Excerpts from WUFPAC’s Running the Country and a Family Event

National Press Club

May 11, 2005 

“I do believe that it is important that we as women and particularly you as younger women recognize that it is not an either or situation-it’s not a family or a political career.”

~Senator Murkowski 

“I think every mom has been at the point where they had to make a tough decision that our kids didn’t really appreciate at that point but when you talk to them about the value of what you are doing and how in the end it makes our world a better place, it makes their world a better place, they really do appreciate it.”

~Congresswoman Bean 

“I decided that the timing was right to run for the Alaska state legislature. And when I say the timing was right, I meant exactly that: there was an opening in the field and I had a pretty good shot at taking that seat. My husband and I realized that it was never going to be convenient to enter politics. Right now we have a young family. It’s not convenient for us. But you know what, it’s not going to be convenient when they’re in high school either. And it’s not going to be convenient after that when they’ll be in college. I had to make the commitment that I was going to be involved in public service. It was never going to be convenient. I had to do it when the timing was right.”

~Senator Murkowski 

“Balance is what intimidates a lot of women out of these careers, out of leadership positions and out of politics. It is really important that women do get into politics because we do have a very unique perspective to bring to all areas of life; business, politics, economics, school, education, and our views on these things are quite different because we see things, we experience things in quite a different way. I was a war correspondent in Moscow, I covered the wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Chechnya. And my children to this day are much more open, and much more balanced themselves, because they see their mom as someone who can be a fulfilled person; who can have an education and can go out and do something that can help others. I used to explain to them, when I went off to the war zone, that “Mommy is going to cover these wars so that other mommies and their children won’t suffer. And my children accepted that.”

~Eileen O’Connor, Moderator 

“Might I suggest that there is no greater joy than being a mom and going through the roller coaster of life? If I have any focus for you tonight, it is to be bold in your decisions. The reason is that the road will be rocky. And that is just the reality of life, to a certain extent, when you are an elected official.”

~Congresswoman Jackson Lee 

"Without women under 40 in Congress we lose a very important perspective, that of the young working woman who very often have had to juggle their careers and family.  Working women of my generation should make their voices heard at the decision making table, be it the boardroom, the halls of Congress, or the local PTA.  Our present day experiences need to be heard and only we can effectively give voice to our needs."

~Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz

“You’ve got to set some ground rules very early on. And you’ve got to keep them. To this day, I don’t care what we’re doing, how important the work is. There is no business on Sunday. There’s no Blackberry. There’s no telephone. There is family time. If I don’t have my family time, I’m not a good candidate. I’m not a good legislator. I’m not a good anybody.”

~Senator Murkowski 

“I think it is important to bring [a woman’s] perspective to Congress, and as the Senator said, it is a perspective that is lacking in Congress. Because most of our Members of Congress have a stay at home person that is watching the kids. They are parents, but they are not parents in a two career couple, which is true for roughly 85% of our working population. When people ask ‘how can you run and have kids?’ Well, isn’t it really about the kids? It's for issues like air quality, water quality, and school quality . And you realize if you don't step up, who's going to?”

~Congresswoman Bean 

“It’s so important for them to feel that we are a “normal family.” They don’t have a normal life. Their mother is in the news. Their mother is off and gone. And that’s not a bad thing at all. Here are some boys that think that this is what moms do. They make leadership decisions. They run states. They run countries. And that’s about as good a type of role modeling as you can possibly get.”

~Senator Murkowski 

“When I ran for city council, my children were underneath the table when I was in the meetings. Scribbling or running behind us, and me trying to act dignified while the latest - if you will - concrete pouring that someone was complaining about could be fixed. And so I needed to have a sense of boldness about the rightness of what I was doing. Because someone could say isn’t that perfectly cute, or someone else could say ‘send that woman home to take care of her children.’ I needed to be bold in my conviction of why it was important to serve.”

~Congresswoman Jackson Lee