When Joanne Bamberger, aka Punditmom, invited me to speak on a panel at the Netroots Nation conference this past weekend, I jumped at the chance. Netroots, a loosely affiliated movement of progressive bloggers, was influential in electing Barack Obama and a Democratic majority in Congress. Our topic: "Building a Conversation Across the Generations of Progressive Women," drew a lively crowd. Other panelists were Emily McKhann (The Motherhood), political blogger Tracy Viselli, and Change.org's women's rights editor Jen Nedeau whose remarks can be found here.  Below are my opening comments.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist about whether progressive women can come together for common goals across the generations?

As the senior member of this panel, I’ve seen huge progress over four decades of activism, so I’m optimistic.

I’m convinced this is an amazing moment for women. But we have to see our moment and seize it.

I suggest we worry a little less about who did what to whom, and a little more about what the world needs from us, and the equality and justice we deserve from the world.

Hillary Clinton put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, the Sarah Palin phenomenon shows even right-wing Republicans know it’s a moment for women, women outnumber men in universities. Reproductive technologies and the recession are equalizing the gender power balance in work and personal relationships. What better moment to equalize gender power in politics?

But, remember--power unused is power useless.

Women have historically made these leaps forward, only to step back. For example, women got voting power in 1920, but didn’t coalesce around an agenda that would have allowed them to share governing power.

Similarly, women are the majority of voters today, but men still largely decide the laws that govern our lives, from war and peace to equal pay to reproductive freedom. Does anybody think that’s a good thing?

In Congress, women have increased from 3% in 1979 to 17% today. At that rate, it’ll be 70 years before we reach parity. Men run City Hall in 90 of 100 largest cities; women make up just 18% of state governors, and a quarter of state legislators.

When The National Women’s Political Caucus was founded in 1971 to “increase the number of women in all aspects of political life,” they assumed if they just trained women in political skills, we’d naturally take our places in the governance panoply.

But the culture hadn’t been prepared for women to hold political power, nor were women prepared for the shock of navigating an entrenched power grid in a political system almost devoid of female role models.

Now, besides Hillary, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, and other role models, we have the White House Project, the Women’s Campaign Forum, Emerge, Emily’s List, and zillions more groups working to get more women into the political pipeline.

We’ve come a long way, maybe.

Unquestionably, there are still structural barriers, like media sexism and the reality that women remain the main caregivers. Then there’s incumbency. About 98% of incumbents are re-elected; the majority of incumbents are men.

Still, every single women’s political group leader and elected official I’ve asked utters stunningly similar words: Men get up in the morning and say, “I believe I’ll run.” They don’t question their qualifications. Women wait to be asked. Then they say, “First I’ll take this course or get that experience or wait till the kids are older.” By then, the man is committee chair!

Men under 40 are 40% more likely than women under 40 to consider running for office.

Jennifer Lawless, author of It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don’t Run for Office, calls women’s reticence to advance themselves in politics an “ambition gap.”

I think it’s not a lack of ambition, but a lack of intention.

Case in point: many female Obama supporters rejected the notion that gender matters in candidate selection. Bitter blogosphere battles erupted about whether women have an obligation to support women candidates.

The answer in my view is yes. Insert the word “progressive”, add a dose of intentional strategy, and make damn sure candidates know we’re taking names and using our clout: blogs, grassroots activism, and our collective purses, as well as running for office.

Since men—even really progressive ones--have little motivation to change the power structure, women have little choice but to become the change we want to see. Progressive women in political office are way more likely to prioritize issues that affect us intimately, like health care, daycare, equal pay, reproductive justice.

Do you think Hillary Clinton speaking out against rape in the Congo was just random luck?

But the key is, to mass our power. The path to big, systemic change is collective political action—isn’t that what Netroots is all about?

We need to understand and value ourselves. Progressive women are the Democrats’ secret weapon. For example, 146 Democratic women ran for the House last year, compared to 64 Republican women.

I was so struck by this on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, a decade ago. Almost every woman in the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, led by a progressive Democrat, Nita Lowey----stood on the Capitol steps, a sea of brightly colored skirts, to get Federal employees’ insurance coverage of birth control.

That they prevailed is significant.

That they saw the injustice of failing to cover contraception while covering other prescriptions including Viagra, is because of their gender sensibility.

But, remember, power unused is power useless.

My Heartfeldt call to action is:

Seize your Moment, sisters!

http://www.GloriaFeldt.com/powered-women-blog