Lawmakers laud congressional sisterhood

The most powerful woman in Washington, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.), skipped Tuesday night’s gala honoring the Congressional
Caucus for Women’s Issues, but two new female faces in President Obama’s Cabinet headlined the show.

The lone male lawmaker to attended, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), showed up with his wife, Vicki.

{mosads}Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke, with
Napolitano relating a story from her first run at elected office.

“A reporter called me up to ask whether I intended to run
for office as a woman,” she said, to laughs in the audience. “And I imagine
every other female politician here has had a similar experience.

“The issues of women are the issues of
America,” Napolitano said. “I am one of many women in Barack Obama’s Cabinet. None of us hold the
title of Secretary of Women’s Issues.”

Incoming Co-Chairwomen Reps. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) and Jan
Schakowsky (D-Ill.) emceed the event.

Outgoing Chairwoman Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) said she was more
than ready to pass the torch.

“We’re only expanding the number of torches,” she said.
“We’re now at 18 percent [female representation in Congress]. We have fabulous leadership on
both sides of the aisle.”

When asked to define the differences between how men and
women legislate, many female lawmakers agreed that it was style over substance.

“I like the way it is to be in Congress and work with women
in a networking way,” Capps said. “We have had this way of relating. Frankly,
personally, it’s the way I’ve always worked. I prefer to work that way rather
than singularly.”

When asked if she believes men typically work singularly, she
replied, “I don’t know. I have never been a man.”

Also in attendance were Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.),
Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), Shelley
Berkley (D-Nev.), Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.),
Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Betsy Markey (D-Colo.), Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), Dina
Titus (D-Nev.), Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Kay
Granger (R-Texas) and  Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) showed up fashionably late —
and in high fashion. Wandering around the dining room in search of her table,
she turned heads with a Soviet era-style black fur hat and a long black coat
with black fur trim.

Risch
saluted Napolitano, saying, “She’s right — these are not women’s issues,
they’re America’s issues. I want to be here.”

He said when he was governor of Idaho, he hired the same
number of men and women.

“Talent is not confined to one gender or another,” said Risch, surrounded by a sea of women.

Norton declared that the difference between men and women in
Congress is not on issues.

“It would not be truthful to leave that impression. What it
is is priority. Who is taking on the issues and making them such a priority
that they move? Who’s willing to put something on the line?”

In a show of what is to come, Fallin united her caucus by
concluding, “We are friends; we are sisters; we are united in the goal of
helping women.”