George Pfaltzgraff

A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Sept. 9.

Although the exact details aren’t available in the minutes of the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, a Dr. George Pfaltzgraff was given an administrative warning in 2002.

Pfaltzgraff remains an active member of the staff at Ellsworth Municipal Hospital in Iowa Falls, according to the Associated Press.

Sister Mary McCauley

McCauley will receive the honor on Aug. 29 at a special ceremony in the State Historical Building in Des Moines.

In the immediate wake of a May 2008 massive immigration raid at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, many immigrant families took refuge in St. Bridget’s Church. McCauley was instrumental not only in providing for the immediate needs of those seeking sanctuary, but in developing a plan of action to care for the women and children left behind.

Sister McCauley, speaking to The Iowa Independent roughly one month after the raid, said she’s been asked many times how the raid and its aftermath have affected the community and the congregation.

“I’ve thought about it and there are two words that describe it. This has shattered us, and it has strengthened us,” she said. When she opened her mouth to continue, at first no words came. Her eyes filled with tears, and she apologized as she reached into her pocket for a well-worn tissue. Her voice was soft but also resolute when she continued.

“When I say ’shattered,’ I mean that it shattered the families. It shattered the children who were running around and asking, ‘Where is my mother?’ or ‘Where is my father?’ Then there are the poor mothers who are left to care for their children. What is she going to do? How is she going to get back to Mexico? She doesn’t have any money. Should she go back? Should she remain? She is wondering how long her husband is going to be in jail. So, they are shattered, they are afraid, and they are filled with anxiety.

“At the same time, they have found strength and love, and they are giving it to one another. Our St. Bridget’s community and the Postville community and, really, the entire United States community have given strength. When we receive a letter, for example, from Los Angeles, that says that the writer is praying for us, with us, supporting us and concerned about us, then we know that we can go on another day.”

McCauley, along with other staff members at St. Bridget’s, helped organize public vigils, meetings and demonstrations. Although she does not speak Spanish, she became a both a media contact for the women left behind in Postville and a pillar of strength those in need knew would remain sturdy. She helped organize church staff, volunteers and like-minded agencies to provide legal clinics, medical exams, bill payment and many other services that were never highlighted on newscasts or in print.

“We are aware of some of the pain, suffering and injustice that you experienced in your home country and also upon arriving in the United States,” McCauley said to immigrants who gathered at the church for a prayer vigil on the one-year anniversary of the raid. “For any pain, suffering or injustice that we as individuals, our Postville community, our government or any of our citizens may have caused, we ask your forgiveness.”

Due to McCauley’s unfailing belief that an injustice has been served on immigrant families in Postville and elsewhere she has become a positive role model for those who seek comprehensive immigration reform. The stance has also made her, as well as the Catholic Church as a whole, a lightning rod for those who believe otherwise.

The Christine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice was established by the ICSW in 1982 in honor of the organization’s first chairwoman. During first four years under Wilson’s leadership Iowa passed legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in housing, credit and education as well as legislation that required recognition of the contribution of homemakers in inheritance tax determinations. The state also began funding and licensing child care center, created a process by which women could be considered for gubernatorial appointment, outlined the first progressive rape statute, and developed the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. As such, the medal holding her name is given to those individuals whose lives and work have illustrated outstanding dedication and service on behalf of the ideals of equality and justice.

At the same time as McCauley is honored the ICSW will also induct four new women into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. They are Linda K. Kerber of Iowa City, Mary E. Kramer of Clive, Adeline Lavonne McCormick-Ohnemus of Milo and Lyn Stinson of Burlington.

The press release is reprinted below.

WiLL President Sen. Nan Grogan Orrock (GA) announced the State Director appointment in Washington, DC, saying “Since her election to the Iowa Senate in 2006, Staci Appel has provided exemplary leadership on a number of issues important to her constituents and to Iowa.  Senator Appel has a legislative record that demonstrates a commitment to issues affecting children and senior citizens and the disadvantaged, as well as state budget and infrastructure needs.”

