Bringing Mothers’ Perspectives to Capitol

Throughout history, California has sent more women to Congress than any other state--19 in all. The first woman to give birth while serving in Congress was a Californian, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in 1973. She’s now a Los Angeles County supervisor.

Today, both of the state’s U.S. senators are women, as are nine of the 52 members seated in the House. Only one, Rep. Andrea Seastrand, who represents the Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo area, is a Republican. And all are mothers.

As Mother’s Day approaches, members of Congress might not come to mind immediately. “Women are not the image of leaders that people have,” said Debbie Walsh of the Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “The image of a senator or a congressman is a man in a dark suit. [Women are] breaking the mold, and so when you are breaking the mold, it’s difficult.”

It can be done, these members of Congress will tell you, but not without special demands and attention.

It would be unfair to say that women use their motherhood for political advantage, but clearly, there is no doubt that they draw on experiences and motherly instincts no man can claim.

When Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) enters into any discussion involving welfare, child care, child support and working families, she speaks with authority.

“The average welfare recipient looks like I did 28 years ago,” says Woolsey, a former welfare mother. “I had 13 different child care situations the first year I went to work, when my kids were 1, 3 and 5 years old. . . . For some of these men who have wives at home to be deciding how necessary child care is, they need to hear a voice.”

Seastrand has voted to deny welfare payments to teenage mothers, end benefit increases to welfare mothers who have additional children and cut off all payments after two years.

But when President Clinton decided to send troops to Bosnia, she rose in opposition, saying it “didn’t pass the mother’s test” of when sons should be sent to war.

During a recent House subcommittee debate on military personnel issues, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills) took the unusual step of voting against a massive defense bill because it proposed the immediate discharge of service members who test positive for the virus that causes AIDS.

“I’m a married mother with four wonderful children--two sons and two daughters--and I think that by espousing the concept of fairness, I am making the world better for them,” Harman said.

Seastrand said Congress needs more mothers because they are more action-oriented.

“As an old schoolteacher, one of the things I would do is flick the lights of the classroom” to get the students’ attention. “Sometimes I want to flick the lights. . . . We get caught up in verbalizing, and I just want to say, ‘Let’s do it!’ ”

Sometimes, the children join in their mothers’ political fights.

When Woolsey lobbied against banning gays in the military, her gay stepson, now 33, was at her side. “I realized how my children are my partners . . . all four of them, in different ways. I also realized how brave my son is,” Woolsey said.

One day, the 11-year-old son of Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) was on the House floor during a vote to eliminate the Advanced Technology Program in the Science Committee budget.

“He gasped. He said, ‘What’s the matter with them?’ ” Lofgren recalled. Her son John then stood at one of the entrances and urged members to vote no and save the program. “This is a technology program. You’ve got to vote no,” Lofgren said he shouted, to no avail.

Justine Harman, 11, the youngest of the Harman children, isn’t a big fan of her mother’s job, the congresswoman said.

The day after the 1994 election “when I was down 93 votes, she said, ‘I want you to win, but if you lose, you’ll be home every day when I get home from school,’ ” Harman recalled. Another time, when Harman called to say she would be home late, her daughter asked: “Tell me why voting on unfunded mandates legislation is more important than coming home and putting me to bed.”

Recounting the call, Harman remarked, “I couldn’t answer it.”

Lofgren says that being a mother is always first and that the family strives to have dinner together each evening, although it’s tough sometimes, given quirky, late-night congressional schedules.

Coming home late one night after a long day of cantankerous debate and votes, Lofgren was greeted at the door by Sheila, her 14-year-old daughter.

“You can’t go to bed yet because I have to interview you for sex ed,” her daughter informed her.

Here it is, 10:45 p.m., Lofgren said she thought to herself, and she’s asking about sex education.

The survey ended by asking whether the exercise had been useful. “It’s only useful to me if it’s useful to you,” Lofgren told her daughter. “Nah,” her daughter replied, dismissing the need for the survey. “We talk about this stuff all the time.”

It was one of those perfect moments, Lofgren said, that let her know her family is surviving the strains of congressional life.

“Being bicoastal is not the ordinary life. But actually, working mothers put up with a lot of the same things I do,” she said. “No mother ever has things under control, but we’re happy.”