Anna Goral's Message to Women Voters is Empty, Insulting

This column was first published here on February 13, 2011.
Edited versions were subsequently published, with permission of the author,
in print and online editions of community newspapers across Chicago.

A century ago, women played a role in Chicago’s mayoral campaign; but sadly, in 1911 our political involvement was mostly limited to cooking and serving the food at campaign rallies and cleaning up afterward.

You see, we were not allowed to vote. The 19^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was not ratified until 1920---after a political struggle that lasted over 40 years. The men who, a century ago, fought against giving women the right to vote used many sexist arguments and rationalizations. One was that women are weak-minded and would automatically vote along gender lines, mindlessly giving our votes to lesser qualified female candidates over more qualified men.

That’s nonsense, of course, and we women proved that.

Yet a century later in 2011, there is still the occasional female political candidate---usually one lacking in ideas---who asks women to vote with our ovaries instead of our brains.

I thought about that a week or so ago when I read a mailing from 23^rd Ward aldermanic candidate Anna Goral. The title of Anna’s political mailer was:

♀ + Chicago City Hall = NEW BEGINNING

New beginning for what, it did not say. Perhaps Anna’s career.

In any event, Anna’s campaign piece appears to have been mailed just to women voters. It was addressed only to me. My husband did not receive one.

The brochure features a photo of Anna and stock images of eight women dropped in behind her. The text reads, “Women know the difficulties of daily life…paying bills, maintaining a household and raising a family while working. Women are the foundation of families. Women are successful in business.”

OK, true. But so what? The same general statements can apply to men. Anna continues, “And women are often elected to government. But not in the 23^rd Ward. In the history of our ward, no woman has ever been elected to local public office. We need to change that!”

Exactly why, Anna does not say. The brochure fails to offer even one bit of criticism against Alderman Michael R. Zalewski or any of his male predecessors. Also in the “women’s” brochure, Anna offers nine things she plans to do as alderman---yet not even one of those nine relates specifically to women’s issues.

So clearly, Anna’s appeal to women is nothing more than empty rhetoric.

And that’s sad, because as a successful real estate broker, Anna could be a positive role model for girls and young women. But she squandered the opportunity with a brochure that offers nothing
and unintentionally insults the intellect of every woman in the 23^rd Ward.

The women of the 23^rd Ward deserve better than that.

For my part, I wholeheartedly support the re-election of Alderman Zalewski, a proven, effective leader who consistently delivers services that benefit everyone---men, women and children alike. A leader who focuses on what unites us as a community, rather than what divides us. A leader who has brought economic development, jobs, police and other city services to the 23rd Ward, while other wards across the city suffer and struggle with decay. A leader who asks for our vote as nothing more than an affirmation of the success he has achieved in service to us, the people of the 23rd Ward. Alderman Zalewski has my vote, and I hope yours, too.

Joan Hadac is a Chicago news/feature reporter, editor and columnist.
Read her online at citymomchicago.blogspot.com.