Burke Advises Women on Way the Race Is Won

Former U.S. Rep. Yvonne Burke, citing the accomplishments of women athletes at the 1984 Olympics and the vice-presidential candidacy of Geraldine Ferraro, urged women at a daylong conference at Rancho Santiago College to utilize “non-traditional alternatives” in seeking elective office and political power.

Now a member of the UC Board of Regents, Burke was the keynote speaker Saturday at a conference called “The Political Woman,” presented by the Women’s Coalition of Orange County and the Women’s Programs and Services Committee of the recently renamed Santa Ana institution.

Female Olympians, especially those in distance events like the marathon, “gave more people enthusiasm and strength” than those sitting in the stands at the Coliseum, said Burke, the third black woman elected to the House of Representatives.

“This was the first time women were allowed to really participate in distance running,” she said, and many of them later testified that they would not have been able to do so without federal legislation mandating equal spending for women’s athletics by schools receiving federal aid.

Such scholarships, Burke said, enabled women to prepare for professions as well as to participate in sports.

The attorney and former three-term Democratic congresswoman said she thought “it was very important” that Ferraro was on the 1984 Democratic ticket, despite the difficulties of the campaign.

“It’s pretty tough to criticize a woman running for the Board of Equalization when there’s a woman running for vice president of the United States,” she said. “It’s even tough to criticize a woman becoming supervisor in her factory.”

The attendant problems of running for office, Burke said, were real, and not confined to women or those on the national ticket.

“You have to be willing to be subject to public scrutiny, and all those around you will be subject to public scrutiny, and that public scrutiny will not always be flattering,” she said.

In her own unsuccessful race for attorney general in 1978, Burke’s opponent, George Deukmejian, raised the issue of her husband’s involvement in the health care field. Burke responded that she refrained from voting on health care issues while in Congress and that her husband, William A. Burke, was no longer involved in the field.

Such questions, Burke told the Orange County women, were “a reality of political life.”

Excellent Way to Prepare

At the federal level, Burke told the group, an internship or a staff position with a member of Congress is an excellent way for a woman to prepare for elective office.

“If you want to move into politics today,” she said, “33% of those who are getting elected to Congress are getting elected because they are the administrative assistants, they’re the legislative assistants.”

Staff work, even as an intern, provides experience in learning how a congressional office operates, she told the several hundred women attending the conference. At another level, staff work offers an introduction to political fund-raisers, as well as learning the mechanics of raising the large amounts of money required to run for most political offices.

Seizing an issue before it becomes the issue of the day is another alternative to traditionally male-dominated routes to political power, Burke said.

“You have to learn how to take on an issue, and not the most popular issue,” she said. Women politicians who have had success in a relatively short period of time often did so because “they found an issue and became politically known as a result of that issue,” she said.

One of the Best Examples

These “were not always issues I agreed with,” she added, interrupted by laughter. “Bobbi Fiedler, I think, is one of the best examples of a person who found an issue and became a political success.”

Rep. Fiedler (R-Northridge) first became well-known for her opposition to school busing in Los Angeles.

Historically, men have entered the political mainstream through machine politics, as a result of great personal wealth or after being appointed to a highly visible position, Burke said.

“Those alternatives have not traditionally been available to women,” she said. Thus, she said, “we tap into political life not in the traditional way.”

Affirmative action, Burke said, is another alternative route.

When an equally qualified man and woman are being considered for an appointive post, “Should we still continue to be the ones (passed over) because we don’t play golf with the person who makes the decision?” she asked. Nor should women be intimidated by being the beneficiaries of affirmative action, she said. “Don’t let anyone place that kind of guilt on you.”

“It’s important for us to pound away,” she said, “whether it’s in business or labor. . . . You know, education is probably one of the best examples. We have teachers and teachers and teachers and teachers, but . . . how many chancellors do we have? We somehow have to be in policy-making positions wherever we aspire.”

Frustrated Expecations

A significant portion of Burke’s remarks dealt with the problems brought about by the success of the women’s movement, including frustrated expectations and indifference.

“The fact that you fought the battle doesn’t mean that you have great gains today,” she said, “but ultimately there are so many other benefits.”

At the same time, she cautioned, “with success and with achievement you get into more competitive and more difficult issues as you move ahead.”

Such an issue is comparable worth, she said, which “gets right to the core of the economic system.” In a city such as San Francisco, with a woman mayor and a deficit, the reality is that “it’s expensive if you do pay people what they’re worth,” Burke said.

“With success you lose part of your constituency,” according to Burke, who said that she sometimes encounters upwardly mobile young professional women who are more concerned with becoming a company vice president than having anything to do with the women’s movement.

“I try to explain to them somehow that they are there not because they’re beautiful and bright. There have always been bright and beautiful women who were very qualified,” she said, “but somehow no one ever happened to put them in as vice president. The reason is that there has been a whole process of bringing them into that position.”