Orrock said that as a State Director of WiLL, Appel will work with the national non-partisan network of women legislators to influence federal legislation and budgetary policy.  Appel will work with women from all fifty states to amplify women’s voices, promote women’s leadership, and support a national agenda that promotes true homeland security and prosperity.

“With a membership base of one out of every three women legislators, WiLL is a strong voice for national policy to address family violence, to promote the health and well-being of women, children and families, to protect our environment, and to oppose bloated military spending that builds too many weapons and not enough schools,” stated Senator Orrock.

A total of 31 community-based domestic violence and sexual assault programs serve Iowa's 99 counties. Nine of those programs, however, are likely to close in the next year if $4 million in state funding for victim services is not maintained.

Iowans facing domestic violence or sexual assault are currently able to access crisis counseling, shelters and long-term support from a local program within driving distance. But if the state doesn’t soon find a way to maintain the $4 million that funds the programs, all that could change.

Local sexual assault and domestic violence programs rely on a combination of state, federal and private funds to maintain operation. Although the state provided funding for these programs as early as 1979, a number of changes and tight state budget years have dramatically eroded available state funding.

In 2002 the state budget to support these programs was eliminated, and nine programs were forced to close or merge. Subsequently money was taken from the Iowa Attorney General’s Victim Compensation Fund as a  stop-gap measure that would allow the remaining programs to continue operating. But the Victim Compensation Fund can no longer support the domestic violence and sexual assault victim assistance programs.

Realizing that the Victim Compensation Fund would not be able to serve its intended purpose — providing assistance to victims of violent crime — and continue to fund the domestic and sexual assault assistance programs, the Iowa attorney general’s office, the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault began pressing state officials several years ago for an independent budget line item.

While mindful of the current budget crunch, the dependent agencies also know that fiscal year 2009 will be the last year that Iowa’s domestic violence and sexual assault programs will receive $4 million via the Victim Assistance Grant line item.

“Something has to give,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. “We have advised the Legislature for several years that the Compensation Fund, which comes from various fines and penalties paid by criminals, would not always be able to fully fund both programs. Now we’ve hit that crunch time. We need the Legislature’s direct appropriation of funds again — as it did in years past — for the crucial network of local programs all over Iowa.”

Miller, who led a news conference Wednesday at the State Capitol, said the 31 programs are located in 27 counties, but they serve the entire state. Despite the budget crunch, Miller said the current funding levels must be maintained.

“It is difficult for me to ask for this funding in these hard financial times, but I believe this is a matter of justice and a matter of safety,” he said. “It’s a matter of justice because Iowa has a long record of assisting victims of crime, and not just punishing and rehabilitating criminals. And it’s a matter of safety and security and recovery for victims.”

The programs, according to Miller, provide “indispensable, life-saving services” that include helping victims with safety plans, finding safe houses for women and children, guiding people through the criminal justice system and helping those who fall prey to violent crime cope with the unforeseen costs of being a victim.

Budget requests, filed by the attorney general’s office in October, include a $3.2 million direct appropriation to the programs, ending the mandated link to the Victims Compensation Fund. The attorney general’s office would retain the legal authority to transfer money from the fund to the local programs, but only if such transfers were fiscally possible.

“This would put the Compensation Fund on a more solid footing and would permit the Office to pay victims their full benefits on a prompt basis,” wrote Miller in his October request letter.

Miller also requested an additional $850,000 for local crime victim service programs. This would provide $850,000 for fiscal year 2010 that was moved in fiscal year 2009 from the Forfeited Property Fund to the grant program fund to replace lost federal support.

According to Beth Barnhill, executive director of the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, rural Iowans will likely feel the brunt of any program cuts first.

“The programs most at risk are the rural programs that are heavily reliant on state funding,” she said. “They are unlikely to have local resources to make up the shortfall.”

