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These changes were none too solid, though. When the soldiers returned home, they wanted their jobs back, and all the pressures of a male-run society combined to create the age of domesticity and "togetherness," and a baby boom in suburbia. The few women who kept claiming a political role came to be regarded as harmless or eccentric. The formidable Margaret Chase Smith, who served 23 years in the Senate, most of them as the lone woman there, was occasionally mentioned as a possible Republican vice-presidential candidate. But it was typical of the times that when somebody asked her what she would do if she suddenly woke up and found herself in the White House, she answered, "I'd go straight to Mrs. Truman and apologize. Then I'd go home." When Smith made history in 1964 by being the first woman to have her name placed in nomination as a major party-candidate for the presidency, she was dismissed with exactly 27 convention votes.
Vice-presidential bids were more common. As early as 1924, the Democratic Convention considered, and rejected, South Carolina Committeewoman Lena Springs. The last strong bid was by Frances ("Sissy") Farenthold of Texas, who won 404 Democratic delegate votes in 1972 but was beaten by Thomas Eagleton. The small parties that occupy the fringes of American politics have been more willing to support women. In 1980 there were seven nominations for the No. 2 spot, including LaDonna Harris as vice-presidential choice of the Citizens Party and Angela Davis as that of the Communists. Such gestures, however, remained little more than that.
Even after two decades of renewed political activism among women, equality remains a goal rather than a reality. In 1982 only 55 women ran for the 435 House seats, and only 21 won. Only three women ran for the Senate, and all three lost. In 1974 Ella Grasso of Connecticut became the first woman to win a governorship without having followed her husband into the statehouse. Today Kentucky's Martha Layne Collins is the only female Governor out of 50.
Why do more than 50% of Americans still hold less than 5% of the elected political positions? The easy answer is that attitudes are slow to change. As recently as May 1983, a Gallup poll indicated that 16% of both men and women would oppose a qualified woman from their party for President. Hardly less important, though, is that men have clung to the machinery of politics. Various political-action committees donated $35 million to the last congressional elections, and $31 million of that went to incumbents. Of the little available to challengers, women got 7%. Click. —ByOttoFriedrich