Women in politics: Christine O'Donnell

I'm going to start off this series on women in politics with one of the most controversial, and unpopular, Christine O'Donnell.


It is not simply her view points that make Christine O'Donnell unpopular. After all Marco Rubio has the same ones and has now won the Florida Senate seat. Extremism is never an issue if it is conveyed in a knowing and comprehensive way. However, Christine O'Donnell irritates many women through her own ignorance and naivety; from the constitution to former comments she has made.

Let's look at some examples. Ms O'Donnell was widely unknown prior to running for the 2010 elections in Delaware. As a result there has been a lot of scrutiny of her past revealing several surprising factors. The first of these were extremist statements made by her some years ago. These include references to dabbling in witchcraft and masturbation being a sin. In the case of the former Ms O'Donnell's response was to release a rather awkward advert declaring herself, rather than as a witch, as the individual watching. This ad was not well received to say the least.

Secondly investigations into her educational claims on her LinkedIn profile have revealed several discrepancies including an additional degree being claimed and a period of study at Oxford University also being cited.

Finally, Ms O'Donnell has made simply ignorant claims about the Constitution of the United States, in particular the separation of Church and State. However, it is important to not that this may not be Ms O'Donnell's own fault. There are a number of misled histories widespread within the Tea Party that may have affected her understanding.

The issue is that as a woman in politics Ms O'Donnell is being made a mockery of and thus is misrepresenting the powerful affect that women can have, as well as the major role we need, as well as want, to have. And it is apparent that other male figures within the Tea Party are not coming under anywhere near as much scrutiny as the women.

However, there is a silver lining. Christine has lost the Senate seat for Delaware to a Democratic candidate so maybe people can still perceive ignorance in these fractured times.