Last year the Crime Victim Compensation Program served 5,249 Iowa victims of crime and paid $7.2 million of their out-of-pocket expenses.  The expenses included things such as victim counseling, medical care, funeral and burial expenses, child care required for court proceedings or medical treatment, and compensation of wages lost due to crime-related injuries or court appearances.

During that same time frame Iowa’s local domestic abuse and sexual abuse programs served 26,934 victims — 20,042 women, 5,294 children and 1,058 men. The programs provided 100,814 nights of safe shelter to 4,416 victims and children.

Local programs provide emergency shelters, counseling, medical advocacy, crisis hotlines, guidance for victims going through criminal justice proceedings and many other individualized services. Most of the local programs serve large geographical regions — some up to six or eight counties — with small, low-paid staffs of dedicated professionals.

On Sept. 27, 2007, the Iowa programs participated in a 24-hour “snapshot” or requested services in the state. The count from that day showed that services were provided to 813 individuals. But there were an additional 114 requests for services that could not be met because of a lack of resources.

The jury convicted Leonard Ray Russell on Sept. 12 after a four-day trial in Denison. Some of the alleged offenses took place at Big Earl’s Key Club, located in the same community.

“This case helped us understand that human trafficking is a much bigger problem in Iowa than most of us realized,” Miller said in a prepared statement. “It can be especially perilous for young people and disadvantaged kids, and it can occur in small towns. The underground nature of human trafficking makes it hard to fight, but the trafficking law is a valuable new tool and we will use it.”

Two Nebraska girls testified at the September trial that they met Russell in Omaha in August 2007, shortly after they had ran away from a juvenile home in Fremont, Neb. Aided by a 19-year-old prostitute named Marcia “Jazzie” Ryan, Russell befriended the girls and provided them with illicit substances.

Prosecutors alleged Russell, who has used addresses in both Sioux City and Omaha, Neb., took the girls to Davenport and Rockford, Ill. and then to Denison over the course of several days. At the locations, Russell was convicted of forcing the girls to engage in prostitution and perform at strip clubs, including Big Earl’s Key Club in Denison.

The girls testified that they didn’t like what they were doing and that they felt ashamed, but that they also believed they had no where to go. According to court testimony, the girls were required to give all money they earned to Russell and Ryan in exchange for food, shelter, transportation and clothing.

After the girls had been with Russell and Ryan for eight days, one of the girls — a 15-year-old — was placed on a bus to Washington, D.C. The girl was told that she was being sent to Russell’s cousin so she could learn to solicit sex. The other girl remained in Denison at the strip club and with Russell and Ryan.

An anonymous tip led law enforcement to the girl who remained in Iowa. The other girl was recovered and protected by law enforcement in Washington, D.C.

At trial local police and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation officers testified that they retraced the steps the girls took and located hotel receipts showing that Russell had rented rooms in the cities described by the girls. Investigators also found online postings that contained pictures of the girls and an offer to provide them as prostitutes.

The Iowa Code, Section 710, made human trafficking a felony if there is a victim under the age of 18. According to the Code, the crime is the participation in a venture to recruit, harbor, transport, supply provisions, or obtain a person for purposes ranging from forced labor to debt bondage to commercial sexual activity.

Russell was convicted on two counts of human trafficking, one count of ongoing criminal conduct and two counts of pandering, all classified as felonies. He was sentenced Monday by Crawford County District Court Judge Edward Jacobson of up to 25 years for the criminal conduct charge, and up to 10 years each on the human trafficking and pandering charges. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

Ryan, Russell’s alleged accomplice, was arrested in September in Omaha on an active warrant. She was earlier charged with the same counts Russell faced in Iowa, pleaded “not guilty,” and her case is pending.

While Russell’s case was the first to be successfully prosecuted under the additions to the 2006 Iowa Code, there was a high-profile federal case on human trafficking tried in Iowa during 2007. Staff from the Cedar Rapids Gazette created a 14-part special report on that case, which involved a Minnesota teen and an eastern Iowa prostitution ring.

