Women's groups call out political sexism

The list includes the talk radio host who called a female senator a "prostitute" for cutting a deal to benefit her state, the male challenger who referred to his female rival "attractive" and "probably a good mother," and the TV host who noted that the candidate's wife looked like an angry woman.

Those comments and others have been collected by a group of advocates for women running for office who are monitoring what they consider a "highly toxic" media environment that makes it difficult for female candidates.

The effort to track sexist comments and put pressure on advertisers that help bankroll the media figures responsible for some of the remarks comes as women campaign in several high-profile races this year, including for governorships in South Carolina and California as well as Senate seats.

Much attention has been paid to the tough races and hard-charging campaigns that female candidates nationwide have run this year, and commentators had begun to say that women had turned a corner - dishing it and taking it. But women have won relatively few close primaries, and some of those races were fought on the uneven territory of gender politics, said Jennifer Lawless, director of American University's Women and Politics Institute.

The Women's Campaign Forum, Women's Media Center and Political Parity plan to spend $250,000 on research and outreach for the initiative, which they have dubbed "Name It, Change It." The idea is to call out a range of issues - everything from what the groups considers an unfair focus on women's clothing and family responsibilities to profane name-calling.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/01/AR2010090103673_pf.html