MICHEL MARTIN, host:
President Obama broke down barriers to win the White House, as Reihan just reminded us, but the glass ceiling is proving tougher to break for many women in politics. We were reminded of this in a piece that ran this weekend in The Washington Post magazine, which we peruse just about every week to find interesting stories about the way we live now.
For this week's issue, the cover story examines why women still hold only 16 percent of the nation's governorships, run only 11 of the country's largest cities and hold only 17 percent of seats in the Congress. Now, that last figure ranks America 69th in the world in women's representation in the lower house of a national parliament. That's behind Cuba, Uganda, Pakistan, Sudan, Rwanda.
And a group called the White House Project has been working for years to change that. Now they're offering political training workshops to try to get women to start thinking of themselves as political candidates and leaders. Jennifer James Soto recently attended one of the weekend training session, and she joins us now to tell us about it from member station WJCT in Jacksonville, Florida. Welcome, thank you.
Ms. JENNIFER JAMES SOTO: Thanks for having me, Michel.
MARTIN: Now, you were actually a congressional page when you were - I guess you would be in high school, right? In high school?
Ms. SOTO: Yes, I was - when I was 16, back in 1988.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MARTIN: And you went to Harvard, and you went to Columbia Law School. It would seem that you are exactly the kind of person who ought to have had her sights set on elective office. What happened? Do you think you got turned off at some point?
Ms. SOTO: Well, I think there were multiple factors involved. The first would be my experience as a congressional page. While I enjoyed and just was thrilled, and excited and honored to have the opportunity to be a congressional page, it was during that time, I guess, towards the end of the whole Iran-Contra.
And a part of me - I was a little dismayed at how - not all members, certainly, but just a handful treated each other on the House floor, treated each other with a level of disrespect that to a 16-year-old I was just, wow, this is happening with our country's leaders. What's going on here?
I mean, there was also - the second factor was just how few women there were in Congress. I had come from an all-girl boarding school, and so I was used to seeing the leadership of women, having attended the all-girl boarding school. So that was another thing, not that I wasn't aware that there weren't many women in Congress, but it was just something that I took note.
MARTIN: That's interesting that the piece discusses a number of reasons why the U.S. might be lagging behind other countries or just that the pace of progress seems to be so slow in this country. One of the things that it says is that women are - when they run, they are equally successful, but they don't think that they are going to be, and they are also worried about the impact that running for office will have on their personal lives in a way that men tend not to be. Is that true for you, too?
Ms. SOTO: It is true that, in terms of the personal life, in terms of my family - and this played itself out not only in terms of me, whether or not I would run for office, but even in the article - concern for how my children might be perceived or any exposure. And I don't know if that concern is unique to women. I would think that men…
MARTIN: So, just let me understand that you were even concerned about being in the article.
Ms. SOTO: Oh, well, not so much as me personally being in the article, but just little things like my children being named in the article.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. SOTO: And I think that has to do with me being the protective mother. I'm very pleased with the article. I think that Vanessa Gezari did an excellent job. And I think she laid out the points very clearly. And that women - we do face multiple issues in terms of taking care of the home, child bearing and raising tends to fall in our laps - not that men don't also participate, my husband is very involved - but I think one of the barriers is that there is a lack of support for family and that some of that support you may see.
MARTIN: I wonder if part of the reason that there's so many more women in national legislatures overseas is that a lot of these countries have a - either of the government requiring that women be selected - sets aside a certain number of positions or that they have more of a tradition of in-home service, that they have more of a tradition of - for various means of help, either through extended family or more of a tradition of people working in-home, in service in the home to support women and allow them to be freed up from the responsibility for the day-to-day care of kids. What do you think?
Ms. SOTO: Yes, I agree with that. My husband is Dominican. We often visit Dominican Republic, and one of his cousins, a woman, is a judge. She's got a five-year-old, a one-year-old, she's got extended family able to help her with her children, as well as outside help that can come in and assist her with raising her family. So that definitely plays a significant role.
I think, also, in reading in the article, you will note that there were Girl Scouts and other young women who, while they had definite qualities - the characteristics of a leader, they somehow felt that translating - either translating those qualities into what that mold is or how they perceive that mold is to be a politician, they were either dismayed by it or didn't feel comfortable with it or question their capabilities.
And I would counter that it's not necessarily so much that women need to change, but maybe we need to change that mold or the way we perceive politicians.
MARTIN: So let me put you on the spot. The workshop you attended, it sounded like you did really well. You got great reviews, particularly for your speaking. It sounds like you were a very effective volunteer, which is often the way that women get into office. So, in for a nickel, in for a dollar? You ready to do it?
Ms. SOTO: Am I ready to do it?
MARTIN: Yeah.
Ms. SOTO: I'm running, yes. And it will be - I'm running for public office - it will be sooner rather than later. When I left the training I was putting myself more in a five to seven-year track. I'm thinking closer to a two to three-year track. Not - in addition to just having those traditional characteristics of being a strong leader - the effective communication skills, the bridging different cultural divides are things both within - the cultural divides, as well as within the public and the private sector - I think something that we've kind of lost sight of is that being a public servant also requires a certain amount of selflessness.
MARTIN: Okay.
Ms. SOTO: And I can honestly say I didn't fully understand the term selflessness until I became a mother.
MARTIN: Okay, well, we have to leave it there. Jennifer James Soto, you heard it here first. We'll be watching. She was featured in this Sunday's cover story for The Washington Post magazine. It's an article about encouraging women to run for political office. Jennifer, thank you.
Ms. SOTO: Thank you.
MARTIN: You can read the piece, "Leading the Way," by writer Vanessa Gezari by going to the TELL ME MORE page at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
