1984 Debate: ...say something nice about women...
If anyone else would like to say something nice about women, go ahead.
Before 1984, no major political party in the U.S. had put a woman on the ticket as president or vice president. There was growing social and political pressure to name a woman VP, and the question was posed to the candidates at the presidential primary debate that January at Dartmouth. Of the eight men on stage, Jesse Jackson was the only one to commit to naming a woman vice president were he to secure the Democratic nomination. The candidates’ own words from that evening best convey the balance most were trying to strike between appealing to women and other underrepresented voters and avoiding the potential risks of committing to a woman running mate in the white, male dominated political landscape.
Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking at Dartmouth, 1984.
Jesse Jackson
“...there is the need to involve the persons who in the past have been denied in the ways of justice within our society. Women are 53 percent of this nation. Seventy percent of all poor children live in a house headed by a woman. Our convention in San Francisco will be 50 percent female. So there’s a basis for having equity. We now have women in Congress and the Senate, on the Supreme Court. Lastly, if indeed Mrs. Indira Gandhi can run India, a nation of 600 million people, if Golda Meir could run Israel in the time of war, if Mrs. Thatcher can run Britain, a woman can run this country.”
Gary Hart
"I have said consistently that I thought the time was long past when the barriers to women in the political process ought to be removed, at all levels. And I’ve also said that I would be proud to run on either end of the national ticket with a woman. The same is true of any American in a minority in this country. The fact of the matter is that women bring to public policy decisions a measure of thoughtfulness and, if I may say so, humanity and morality that too many men in our society don’t seem to have possessed or demonstrated."
Walter F. Mondale
"One point I wanted to make is that I’ve promised, and I want to repeat that promise, that I’m going to seriously look at the best possible Vice-Presidential running mate, and I will look at the ablest and most gifted women as potential running mates."
Alan Cranston
“There is certainly a number of women in our country qualified to be Vice President. There are a number of women qualified to be President, though I hope that it won’t happen this year when I’m running. Unlike John Glenn, I’m developing a list of women that I think are qualified that I want to get to know better and explore because I am giving very serious thought to having a woman as a running mate if I’m the nominee.”
Koppel closed the discussion with a comment on the candidates praise of women but, with the exception of Jackson, refusal to commit to nominating a woman running mate: “If anyone else would like to say something nice about women, go ahead.”
Ultimately, Walter Mondale was the Democratic party candidate that year, and he selected Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate; Ferraro was the first female vice-presidential nominee for a major party in the United States' history. Mondale and Ferraro lost the election to incumbent Ronald Regan and his running mate and future president George H.W. Bush. In the 36 years between then and now, the major parties have named only three women vice-presidential candidates: Gerraldine Ferraro (D), 1984; Sarah Palin (R), 2008; Kamala Harris (D), 2020; and one woman presidential candidate: Hillary Rodham Clinton (D), 2016.