 This month's focus:
Leslie Paul Thiele
"The growth in the number of our faculty and the quality of our programs is very exciting, particularly because we are seeking and finding scholars who bridge various fields within the department and the discipline."
Examining a Political Hot Potato Political scientists Jim
Button and Ken Wald
talk about the tumultuous progress of gay rights legislation in America
New Perspectives on Religion in the Americas A report from
Culture and Conflict in International Relations by Errol Henderson, Political Science
The Preservation of UF
Center for African Studies Awarded
International Colloquium Honors
Matheson Center Recognizes CLAS Luncheon Honors Outgoing Associate Deans Dickison Named President of
Feagin Elected President of ASA
CLAS Couple Know Fire Firsthand The Davises of Zoology recount the Waldo fire
A new book from Criminology.
Grants Grant Awards for
Back Issues |
  Peggy Conway,
Political Science
Women who were employed outside the home prior to the 1960s were usually in secretarial, sales (clerks), teaching or nursing jobs. "Changes in the employment law that were in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied to women as well as minorities and opened up the entire range of employment," says Conway. Women continued to fight stereotypes in order to gain access to certain kinds of training, although amendments to the Higher Education Act passed in 1972 (which called for non discrimination in admissions and financial aid awards) set the stage for far wider acceptance of women and minorities into fields that had up until then been predominately white and male. "Resistance to women in higher education has varied," says Conway, whose second edition of Women and Public Policy: A Revolution in Progress (originally published in 1995) is currently in the proofreading stage with CQ Press. "And, unfortunately, there are still disciplines wherein it's extremely difficult for women to succeed." In the new edition of Women and Public Policy, Conway and her co-authors monitor policy changes in education, health care, employment, housing, retirement, insurance, child care, criminal justice and economic equity, which Conway describes as "basic access to credit, housing, insurance, and pensions." While education and employment have seen the biggest gains for women, Conway says the glass ceiling remains a serious reality for women in business. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that those promoted to a company's elite leadership positions are usually required to have experience heading up some aspect of the business operations first. "Women still tend to be concentrated in what we call 'staff jobs,' like human relations, personnel, communications or financial management," explains Conway, "and not in the operating jobs which will get them to the highest levels." Combining a family and a career is the other common dilemma for working women. "The basic problem for many women is still good child care," says Conway, "but those who get into the higher levels also have to balance family demands with corporate demands, and that's very difficult to do." To illustrate this point, Conway tells the story of Brenda Barnes, a member of senior management at Fortune 500 company Pepsico, who recently quit to spend time with her three children. Her resignation generated a good bit of controversy, especially among working women who viewed her as a trail blazer. "A lot of women were upset because she was one of the few who could have made president or CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and she just quit," says Conway. Her departure from the corporate world indicates how far we have yet to go in shaping equitable employment policy and finding better ways for individuals, both men and women, to combine demanding careers with family responsibilities. While women may not yet have equal presence in the board room, they are making themselves heard at the polls. In her 1997 co-authored book, Women and Political Participation, Conway discusses the positive trend in women's voting behavior. "Women turn out a lot more than they use to," she says. "Until 1980, they did not vote in presidential elections at the same level of turnout as men. But from 1980 through 1996, women voted at the same level or higher levels that men did." The larger percentage of women showing up at the polls has given them a significant new political power, particularly because women tend to vote down certain gender lines. "The issues that women are most concerned about and that they tend to emphasize in voting choices are what are known as the 'compassion' issues: education, welfare, Social Security...human well-being issues," says Conway. "Men might focus more on economic issues, foreign policy issues, defense or national security. This different focus on issues leads to a different perception of the political parties. Women tend to favor the Democratic party more than men do, and this gets its significance--as long as turn out rates are equal--in the fact that there are more women than there are men of voting age. Depending on the distribution of voting patterns in the states for example, women can have a huge impact on outcomes of presidential elections because of the importance of the largest states in the Electoral College vote which actually elects the president. Their voting patterns can even have significant impact on midterm elections." For example, some political analysts trace the landslide Republican victories in 1994 (when the party took control of the House for the first time in many years) back to a significant drop in female support for the Democratic party from 1992 to 1994. If women had gotten out in greater numbers to vote between presidential elections or been more supportive of Democratic party candidates, they might have changed the course of a historic election. Conway, recently promoted to Distinguished Professor, came to UF in 1989 from the University of Maryland, where she worked for 26 years. How was Florida lucky enough to lure her away from the place she made her name? "UF has a good department with a lot of people doing research that's of interest to me," she says. "It's very strong in American politics and political behavior [her primary interests], and the graduate program is very well organized and structured to do a good job in training doctoral students. "I've always wanted to live in Florida, too," she adds, "so that didn't hurt."
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