The “conscience protection” rule, published Friday in the Federal Register, will take effect the day before President George W. Bush leaves office. It is especially troublesome to those in moderate- to low-income households who rely on federally funded clinics and other health care options.

“At a time when more and more Americans are either uninsured or struggling with the soaring costs of health care, the federal government should be expanding, not hampering, access to important health services,” said Louise Melling, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Reproductive Freedom Project.

Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, however, described the new rule as a necessary protection for medical providers.

“Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,” said Leavitt in a statement printed on the agency’s Web site. “This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience.”

Though written to address moral and religious objection to abortion, the new rule is not limited to the one issue. It also encompasses birth control, emergency contraception, in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, assisted suicide and any other health care event or service in which a moral concern could arise.

Because of its potentially far-reaching effects, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, referred to the new rule as “a huge victory” and said “the lack of regulations has resulted in confusion and a lack of awareness” that health care providers could morally opt out of certain procedures.

Health care providers — hospitals, clinics, universities, pharmacies and doctor’s offices — could be charged with discrimination if an employee, including a doctor, nurse, aide or receptionist, is pressured to be involved in patient care that is “contrary to their religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

In short, a receptionist in an OB-GYN’s office could refuse on moral grounds to set appointments for patients seeking birth control. If the doctor subsequently fires the receptionist for doing so, the receptionist could sue on grounds of discrimination, and any federal funding received by the office could be in danger.

“This last-minute regulation is a ‘gift’ to the anti-choice opposition, allowing anyone associated with your health to deny you care for a host of moral or religious reasons,” Jill June, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa, wrote in an e-mail to supporters today.

“The far-reaching implications of this new rule mean that health-care employers will be powerless to take corrective action against employees who discriminate against patients. A health care facility that steps in to ensure patients receive quality care could potentially lose all federal funding, and be sued in the process.”

Lawyers for the National Women’s Law Center agreed, indicating that the new rule “gives an open invitation to any doctor, nurse, receptionist, insurance plan or even hospital to refuse to provide information about birth control on the grounds that they believe contraception amounts to abortion.”

The rule, which was proposed during the summer and received more than 200,000 opposition comments, drew the ire of President-elect Barack Obama. He criticized the proposed rule in August and said he was “committed to ensuring that the health and reproductive rights of women are protected.”

Yesterday a spokesman with the transition team said Obama “will receive all 11th-hour regulations and will address them once he is president.”

Revisions of the rule once Obama takes office, however, could take months. A more expedient option would be congressional action to reject the late Bush administration rules. Two Democratic female U.S. representatives — Diana DeGette of Colorado and Louise Slaughter of New York — have said they will lead the effort.

Congress adopted rules in 1973, just months after the U.S. Supreme Court established a right to abortion, that provided protections to health care workers who objected morally or religiously to abortion. These laws were expanded and affirmed through the years, ultimately stating that no individual could be required to perform or assist in any medical procedure that the individual found to be violation of his/her religious beliefs or moral convictions.

Leavitt is aware of the existing laws, but said the new rule is needed in order to enforce what is already on the books.

“Contrary to existing federal law, today’s rule fails to carefully balance protections for individual religious liberty and patients’ access to reproductive health care,” said Vania Leveille, legislative counsel for the ACLU.

Huckabee’s recorded voice is used on the call, which is a phone survey that, based on the questions asked, seeks to identify politically active opponents of abortion and to request contributions.

Call recipients are asked if they have ever voted, if they agreed with President-elect Barack Obama and if they ever contributed to a political campaign or candidate. The call goes on to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court ban on so-called partial birth abortion, then brings up the Freedom of Choice Act, legislation designed to codify reproductive rights. Huckabee’s voice goes on to inform callers that if this proposed legislation passes that there will be no limits on abortion.  Then Huckabee requests a donation.

Iowans who received the phone survey said the funds were to go to the National Right to Life Council.

