ELECTIONS : Women’s Place, Increasingly, Is in Government : Change: Society prepares females to lead, many observe. ‘We’re more astute about who’s lying.’

With women winning big in the South Bay’s state legislative and congressional elections this week, voters--and the female victors themselves--are busy speculating on what the changes will bring.

At the Del Amo Fashion Center Thursday afternoon, Betty Costilow, 65, a retired accountant and office manager, welcomed the results of Tuesday’s elections.

“They’re finally figuring out that there are women around who can do more than make chocolate chip cookies,” said Betty Costilow, 65, a retired accountant and office manager who said she enjoyed casting a nearly all-female ballot.

“Women can cut through the crap quicker,” she said, laughing. “We’re more astute about who’s lying and who isn’t.”

But some men at the mall said the rising tide of women in government spells trouble.

“I don’t think they belong there,” said John Beye, 48, an aerospace worker from Carson. “I think the woman’s place is in the home, like the Bible says. . . . Pretty soon we’ll have a woman for President and we’ll be set back 200 years.”

Prompting such debate were victories by numerous women in several key South Bay legislative races Tuesday. Among the winners were Democrat Jane Harman in the coastal South Bay and Westside congressional race, and Debra Bowen, Betty Karnette and Juanita McDonald--all Democrats--in three of the South Bay’s four Assembly races.

In parts of the South Bay, women will soon be serving at every level of government. Torrance Mayor Katy Geissert, for example, presides over a council that includes two female members. Bowen is the city’s newly elected state Assembly representative and Harman is its representative in the U.S. House.

And that’s not to mention Torrance’s--and California’s--two U.S. senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Kate Karpilow, executive director of the nonpartisan California Elected Women’s Assn. for Education and Research, said she has seen what she calls “a trickle-up effect” as women slowly have worked their way into positions of greater political power.

“Anita Hill certainly galvanized the voters, the women’s (political action committees) certainly empowered them, but the women were finally in place, serving at the local level, ready to make their bids for higher office,” she said.

Women bring something different to the political process, she said. Traditionally raised to be wives and mothers, they have been “socialized as caretakers, and are more prone to the consensus-building process,” she said.

“Our social training can be exquisite training for local government, and higher office as well,” Karpilow said. “If you’re a mom and you have five kids, your goal is to have as little squabbling as possible. Certainly a lot of women on five-member councils face the same challenge.”

Karnette, a Long Beach schoolteacher who upset Republican incumbent Gerald Felando in the San Pedro-based 54th Assembly District, says female legislators will be less likely than men to let their egos get in the way of lawmaking.

“It’s like teaching in a class,” she said. “The boys have to do their act, and I think that women just go ahead and do the work.”

Congresswoman-elect Harman, whose new district stretches from San Pedro to Venice, said the new “critical mass of women” in government at all levels will allow them to collaborate and empathize with their constituents in a wholly different way.

“Too much time has been spent on turf fights and unproductive activity,” she said. “We can get past that now .. . . Women, more than men, are the support troops of their families. That will keep our legislators humble and in touch with a lot of the issues central in people’s minds.”

And men appreciate that fact, some of the South Bay’s newly elected women say.

“Men have come to realize that we do have something to bring to the table and it’s not just good looks,” said McDonald, who leaves the Carson City Council to represent the 55th Assembly District, which includes Wilmington and Compton. “I have talked with men who have said, ‘Well, the mess we’re in, it’s about time someone fixes it, and we just feel that the women can fix it.’ ”

Bowen, a political newcomer who won the coastal 53rd Assembly District stretching from Redondo Beach to Venice, said 1992 was the first year being a woman was considered an asset rather than a liability.

“There is this perception that women are not part of the broken, old system,” she said. “Women are more likely to seek win-win solutions. It’s not the old sports model which says that I can only win if you lose.”

A voter put it more simply.

“Men have been running things too long and look at how it’s turned out,” said Linda Gottfried, 27, of Lawndale. “We used to say behind every good man is a good woman. There’s a lot to that. But now we’re dealing straight on with the good women.”

One City’s Legislative Lineup If you live in Torrance, nearly all your top elected legislators will be women next year. Among them are the women pictured, all of whom--except for Torrance council veteran Katy Geissert--were elected Tuesday. Katy Geissert: Mayor

Debra L. Bowen: Assemblywoman

Jane Harman: Congresswoman

Barbara Boxer: U.S. senator

Dianne Feinstein: U.S. senator