Editorial: Gender, ethnic equity and the leadership 'bug'

It was interesting to note in staff writer Erin Hegarty's Daily Herald story Monday that, as a region, the proportion of lawmakers in the suburbs who are women is higher than that of the state or the national average. But the report also suggested some other, even more important topics to consider.

The first is that even in the suburbs, women fill only 43 percent of the available legislative positions. So, there's still plenty of room for more equity of representation between the genders.

A second is that while women may be making up ground among legislative candidates, the need for any candidates, male or female, has been patently evident in recent elections, particularly the local municipal and school board elections just completed in April. In many of these races, seats were filled by write-in candidates with at best a few handfuls of votes or by appointments, because certain boards had more vacancies than candidates looking to fill them. If this is a trend, it is an especially worrisome one, with ramifications both for the local boards immediately and for broader state leadership over time.

The reason? As Democratic state Rep. Elaine Nekritz suggested to Hegarty, the path to state leadership positions - and, hence, the gender disparity in the legislature - begins with local elections. Certainly, if more men are seeking positions on local boards than women, that disparity will follow as they move toward higher elective office; but, if we're not getting enough of either gender at the local level, the outlook for attracting strong candidates to run the state is not good, period.

To be sure, the causes for waning interest in government leadership are many and complex. As staff writer Robert Sanchez described in a story last January, many would-be candidates shy away because of uncertainty about their ability to maintain the commitment for a full term.

Indeed, considering the nature of the job and the challenges of mounting a winning campaign, it's not hard to understand why men and women alike who might otherwise want to contribute may be inclined to remain on the sidelines for a while. But it is true that our communities and our state are diminished when we have shortages of capable candidates, and the problem is worsened when the shortages involve both gender equity and ethnic diversity.

"The more representative of the general public this body is," Nekritz said of the legislature, "the better it functions."

How true. And how true also the corollary that the more representative the voting population is of the population as a whole, the better government functions. So, it comes down to a question of participation at many levels. We complained following the local elections about the effects of low voter turnout. Perhaps a factor in that problem is another frustrating obstacle - attracting candidates who better represent the gender and ethnic makeup of the suburbs. To get more, and more diverse, voters, perhaps we also need to encourage more, and more diverse, candidates.

It's a start. And as Hinsdale Republican state Rep. Patti Bellock pointed out, it can be more than that. Once acquired, she told Hegarty, the leadership "bug" is hard to shake because leaders find they have "ample opportunity to change public policy."

Why not start thinking now whether that's an opportunity that appeals to you?