The call reportedly appeared on recipients’ caller identification screens as “Call Center, VA – (703) 263-1658.” This same information has been connected to calls received by Georgia residents, which have been described as push-polls against Jim Martin, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in that state who will face Republican Saxby Chambliss in a Dec. 2 runoff. In Georgia the calls were paid for by the Americans in Contact PAC, a group which lists its mission as being identification of social and fiscal conservatives throughout America and engaging them at the grassroots level in the political process of elections and legislation at all levels of government.

This particular PAC also conducted calls during the month of October that attacked Obama’s economy stance. According to a press release on the group’s Web site, the PAC kicked off a “grassroots campaign in the state of California to identify hundreds of thousands of supporters of traditional marriage who will help protect Proposition Eight,” the recently passed ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

Palin, while lauded as a draw for conservative evangelical voters, actually fits uneasily into the theological worldview of the Christian Right. To be sure, Palin’s politics are a close, if not exact match for social conservatives. She is strongly against a woman’s right to choose abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. She is against same-sex marriage and for an expansive reading of the Second Amendment. She is a perfect candidate — so long as evangelicals are able to look past her gender.

But supporting Palin’s vice-presidential bid — and her possible ambitions for 2012 — requires evangelical voters to overlook the “complementarian” conception of the roles of men and women that holds sway among Southern Baptists and other evangelicals. Based on their reading of Scripture, they believe that men and women have distinctly different roles assigned to them by God. Women, in this perspective, are divinely mandated to serve as wives, mothers and keepers of the home. They are not allowed to serve as pastors, and they are obliged to submit to their husband in their own homes and in public.

The power of the belief that women are not eligible to lead came crashing into religious living rooms in September when more than 100 Christian bookstores, run by the Southern Baptist Convention, refused to publicly display an edition of Gospel Today magazine that featured five female pastors on the cover. The magazine had to be withdrawn from public display, said a spokesman, because the story “clearly advocates a position contrary to our denomination’s statement of faith.” Christians could only get the magazine by asking for it from behind the counter, a la Penthouse or Playboy.

How could it be that a female in the White House was acceptable at the same time that females at the pulpit posed a problem?

Albert Mohler, president of the Baptist Convention, offered an answer on his blog: Scripture is vague on the question of whether women can have public responsibilities and besides, Palin has fulfilled her wifely and motherly duties, he argued.

“The New Testament clearly speaks to the complementary roles of men and women in the home and in the church,” he wrote, “but not in roles of public responsibility. I believe that women as CEOs in the business world and as officials in government are no affront to Scripture. Then again, that presupposes that women — and men — have first fulfilled their responsibilities within the little commonwealth of the family.”

The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood argued that:

The Bible calls women to specific roles in the church and home, but does not prohibit them from exercising leadership in secular political fields. Rather, the Queen of Sheba is presented in 1 Kings 10:1-13 in a positive light in her interaction with King Solomon. Queen Esther offers an even better example of a woman who appropriately exerted influence for the good of her people without holding the highest position of national authority (Esther 2:17).  In this light, we cannot categorically say that it was sinful for Queen Victoria to lead England as a single woman strictly because of her gender, nor can we condemn Governor Palin or any other woman for seeking the office of Vice President.

But, as any reader of the Bible knows, these are selective readings. Mohler and the council ignore politically inconvenient passages from the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy that make clear that men, not women, should rule.

“Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.” ~ Exodux 18:21

“Take you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.” ~Dueteronomy 1:13

In the the book of Timothy in the New Testament,  a woman’s path in life is outlined as follows:

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;

The charitable Christian will leave aside the implications of this injunction for Palin’s notorious  $150,000 clothes shopping spree, and ask how biblical fundamentalists can accept Timothy’s teachings and still celebrate a female politician skilled in forthright rhetoric.

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” ~ 1 Timothy 2:8-15

The answer is: Not very easily.

