Politics: The ascendance of ‘Mama Grizzlies’

last updated 8 January 2015

You’d think feminists would be happy, said Ross Douthat in The New York Times. In last week’s election primaries, women won major victories: Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in California’s gubernatorial and senate races, Nikki Haley in the South Carolina governor’s race, and Senate hopeful Sharron Angle in Nevada. But unlike in the past, when most female politicians were liberal, pro-choice Democrats, most of last week’s big winners were pro-life Republicans. Feminists are agonized, complaining that the GOP’s new breed aren’t feminists at all. But this election marked “a sea change” in American politics. Thanks to Sarah Palin’s vision of an “emerging conservative feminist identity,” this is now a country “where social conservatives are as comfortable as liberals with the idea of women in high office.” Like Palin, these “Mama Grizzlies” see politics as a means to defend families, free enterprise, and traditional American values.

But what if it’s “just another statistical blip?” said Barbara Kellerman in BloombergBusinessWeek.com. Pundits also proclaimed 1992 “the Year of the Woman,” after dozens of women—mostly Democrats—won seats in Congress and statehouses. Today, 18 years later, only 17 percent of congressional seats are held by women. Statistics in other power arenas are even more bleak—for example, only 3 percent of Fortune 500 companies were headed by women last year. We still have a long way to go, said Mary Sanchez in the Modesto, Calif., Bee. And with some Democratic women, including Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and California Sen. Barbara Boxer, in danger of losing their seats, November could prove to be an ideological shift but “a numerical wash.”

The chief Mama Grizzly will be sitting pretty either way, said Pat Buchanan in RealClearPolitics.com. Sarah Palin’s astute primary endorsements have positioned her perfectly for 2012, proving that she “acts not only out of instinct but cold calculation.” Her endorsement catapulted the formerly unknown Nikki Haley to front-runner status in the governor’s race in South Carolina—an early and important presidential primary state. In Iowa, meanwhile, Palin backed establishment Republican Terry Branstad, who defeated a more conservative opponent. If Branstad wins in November, he just might repay the favor by helping Palin in the crucial Iowa caucuses. So is 2010 the year of the conservative woman? Or will the real breakthrough come in 2012?