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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1984)
outlier 11 voters -may di s'oe 11 r The South, or at least the idea of the South, has risen again. Here we are at a convention that's destined to break down old ideas about women, and the same assembled pols seem compelled to shore up old ideas about geography. Back in 1976, the Democrats wondered whether the country would vote for a Southerner as Presi dent. In 1G84, they are wondering whether the South will vote for a woman as Vice President. The common wisdom here is that the choice of Geraldine Ferraro as Mondale's running mate was tantamount to writing off the heartland of chivalry and chauvinism. We are being told that "it" will not be attracted to the first co-ed ticket in American history. Indeed "it" may be repelled. egion al myth Ellen Goodman The emergence of Bert Lance was, in part, an attempt to deal with the perceived Southern prob lem. Having chosen Ferraro to attract women voters, Mondale, we are told, looked to Lance to placate the good old boys. Anytime you are dealing with an "it," you are talking generalities at best and stereotypes at worst. The notion that the South is a singular bastion of resistance to women in power gets up the dander of some of the most ardent Southern men. Jimmy Carter, for one, actually called the accusa tion "an insult" to the South, and them is fighting words. Fritz Hollings reared up at the very idea that the South was put off by powerful women, though he went on to praise Ferraro because "she doesn't come on too strong." The saga of the South and the Woman is probably as complex, as unsettled, as Fritz Hollings' remarks. But this is not universally hostile territory. When DNC political director Ann Lewis, for ex ample, is asked how badly women will play in the South, she likes to answer, "I was Just talking with Governor Collins about that." Martha Layne Collins, the governor of Kentucky, i3 the most prominent but not the only woman who has won statewide office across the South. At the moment, five Southern states have women handling their money as state treasurers, and three as state auditors, The picture in state legislatures is fairly dismal. Nine of the 10 states with the lowest percentage of women in state legislatures are in the South. But in fairness, women haven't run for these offices in great numbers. Then there is the census. As Ferraro said when asked about her Southern appeal, "Hey they've got women down there too." Indeed they do. The number of Southern women registered to vote jumped by 1.2 million from 1976 to 1982. The number of men increased by only 938,000. In Georgia in 1982, 55 percent of the voters were female, and women were a majority of voters in every Southern state except Louisiana. Of course, according the stereotype, the South would breed more traditional women, but in fact the gender gap is every bit as wide as the sunny states. , What about Ferraro then, not only a woman but an Italian Catholic from New York whose style, as she describes it, is net exactly "coy." She is definitely .not, if you will forgive one more stereotype, the Southern belle, or even the iron magnolia. Neither are most Southern women. They are, as Fritz Hollings noted, members of working families, like the one Ferraro grew up in. They are also old women, poor women, black women. Indeed Mary Landrieu, a state legislator from New Orleans, and daughter of former Mayor Moon Landrieu, says that the success of Ferraro as a ticket vote-getter will depend on keeping together the coalition with blacks, especially black women. lr Al Ji fV - tVV tft As for the notion that white Southern men are somehow unreconstructed, Ann Richards, the pop ular state treasurer who topped the Texas ticket in 1982, says: "When I decided to run, I heard every thing that you are hearing about Ferraro." Southern men, she says in nice turn of phrase, "are not reluctant to be convinced. When convinced, they become your greatest advocate. The difference is that, if you're a woman they want to see you and meet you. The thing men ask me is not about Ferra ro's qualifications, but do you know her? What's she like? Is she someone I can get along with? With a man you could go into the Rotary Club and say, This guy is our friend.' With a woman they'll want to see her." Continued on Page 6 r i . 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