Telejournalist Cokie Roberts discusses women in politics

Had women not voted in the numbers and direction they did in the 1996 presidential elections, Bill Clinton would not be president today. As ABC News Special Correspondent Cokie Roberts told the crowd of University alumnae gathered at the Palladium last Friday, there is a "gender gap" in the way men and women vote in political elections. Roberts' address, "Women and Politics," was part of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Trustees Council of Penn Women -- the same group that brought several speakers, including first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, to campus last week. Pamela Petre Reis, chairperson of the Trustees Council, said the organizers invited Roberts to speak at the celebration because "she could really bring an insight" to many of the issues discussed by the group last week, especially "civil action." Roberts -- who is also a news analyst for National Public Radio, a panelist on This Week and a frequent substitute anchor on ABC's Nightline -- recapped the history of women's suffrage and relayed its significance to the current political process. "It was not until 1980 that women finally showed up at the polls -- 60 years after getting the vote," she said. Until the last decade, women consistently voted in smaller numbers than did men. And when they did go to the polls, women voted in line with male voters, usually their husbands. "From then on, politicians ignored the women voters" and introduced legislation that hurt women, Roberts explained. But since 1980, when women began arriving at the polls in higher numbers and voting for different candidates than men, political experts such as Roberts have identified a "gender gap" which she said "we have seen it in every election since." In 1996, former Sen. Bob Dole and President Clinton were tied at the polls among men voters, and it was the female voters who called the shots, she added. "Clinton's victory relied completely on the women's vote," Roberts said. She added that the recent influx of legislation in Congress that benefit women -- such as domestic violence, child support and pension legislation -- is a direct response by politicians to the gender gap. A strong representation of women in Congress is also important for the passage of pro-woman legislation, Roberts said. She told undergraduate women hoping to run for office in the future to "go for it." "It's terribly important for women and children and families to have women in office," she added. And what about predictions for the election of a woman president in the near future? Roberts told her audience that the first female president will be a Republican candidate, but said it will most likely be a woman vice president who will "get the job when the guy dies." "That's all right with me," Roberts said. "We get a lot of things through inheritance."