In all the ink that’s been spilled over the political blows recently landed on Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney – from being booted out of her House Republican leadership post to suffering an ignominious defeat in this week’s GOP primary – few references have been made to her gender.
One might argue this is progress. Who cares any more about gender? It’s become irrelevant.
Guess what. It has not. Fact is that Cheney’s being a woman matters. This is not to say that had this same virulent anti-Trump crusader been a man the outcome would have been entirely different. Rather it is to argue it would have been somewhat different. Her two defeats less complete.
Like all leaders, Liz Cheney must be put in context. Which is to say she must be put in the context of being a Republican woman from the state of Wyoming who is a member of the U. S. House of Representatives.
The components of context that most obviously pertain are:
- A significant, persistent, partisan gap. In the 117th U. S. Congress there are 39 women out of a total of 212 Republicans, compared to 105 women out of a total of 224 Democrats. Put differently, of Republicans in the House less than one-fifth are women; of Democrats in the House almost half are women.
- A significant, persistent, gender gap. When it comes to women in politics at the level of the state, Wyoming ranks near the bottom. Less than 20% of the state’s elected officials are women.
Another way of looking at these numbers is in the context of what is considered a critical mass. Studies of when the presence of women begins to have an impact abound. Across the board anything less than 20% has been found too small for women’s voices effectively to be heard. It takes fully 30% of women for them to feel equal to men and, therefore, to act as, and be treated as, equals.
Bottom line is that in her home state of Wyoming, and in the U.S. House of Representatives, Elizabeth Cheney has been disadvantaged by being a woman. People, including pundits, have been reluctant to say this out loud. But the facts speak for themselves.