For those who believe that there is an all-encompassing plan by God as delivered in the Scripture, the complementarian view is fundamental. The belief in specific gender roles with men being in leadership positions over women cannot be separated from the order that the Bible says God created:

“But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” ~ I Corinthians 11:3

Yet many evangelicals, excited by the worldview expressed by Palin, twist the otherwise inflexible words of the Bible to justify their political passion.

Not all have managed to make the leap.

“Those of us who seek a biblical reformation of the family and the defeat of feminism’s vision for women look at the matter in a very different light,” said Pennsylvania pastor William Einwechter, who wrote of the “Feminization of the Family” in 2005.

“Sarah Palin identifies herself with the anti-Christian philosophy of feminism. She uses feminist terminology, identifies with feminist political objectives, publicly praises liberal icons of the feminist movement, and has built her lifestyle around the feminist ideal of motherhood and careerism. … She establishes the feminist principle that if a woman can do something, and she wants to do it, she ought to do it; there should be no constraints placed on her by her family, her church, or her society. She validates the feminist notion that it is fine for a mother to leave the care and training of her children in the hands of others while she seeks her own version of success in the world. Sarah Palin has brought to light the degree to which feminist ideology has triumphed in American culture and in the American church.”

Even on the religious right.

If preliminary election results hold, women will represent at least a portion of 51 out of Iowa's 99 counties in the 83rd General Assembly.

The good news is that women will continue to hold roughly a quarter of the seats in the Iowa House and Senate. The bad news is that while Democratic women saw gains, Republican women dropped to less than 30 percent of all seats currently held by women.

Female candidates picked up three Democratic seats in the Senate, but lost three seats in the House, according to results released Thursday by the Iowa Secretary of State.

Overall, women will overall maintain 23 percent representation across both legislative branches — the highest Iowa has ever had. In the Iowa House, female representation drops from 28 to 25 percent. In the Senate, however, Democratic gains boost the percentage from 12 to 18 percent.

Comparing the 2006 elections to the 2008, Democratic women benefited the most. Democrats were able to maintain 18 women in the House, despite decisions by Swati Dandekar and Pam Jochum to pursue seats being vacated in the Senate.

Republicans, on the other hand, went from 10 women in 2006 to a potential of seven women representatives in the House for 2008. The losses are both a result of retirements — Sandy Greiner, Polly Granzow, Libby Jacobs and Carmine Boal — and the election loss of incumbent Tami Wiencek in Black Hawk county.

Iowa Democrats elected two new women to the House — Phyllis Thede in Scott County and Sharon Steckman in Cerro Gordo County. Iowa Republicans firmly elected newcomer Annette Sweeney to a district that spans all of Hardin and most of Marshall County. In one race that has not been decided, Renee Schulte, a second Republican newcomer, currently holds a 14-vote lead in Linn County.

Women in the Iowa House

In the Iowa Senate, Republican women held steady with three seats. Democratic women picked up three additional seats — Dandekar in Linn County, Jochum in Dubuque County and Mary Jo Wilhelm from Senate District 8 in the north eastern corner of the state.

The results used in this article are based on unofficial totals released by the Iowa Secretary of State on Nov. 13. Official results will not be available until after the state canvass on Monday, Nov. 24.

The lone Republican pick-up came from the southwestern corner of the state. Kim Reynolds was able to maintain Senate District 48 for Republicans in the wake of Jeff Angelo’s retirement.

Women in the Iowa Senate

Women will overall maintain 23 percent representation across both legislative branches — the highest Iowa has ever had. In the Iowa House, female representation drops from 28 to 25 percent. In the Senate, however, Democratic gains boost the percentage from 12 to 18 percent.

Dianne Bystrom (Iowa State University photo)

The first part of a lengthy study comparing coverage of presidential hopefuls in two newspapers — one in Iowa and one in New Hampshire — is complete, and the statistics it unearthed should give female journalists pause.

The study, which compares newspaper coverage of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards leading up to this year’s first two presidential nominating contests, found that 57 percent of the stories that focused on Clinton were written by female journalists, and that more of the coverage Clinton received was negative as compared to Obama and Edwards.

