Congresswoman speaks on suffrage

Fifty-one percent of America's total population is female -- a five million-person difference between the sexes. Yet women in Congress comprise only 15 percent of the legislative body's 535 members. Members of the Monroe County Democratic Women's Caucus say it doesn't have to stay that way.\nThe caucus invited the first woman and first black person Indiana's Seventh District had ever elected to Congress, U.S. Rep. Julia Carson, to speak Friday at the group's Women's Equality Day benefit dinner at Phi Delta Kappa International Inc. The dinner recognized the 85th anniversary of women's suffrage, \n"(The Women's Caucus) stalked me to the point and hung around my door -- yes, they lobbied at my door -- so, I came," said Carson, who has served in the House since 1997. "And it was very gracious of them to have me."\nState Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, introduced Carson to an audience roughly four-fifths female. Simpson spoke to Carson's courage as Indiana's only black female in Congress.\nCarson took the podium following a performance given by WomenSpeak. An emotional skit outlined famous speeches from America's first suffragists. The group highlighted famous women associated with suffrage, both past and present.\n"Hopefully Carson was inspired by what we read with WomenSpeak and (the speech) encourages women to follow in her footsteps and run for Congress," said Regina Moore, Bloomington city clerk and chair of the caucus.\nCarson conveyed what she saw as the current state of women in politics and society.\n"We still have major economic problems with women," she said. "Women and equality is like an impossible dream, like that song from 'Man of La Mancha.'"\nCarson criticized the policies of the current Bush administration, which she deemed as "not particularly friendly" to women's issues or to minorities. She also fired verbal shots at Christian media guru Pat Robertson, who recently gained national attention for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. \nCarson wasn't finished with her ideological adversaries. She accused President George W. Bush of preying on the emotionalism of Americans. \n"We got leaders who have messed up America's reputation," she said. "They should just leave people alone and stop meddling."\nShe also took care to mention that not all women politicians make women's rights their main priority.\nIn the end, Carson seemed tempted to let history speak for itself.\n"I'm going to close," she concluded. "I had a speech for y'all, but yours was so good, how am I going to follow that? How am I going to follow Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and them?\n"It took 144 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence ... for women to gain suffrage in 1920 because of the Constitution's usage of the single word 'male.'"\nWomenSpeak reader Rachel Kearney recalled her family's suffrage history. \n"My mother was 17 years old when the 19th Amendment was ratified," she said. "Even though she was too young to vote yet, it changed her way of thinking. She felt empowered. Before, her husband spoke for her. Her father had always spoken for her. Finally, she spoke for herself"