WORKING MOMS OR CONGRESSWOMEN? ALWAYS BOTH. The NYT features a profile today of freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand. The article points out the balance of campaigning while in office and the struggles of Democrats to differentiate themselves from their Republican counterparts on Iraq, but the article also notes that Gillibrand is a wife and mother of a 3-year-old son. This leads me to wonder, how often do profiles of male politicians point out that they are husbands and fathers? It seems not nearly as often as profiles of female politicians. The reason for this is partially that it is somewhat politically advantageous to position oneself as a "working mother" in government, but it is also because women find themselves bound to their personal lives more than men. For men, it is an easy division, for women, it seems impossible to separate the two. --Kay Steiger