Titled “Gender and U.S. Presidential Politics: Early Newspaper Coverage of Hillary Clinton’s Bid for the White House,” the study remains a work in progress for Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. But Bystrom presented an initial report to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association based on her work thus far, and she agreed to speak with the Iowa Independent about her findings.

“When I’ve talked with one of my reporter colleagues about [women being more likely to cover Clinton], he claimed that was because a lot of female reporters asked to cover Hillary Clinton,” Bystrom said. “And that could very well be the case.”

Women journalists often want to cover female candidates, but also often over-compensate against perceived biases in their reporting.

“In looking at past research, one of the things that we’ve found is that women reporters are harder on women candidates than male reporters are,” Bystrom said. “What we theorize about that is that women don’t want to be charged with going easy on a woman candidate. At the same time, we think that male reporters are fearful of being charged with sexism if they go hard on a woman candidate.”

In November, Bystrom will present an updated version of the study to the National Communications Association. She hopes to offer that organization more of a comparison piece of the coverage in the two states, based on her analysis of reporting from The Des Moines Register and Concord Monitor.

“One of things I’m interested in looking at, for example, is if Clinton was portrayed as less viable by The Des Moines Register than the Concord Monitor because of the different results in those two states. … I also want to look at the male and female reporters’ coverage of the candidates in terms of issues and negativity in coverage,” Bystrom said.

“Although this is just hypothesis, and may or may not be a part of our results, it could be that Hillary Clinton’s coverage in those papers is more negative than that of the males because it is mostly women covering her and the female journalists are feeling the need to go hard on her. That could be a factor.”

Initial Study Results

To prevent a personal bias from corrupting data, two undergraduate students coded the newspaper articles collected from the Monitor and Register. A graduate student then entered the collected data and ran the statistical tests. In all, 137 articles from the New Hampshire newspaper and 126 stories from Iowa newspaper are represented in the study.

From the pool of 263 news articles, Clinton was the primary candidate focus of 51 and received the most overall primary news coverage. When looking at the two papers separately, however, Clinton received slightly less coverage than Obama and Edwards in The Des Moines Register. A total of 18 articles in the Iowa paper focused on Clinton, while Edwards and Obama each had 20. A significant amount of coverage — 13 percent in New Hampshire and 10 percent in Iowa — focused on the Clinton versus Obama candidacies.

Of those 51 articles focusing on Clinton, however, 22 percent were coded as negative. Comparitively, just one story, or 2 percent, of the 41 articles focusing on Obama was considered negative. None of the 31 articles focusing on Edwards were coded as negative.

While 66 percent of the news articles focused on Obama and 61 percent of those focused on Edwards were considered to be positive, only 33 percent of Clinton’s articles were coded as positive.

It’s All About Image

“One of the good news things is that I really was expecting more image coverage of Clinton in those two newspapers,” Bystrom said. “And really — at least on the overall theme of image — there were not significant differences.”

While on the surface the trend of less statistical difference between male and female candidates in terms of image coverage appears to be a good thing, Bystrom said it is likely an indication of men garnering more image coverage.

“It’s not that women are being covered less in terms of their image, but what’s happening is that men are being covered more in terms of their image, which basically takes the statistical difference away,” she said. “So, it’s not that papers are covering a woman’s image less, but that they are covering a man’s image more. It makes the statistics appear more equitable.”

There is little doubt that image continues to be a media focus for women candidates and, according to Bystrom, the entrance of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin into the national mix has brought the issue once again into the forefront.

“I haven’t done any studies on Sarah Palin, so anything I say would just be based on my personal observations,” she said. “although I’m also sure there will be a lot of studies on her candidacy. People will argue that the media is talking about her children because she’s putting them on center stage, or that the media is discussing her family because she put her family out there. But Joe Biden has told fairly provocative stories about his family, about how he lost his wife and raised his two sons. Although I remember that being discussed in the media, I don’t recall it being the focus of his coverage. I do think that Palin is also being covered a lot in terms of her appearance.”

