"You get these used-car salesmen and all of a sudden, they get elected and people are calling them chairman and all these cute women are so polite to them." "Everyone I know who's a state lobbyist has a million stories," says the longtime lobbyist. Outside Washington, the atmosphere might be even more risky for female lobbyists. Arlan Stangeland claimed that there was nothing romantic about the several hundred long-distance phone calls he made to or from the residences of a female lobbyist in 19. In 2000, former House Ways and Means Committee chairman Bill Thomas was forced to write a letter denying that his affair with a health care lobbyist was a conflict of interest. Bob Packwood was pressured to resign in 1995 after allegations emerged that he'd sexually assaulted at least 10 female lobbyists and staff members. "It is obviously more of a problem for women, so they have to be cognizant that they could be perceived that way, as having other relations going on than business."Īnd women lobbyists have had plenty of reasons to be wary of men on Capitol Hill. More than one-third of lobbyists in Washington are women, according to research cited by Denise Benoit Scott, the author of "The Best Kept Secret: Women Corporate Lobbyists, Policy & Power in the United States." Everyone I know who's successful looks the part." I don't know any fat successful women lobbyists. "I know plenty of big old fat guys who are successful lobbyists. She says that female lobbyists are expected to make themselves attractive.
You don't want to send the wrong signal." If you don't, you're a feminist bitch that no one wants to work with. "If someone didn't grab your butt once a week, you were like 'What's wrong with me?' When you walk into a room, they say, 'Well our day just brightened up.' In my own judgment, you have to sort of roll with it. "There are always comments," says one longtime lobbyist who requested anonymity. The accusation against Iseman did not surprise some female lobbyists, who acknowledged that gender dynamics in Washington are complicated and sometimes force them to carefully calibrate their meetings with congressmen and their male staff members. McCain has vehemently denied that their relationship was less than professional. Iseman, a lobbyist for telecommunications companies, was told by McCain advisers, who "were convinced that the relationship had become romantic," to stay away from the senator in 2000, according to yesterday's explosive story in The New York Times. John McCain illustrates, women still need to walk a fine line when it comes to currying favor with male politicians, especially at the state level. Since then, lobbying is one area in which Washington has lost much of its sexist attitude and brought thousands of respected women to the field.īut, as the case of Vicki Iseman's controversial relationship with Sen. There was a "growing inclination to use the gentler sex in manipulating the political wires," according to newspaper accounts cited in "The Story of the White House" by Esther Singleton.
When female lobbyists, known as wire-pullers, first started to appear in the White House in 1866 when Andrew Johnson was president, they were often considered more influential than their male peers. 22, 2008 — - "Relying on the deference usually paid to the sex, they thrust themselves in where the most venturesome man would be repulsed and once obtaining the official ear they plead their cause with a pertinacity that will not be denied." - Anonymous
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