THE DELEGATES: Eve's Operatives

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Gazing around the convention through her blue-tinted glasses, Gloria Steinem pronounced with satisfaction: "We've changed the population here. It almost looks like the country." What she meant was that women are 52% of the nation's population, and last week close to 40% of the convention delegates were women—a dramatic jump over their 13% representation at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Decorative as the women were in their bell-bottom trousers, miniskirts, jeans and hot pants, they were not there to be on display but to seek power. Except for a couple of setbacks, they got enough to satisfy and even surprise them.

The National Women's Political Caucus had worked hard to get women elected as delegates under the liberalized McGovern-Fraser Commission rules. At the convention, they turned up everywhere in positions of power —on the Credentials Committee, the Rules Committee, the Platform Committee. They came in all sizes, ages and accents. They ranged from Katherine Harjo, 17, a Seminole Indian from Oklahoma to Jessie Sanders, 79, a political pro from South Dakota. The convention's cochairman, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, a black running for Congress from California, wielded the gavel with muscle, tact and a winning smile. Delegates were careful to address her as "Madam Chairwoman," or, at least once, as "Madam Chairperson." Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York won a small but loyal following for her presidential candidacy. Frances ("Sissy") Farenthold, a Vassar-educated Texan who ran well for Governor earlier this year, was nominated for Vice President and came in second to Eagleton. On the convention's last night, Jean Westwood of Utah, a Mormon who served as one of McGovern's floor managers, was elected the first woman Democratic national chairman.

Male delegates were sufficiently on guard not to begin a talk to women with such traditional lines as "You lovely ladies" or "What feminine pulchritude." Even the slightest slip of the tongue by the best-meaning male brought swift retribution. At one of the sessions of the Women's Caucus, McGovern was introduced by Liz Carpenter with the compliment: "We are all here because of him." Trying to make a joke, McGovern replied: "The credit should go to Adam." Seeing nothing funny, the women hissed until he pleaded: "Can I recover by saying Adam and Eve?" Shouted an alternate delegate: "Make it Eve and Adam."