Bystrom said that a female reporter recently contacted her for comment on an article about Palin.

“A reporter from a large, respected newspaper that was not in Iowa sent a request wanting political science experts to contact her because she was doing on a story on how we would make-over Sarah Palin,” Bystrom explained. “Would we give her a new haircut? Would we change her glasses? Would we change her wardrobe? Although I didn’t respond, what I wanted to respond was how we might wish to make-over Joe Biden. Or, what about John McCain? Or even Barack Obama?”

A different female reporter wanted to know about Clinton’s color choice.

“Another time I was being interviewed by a woman reporter from a respected newspaper and the focus was on Hillary Clinton,” she said. “We were talking about the research, about how woman are often covered based on appearance. This reporter said, ‘This research is all very interesting, but do you think that Hillary Clinton is trying to telegraph to voters different things by her choice of color of pantsuit?’”

Women candidates, according to Bystrom, are told the same things that men candidates are told about color. “Wear what is comfortable and in a color that looks good on camera,” she said. “Clinton and other candidates aren’t telegraphing things to voters with their color choices. They are doing what we train candidates to do — wear colors that look good on you and look good on camera. It’s the same reason you see male politicians sporting red and ice blue ties.”

Of course it’s difficult to write about how the media reported on Clinton’s image without mentioning the now infamous news report about her lower-cut shirt.

“There was the long story in the Washington Post about Hillary Clinton’s cleavage and what she might be trying to tell voters with it,” Bystrom said. “We would just be appalled if there was a story about a man and a part of his body and what he might be trying telegraph to voters. Like if a man wore tight pants. What does that mean to voters?”

Doesn’t Clinton = Negativity?

It’s commonplace for Bystrom to be asked if negativity in the media is focused more on Clinton as an individual than it is on women in general.

“Hillary Clinton is Hillary Clinton,” she said. “She’s going to get some negative coverage just because she is Hillary Clinton and has been in the public eye for as long as she has been. But she’s gotten equitable and good media coverage when she ran for U.S. Senate, even in 2000 when she first ran. She received even more positive coverage in 2006.

“Another reason that I say this is not just Hillary is because of the media coverage Elizabeth Dole received when she sought the Republican nomination. This was at a time when women were receiving much more equitable coverage whether they were running for governor or for senate. We were seeing trends of more equitable coverage, beginning in 1998. But then we looked at Elizabeth Dole. She got less media coverage, more negative coverage and more image-related coverage than all of her male counterparts — even those who were polling below her.”

That leads to the hypothesis that when women seek the highest office, they are going to be treated in stereotypical ways.

“It’s disturbing trend because we’ve taken a step back,” she said. “What we’re seeing is the type of coverage that women were getting in the 1980s and early 1990s when we look at Hillary Clinton’s presidential run. And I think we’re going to see the same type of thing with Sarah Palin.

“I’ve studied Hillary Clinton’s media coverage since she was First Lady. What I can tell you is that Hillary Clinton is capable of getting good media coverage. Where she gets negative media coverage is when she was First Lady and when she runs for president. My theory on that is that we, as a society, have become more accepting of women running for legislative and statewide executive offices. But it seems to be that when someone like Hillary Clinton doesn’t behave in a way that we think a First Lady should behave, or she is running for the nation’s top office, that she gets more negative coverage.”

Bystrom says that study after study has shown the Clinton was treated differently by the media.

“I think Clinton’s campaign was covered in every city, including my own, differently than her male opponents,” she said. “Every single study I’ve seen — be it newspapers, be it television, be it radio, be it magazines — has concluded that Clinton was covered differently than her male opponents, with most studies focusing on the difference between her coverage and Obama’s. The thing that stands out is that she was covered much more negatively than Obama. Of course, that wasn’t the only factor in her race — but it did affect her race. I would say that one of the factors that hurt Hillary Clinton throughout her candidacy was her media coverage.”