Sen. Mikulski charms audience with wit

Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski, the second woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate, spoke to a packed room of about 400 students and faculty yesterday evening, as part of the Annenberg School for Communication's "Women and Politics" lecture series. Annenberg Dean Kathleen Hall Jamieson introduced Mikulski as the "funniest, wittiest, smartest, savviest woman I know in politics and outside of it." Mikulski, who was elected to her second term in the Senate in 1992 by a sweeping 71 percent of the vote, reflected on the path a woman should take if she hopes to "break the glass ceiling" of the male-dominated world of politics. She said that while alumni and "boardroom" connections have helped men land positions of political power, women have succeeded by working their way up to Capitol Hill from local politics and even Parents and Teachers Association meetings. Oregon Senator Pat Murray -- who in her election campaign described herself as a "mom in tennis shoes" --started out as the head of her PTA, Mikulski said. "Most women don't realize they are getting started in politics," Mikulski said. "They see a compelling need and take a risk and run for office." She then spoke of her own struggle to a seat in the Senate. "I didn't always wear a senatorial robe, size 14 petite," Mikulski said. "In my generation, [women] didn't think about politics." She said that while growing up, she saw politicians as "pot-bellied guys, smoking cigars, hanging out in rooms I didn't want to be a part of." Mikulski's first step towards politics came in a Baltimore church meeting in 1968, when a group of residents gathered to discuss the state's plan to construct a 16-lane highway which would cut through "many old ethic neighborhoods," she said. Outraged at the idea of losing the Polish neighborhood of her youth to tar and speed limit signs, Mikulski began a campaign, the Southeast Counsel Against the Road -- SCAR. "I wanted to use a militant name with the illusion of power," she said. Mikulski said she gained local popularity when she said in a speech about the SCAR campaign, "The British couldn't take Fell's Point, the termites couldn't take Fell's Point, and the State Roads Department sure can't take Fell's Point." After this speech, she added, "a star was born." Basing the next part of her speech on her experiences, Mikulski discussed the way women politicians are portrayed by the media. She said she objects to the often-used label for 1992 as the "Year of the Woman." "It's like we only get one year per century," Mikulski said. "The Year of the Cat, the Year of the Monkey, the Year of the Woman." She also said that the media's descriptions of women politician's makeup and clothes "minimize and trivialize" them. Mikulski said women politicians are "penalized" by the press for their marital status as well. "If you're married, you must be neglecting him, if you're divorced you couldn't keep him, if you're a widow, then deep down inside, you know you must have killed them," she said, to the amusement of the audience. She also noted that the press often criticizes women politicians for being "either too soft-spoken or too hard-spoken." Jamieson said she agreed. She said that women politicians, like their male counterparts, should not "have to carry the extra burden of adjectives." Some students, many of whom are in Jamieson's class Communications 226, said they were impressed by Mikulski's lecture. "It was very empowering," College sophomore Heather Dorf, who is currently hosting UTV's talk show "Something to Talk About," said. Misbah Tahir, also a College sophomore, said "it was great to see the women [in the audience] all fired up and excited about [Mikulski's] job." But College senior Shelly Bruxvoort said she was disappointed by the lecture. "It was a little hyped up by Jamieson," she said. The lecture series, which brought Mikulski to campus, also sponsored former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's visit to the University last spring.