In a Season of the ‘Angry Woman,’ Where’s the Passion?

This year--in a shocking development--being a woman could actually be an asset in politics. In the past, womanhood was an unfortunate accident of nature, something candidates for high political office had to overcome, downplay, compensate for.

But now, thanks in part to last fall’s swaggeringly macho performance of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings and the erosion of women’s unrestricted access to abortion, female candidates have come out angry, swinging and on top.

In California, we face the exciting prospect of a political first: We could become the first state to have two female senators.

In other states, two women won long-shot Senate primaries this spring, and their victories seemed to be based on the strength of their gender, not in spite of it. Former Illinois state Rep. Carol Moseley Braun was so disgusted by what she saw and heard during the Hill/Thomas hearings she decided to run against three-term incumbent Alan Dixon. In March, she won the Democratic primary. If she wins in November, she’ll become the nation’s first black woman senator.

In April, a virtually unknown fund-raiser for women’s causes, Lynn Yeakel, won an upset over Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Come November, Yeakel will face Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate, pro-choice Republican, who was among the most merciless interrogators of Hill.

Yeakel’s television ads featured a clip of Specter grilling Hill and the voice-over: “Did this make you as angry as it made me?”

In California, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are running strong in the polls--Feinstein for the two years remaining on the Senate seat occupied by Republican John Seymour, and Boxer for the six-year seat opened up by Alan Cranston’s retirement.

Unfortunately, both women seem reluctant to tap into the pool of anger that Braun and Yeakel have used to such advantage.

A word of unsolicited advice to each (and something I never thought I’d write): Exploit your gender, women!

Political analysts say that the senators from California will, in all likelihood, be elected on the strength of their television campaigns. The state is simply too big to win on personal appearances.

But so far, TV ads for Boxer and Feinstein feature virtually nothing about the anger women are feeling, the very anger that could propel them to victory.

In one of hers, Boxer, who has compiled an exemplary record on women’s issues during her nine years in Congress and is a galvanizing public speaker, includes an all-too-brief shot of the Thomas/Hill hearings with a message about the Senate being “out of touch.” But that’s it--a near-subliminal appeal. This seems a mistake, considering she was one of seven Democratic congresswomen who strode into the Senate last October to demand that Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment be investigated.

Former San Francisco Mayor Feinstein’s oft-aired ads focus on rebuilding the economy and retraining laid-off workers. Only one touches on her pro-choice position and her interest in women’s health issues, particularly breast cancer.

Well and good, but frankly, not particularly passionate, not very likely to arouse the Angry Woman factor. Both women play to it in their stump speeches, but that’s not enough.

In order for the female vote to materialize, it must be courted. And even then, it’s an iffy entity.

This we know from, among other contests, the 1984 presidential election. Remember the eddy of excitement that swirled around Geraldine Ferraro when Walter Mondale chose her as running mate? The choice seemed daring, exciting and sure to create gender-driven momentum for Mondale.

Women did not rush across the great divide. The “women’s vote” in fact never materialized. Mondale captured only 41% of the popular vote to Ronald Reagan’s 59%. It was a humiliation of near-historic proportion. And women went back to the drawing boards.

But this year, something feels different.

For one thing, record numbers of women are running for Congress--25 for the Senate and 188 for the House. Redistricting and the high number of congressional retirements have opened many seats. And anti-incumbency fever is running high. Those facts alone pretty much guarantee the number of congresswomen will increase.

For another, contributions, largely from women, are swelling the coffers of Democratic and Republican organizations that back women candidates. In politics, money is the root of all attention.

And it would be a mistake to discount the currents of popular culture: Two books by feminist authors are or have been on best-seller lists (“The Revolution Within” by Gloria Steinem and “Backlash” by Susan Faludi).

This could be the year of the Angry Woman Vote. But angry women voters need angry women candidates.

So far, in California, we don’t seem to have any.