Blackburn signs her official correspondence with "congressman." Photo: John Shinkle
Posted on 04/18/2008 2:55:37 PM PDT by Libloather
The lady prefers 'congressman'
By HELENA ANDREWS | 4/15/08 8:56 PM EST
Blackburn signs her official correspondence with "congressman." Photo: John Shinkle
In any other office, it wouldn’t sound as strange: “OK, let me grab the congressman. Hold on.”
But in this office it does, seeing as how the congressman is Marsha Blackburn, a Republican U.S. representative from Tennessee, who since joining the delegation in 2003 has preferred the masculine form of the title.
“It’s not something I see as a big deal,” said Blackburn, 55, the only female member of the Tennessee delegation, emphasizing that she’s not trying to make a statement, feminist or otherwise.
Claude Chafin, Blackburn’s communications director, agreed: “I have never known her to correct anyone who calls her ‘congresswoman.’ I have also never heard her introduce herself as anything other than ‘Marsha.’”
Still, “congressman” is her first choice, Chafin continued. Blackburn signs her official correspondence with that title, and it appears on her website. In several news articles, she’s referred to as “Congressman Blackburn,” with the added disclaimer “her preferred term.”
“I am not one of those [people] who are sensitive about titles,” stressed Blackburn, a conservative Republican who champions low taxes and supports national security measures such as the Patriot Act.
But for some, name dropping — specifically the “woman” part — is a touchy subject. There’s a reason for that, say leading female academics, women’s policy analysts and other members: Names do matter.
“When they refer to themselves as congresswoman, this sounds different because it is different,” said Latifa Lyles, of the National Organization for Women, a feminist advocacy group. “I think that is significant,” added Lyles, who supports use of the term “congresswoman.”
“We don’t have to pretend we’re not women in order to be leaders in this country,” she said.
Barbara Kellerman, a professor of women’s and government studies at Harvard University, said women — like many minority groups — are repeatedly at odds with issues of nomenclature.
“Whenever we blend with the male appellation, we are diminishing the significance of the accomplishment,” said Kellerman.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who co-chairs the Congressional Women’s Caucus with Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), agreed that being called “congresswoman” is something to be proud of.
“The title ‘congresswoman’ reflects the time in which we live,” McMorris Rodgers said in an e-mail statement. “We have more women than ever in Congress. The term reflects the contributions we make in Congress as daughters, mothers and wives.”
But Capps felt differently.
“I respect each member’s right to determine for themself what title they prefer,” said Capps, “but I believe the most important thing is that we have a record number of women serving in the 110th Congress, not to mention a remarkable number of my female colleagues who enjoy the title of ranking member, chair and, most significantly, speaker.”
Even more interesting, however, is that Capps pointed specifically to the title “chair.”
Female members on the House side have more choices when it comes to their honorifics — there aren’t any senatoresses — although Blackburn seems to be the lone congressman of 72 congresswomen. But high-ranking women in the Senate almost exclusively choose “chairman” over “chairwoman.”
“It’s not a surprise when some women identify with the term ‘chairman,’” said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to creating more female leaders in business and government. “Congressman is a little bit harder for me, because it kind of leaves you out.”
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) is listed as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, as are many female senators who lead committees.
“She chose the title ‘chairman’ as opposed to anything different because all of the committee rules use the term ‘chairman,’” said a committee spokesman. “So the powers of the chairman are spelled out.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is listed as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. A staffer in the Rules Committee office likened the term “chairman” to “actor.”
“There’s a lot more women in the boardroom. You don’t think of it as a man or a woman when you think of chairman or chairwoman,” said the staffer.
Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), former head of the House Republican Conference, was also called the “chairman.” “She never did have a preference,” said Rob Nichols, Pryce’s press secretary. “I think the bulk of members referred to her as chairman, but it wasn’t at her request or behest.
“I think she still prefers to be called ‘judge’ over anything,” added Nichols.
For Blackburn, the title “congressman” (not the actual job) was sort of thrust upon her accidentally, or perhaps incidentally. While out campaigning at a coffee shop in west Tennessee, a constituent asked Blackburn, “Little lady, what qualifies you to run for the United States House of Representatives?”
She quickly ticked off her time as a choir director and Girl Scouts cookie mom. “I kind of teased with him for a couple of minutes but went ahead and had a friendly conversation,” said Blackburn.
As Blackburn worked her way around the room, the constituent motioned for her to come back: “Little lady, if you win this thing, what we gonna call you — congresslady? Congressgirl?”
“Sir, congressman will be just fine,” replied Blackburn. And the rest is, well, congressional record.
To bolster her position even further, Blackburn said an English teacher once told her that “congressman” was the grammatically correct usage because it refers to the given job and not the gender of the person holding that job.
But that might not be right, either.
“Grammatically correct is an opinion, really,” said Kathryn Remlinger, a professor of linguistics at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. “‘Congressman’ is just a traditional name. Why don’t we just say ‘congressperson’?”
She’s not bad lookin’ for turning 56.
They never included male congressman's ages in articles. That'll piss off the feminists too.
Everything pisses off feminists.
headshot alert.
Everything pisses off feminists.
Great, you just ticked off a number of them!
(Oops, I've done it as well...)
So it wasn’t a women’s lib movement after all. Just a ‘transfer of power’.
He ejoys watching them as they walk away.
“Whenever we blend with the male appellation, we are diminishing the significance of the accomplishment,” said Kellerman.
In an age where we are past the “first woman” this and that, the accomplishment is the same as it is for her male counterparts. I, as a woman, would choose congressman also. Congresswoman is, IMO, akin to “The Lady Judge” or “The Lady Minister”.
She is quite correct. The Anglo-Saxon man is the word for a generic human being, like the Greek anthropos. The analog of aner, male human being, was wapman, corresponding to the analogy of gyne, woman. We males lost our distinctive word.
In all cases where man occurs as a syllable at the end of a compound, e.g. congressman, fireman, chairman, it is the original Anglo-Saxon particle, and is genderless.
On behalf of my fellow wapmen, I want our word back!
As long as she called me for dinner, she could call herself [and me] anything she wanted.
If they walk correctly, they never fail to remind me to wind the Grandfather clock.
CONGRESSMAN Blackburn is in a lot of hot water in her district. She has put daughter, brother in law, and husband on the payroll. She has managed to not report over a million dollars in contributions.
Mrs. Blackburn has never had any competition until now.
Marsha is my congressman. She helped us fight the state income tax as a state representative, and before she left for Washington there was a bumper sticker that said “Marsha’s the man!”
You need to check out Marsha’s money problems!
Sometimes life is really good.
Where did you get the over a million figure? The last I saw it was just over $440,000 going back to 2002 and that her own audit discovered and reported the error.
By the way, the “on the payroll” as defined by the Democrat Party was repayment of loans and reimbursal for services actually rendered.
Marsha for President!
She is a real conservative, not a RINO like the incumbent and the nominee.
We Tennesseans are particularly proud of Marsha. We Brentwoodians claim her as our own.
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