Harnessing the power of women

 

Picture of Shirley Chisholm and her staff in 1970  

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          Shirley Chisholm did not set out to use her female status as a way to generate votes (Gill 26).  She envisioned a world where she could be recognized only on her abilities and knowledge, but she quickly learned that women had a unique power to organize that she would be foolish to not harness.  Men, certainly, would never be the backbone of her campaign.  She stated that men of all races were outraged when she started her campaign (Chisholm 80).  While some women found her run for Congress to be unwanted, there were many more that she was able to use for support.  She felt that the men she was running against were underestimating how many black women headed households in her district (Chisholm 92).  These women represented a mass number of voters that were not being courted by other candidates.

          Chisholm began to ask these women for help and lamented that “tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt (Chisholm 92)”.  Chisholm started to view using women in her campaign as not drawing attention to her gender, but instead she saw it as a way to give women a larger voice in their communities and lives.  Women organized parties for her to come and speak about her candidacy.  She found that they were natural leaders and felt that they were a large reason that she was successful (Chisholm 94). 

          After she was elected to Congress, Ms. Chisholm continued to use female power by hiring an all female staff.  Half of her staff were white women and the other half were black women (Gill 27).  This was not because she believed women were superior but rather because she believed that so many women had missed opportunities to succeed only because they were women.  It was her way of showing that women were just as capable as men and that they could succeed without the help of men.  She eventually did hire some men, but she always welcomed women who had been denied in other offices (Gill 27).

                                                       

          Shirley Chisholm’s belief in the power and unity of women during her campaign showcase her womanist spirit.  She recognized that in order to succeed in a male dominated environment, women needed solidarity.  It is very possible that she never would have been able to succeed without women banding together to help her.  Men were threatened by her, and they were all to eager to keep the power in their own hands.  This is still true in today’s society. 

Works Cited                         

Chisholm, Shirley. Unbought & Unbossed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970. Print. 

Gill, LaVerne McCain. African American Women in Congress: Forming and Transforming History. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. 16-34. Print.