Sun, Nov 07, 2010 page7

• Do US ‘mama grizzlies’ hold a lesson for the UK?

  • THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
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  As the changed landscape of Capitol Hill emerges, there are new features silhouetted against the horizon. They have shapely figures, sharp suits and big wallets — and hair blow-dried to within an inch of its life. They are Sarah Palin’s women, the “Mama Grizzlies.”

  Age, experience and, crucially, motherhood count. Although not as many won on Tuesday as she would have liked, they are a fascinating new political breed for us to contemplate — not least in relation to female politicians in other countries, who find motherhood a tough struggle in the political sphere, rather than a useful and overt vote-catcher.

  With the exception of Christine O’Donnell, who failed in Delaware, many of the Grizzlies have broods, some substantial, like their heroine. Michele Bachmann, who was re-elected to her third term in Congress for Minneapolis, has five kids, and she and her husband have fostered 23 more.

  In Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, a mother of six, including four stepchildren, was voted in as governor, and was accused of playing the “Mommy card” against her childless rival.

  Palin’s women have turned their own fertility — along with the makeup and the back-combing (aimed to entice the men as well as impress the women) — into a political weapon. Whatever you do, don’t mess with these mothers. Mom knows best.

  The only close comparison here in the UK is the Mumsnetters with their Web site, courted so assiduously by all the male party leaders, who have to bend their knee to the “Women You Mess With At Your Peril.”

  However, none of these women has made the final step into running for political office, for any party and those few women who do push through to the upper reaches of London often feel they cannot stay the course — Ruth Kelly, Labour’s former minister for women, being one of the most obvious examples. Her politics aside, many women expressed concern over how difficult it must be looking after four young children, rather than noting how brilliantly equipped she was for high political office. Much fuss was made of the fact that she refused to take home a “red box” of government papers at night while responsible for the Treasury brief.

  Yvette Cooper also made it clear she would put her kids before political ambition, citing her three young children as a reason not to run as Labour leader, rather than an ideal qualification for the job.

  Caroline Spelman, who sits on the Conservative frontbench, holds it together with three kids on board, but came a political cropper when accused of paying for her nanny from the public purse. Diane Abbott perhaps came the closest to the status of Grizzly — running for the Labour leadership and proclaiming “West Indian mums would go to the wall for their kids” — which then got her into trouble.

  The one mother who did make it all the way to the top, Margaret Thatcher, scarcely alluded to her children (although “The Mummy Returns” came in handy later for headline writers).

  It’s not an entirely new phenomenon in US politics — and Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama have had to play the game, too, but Palin and her Mamas have taken the maternal to dizzying new heights: rather than hide the kids, or try to cope with them away from the limelight, they put them up front and sell themselves as Wise Mothers.

  Of course, it costs money, and not a small measure of ruthlessness. It would also take radical change in London — in terms of attitudes towards women and readiness to make a political life compatible with family life — before many might contemplate it, but in terms of political potency, whatever you think of the Mama Grizzlies, their scary hair and their policies, they might be onto something.
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