desk, which is the nerve center for most metropolitan news operations.
Why?  I was recruited by the paper, I’m sure, because I was the editor of my daily college newspaper and one of the top journalism graduates at my school.  Even so, the paper offered me a 39½ hour a week part-time position, with no benefits, the same offer it made to all recent female graduates.
I told the management—politely--that I was only interested in a full-time position.  
The managing editor informed me there had never been a full-time woman on the News Desk because “we just don’t want to subject them to all that stress.”  
I replied, “I really don’t think an additional half hour of stress a week will make that much difference.”
After I got the full-time job, one of the editors walked me to my car in the company parking garage every night after work.  After a few evenings of this, I politely told him it wasn’t necessary for him to do this just for me—that it made me feel uncomfortable to be treated differently than my male colleagues.
But he was insistent.  “Oh I’ve been instructed to do this,” he said.  “Senior management said if you got mugged or raped in our parking garage, it would look horrible for the newspaper.”
(I could only conclude that if one of my male colleagues were to be attacked, it would be no big deal.)
During her speech Monday, Pelosi recalled her first meeting with President Bush after she became Speaker.   She said as she was sitting on an elegant chair in the Oval Office, she suddenly felt as if there were other women sitting on the chair with her—the spirits of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and other early women suffragists.
“I felt as if they were all saying, ‘At last we have a seat at the table,’” Pelosi said.
The women in the audience roared in approval.  It brought to mind an experience of my own.  About five or six years ago at FHSU, my department chair asked me to attend a meeting in his absence.  
Every other week the department chairs all met with the dean, and my chair was leaving town for a conference.  So I agree to attend in his place.  The day of the meeting, I got out of class 10 minutes before the meeting was to start.  By the time I answered questions from students and walked across campus, I was about 5 minutes late for the meeting.
There was only one vacant chair left at the long conference table—next to the dean.  He was sitting at the head of the table, with his administrative assistant sitting on his right.  I sat down on his left.
I looked around. The administrative assistant and I were the only women in the room.  The attendance sheet had already been passed by my seat.  So I asked the gentleman sitting to my left—whom I did not know—if he would pass it back to me.
“Oh, yes,” he said, glancing up at me.  “I’m sure you’ll need this, since you’ll be taking the minutes.”
Apparently he had not seen the administrative assistant on the other side of the table.  He just assumed that because I was a woman at a leadership meeting, it HAD to be in a secretarial capacity.
That incident hasn’t been that long ago.  I want to quickly add that I believe FHSU, as an institution, has made tremendous strides in the past few years in hiring more women in leadership positions and continues to do so.
But on an individual level, the old views die hard.  It is personal experiences such as these that made me encourage the young woman in my class to attend this symposium.  I want them to discover their own power within, regardless of whether they are executives at home or in the workplace.
Yes, women do now have a seat at the table.  But the old assumptions as to what we’re doing there can still remain.