Just One of the Guys And Quite a Bit More

A blend of feminist ideals and feminine ways

CONVENTION. The U.S. House of Representatives is a male domain. Deals are cut between pickup basketball games in the House gym, and legislative strategy is still crafted over cigars and bourbon in musty cloakrooms. Only 22 of the 435 House members are female, and they are regarded warily by the Capitol's male denizens. Women in Congress must not whine, they must not pout and they most certainly must never cry. They must overcome all the stereotypes that many Congressmen, like some other males, have not yet shed about the opposite and allegedly weaker sex.

Geraldine Ferraro has made her way in this male preserve by being both feminine and feminist. Her hair is frosted blond, she wears stockings and makeup, and she loves to shop. When she needs to, she can flirt. But she is also tough and resilient, a shrewd back-room operator. She is, says fellow New York Congressman Joseph Addabbo, the paunchy, balding Chairman of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, "just one of the guys."

Ferraro must now prove her ability to operate successfully in the even more daunting arena of national politics. She will have to convince men everywhere, and women as well, that she is equipped to do what only men have done before: run the nation. She will expose herself to relentless public scrutiny with little more than wit and common sense to shield her.

Fate and gender, not her résumé, put Ferraro on the ticket. Only two House members have been elected Vice President this century: John Sherman in 1908 and John Nance Garner in 1932. A third, Gerald Ford, was appointed to the office in 1973 after Spiro Agnew's resignation. Congressman William Miller went down with the Goldwater ticket in 1964. As Ferraro concedes, "Obviously, if I were not a woman I would not be discussed." Yet throughout her career, she has shown the ability to perform jobs that, on paper at least, she was not prepared for. As a Queens housewife with a night-school law degree, she became an effective prosecutor in the gritty criminal courts of Queens. A congressional neophyte, she became a quintessential Capitol Hill insider. She has pulled herself up with intelligence, immense drive, directness and engaging freshness—and by carefully playing according to the rules.

Ferraro is in many ways an old-fashioned poll. When she came to Congress in 1978, she did not take to the floor to make feminist speeches but instead worked the back halls, carefully cultivating her male elders by performing small chores and favors. She became a disciple of Speaker Tip O'Neill. "She has been a regular since the day she arrived," says O'Neill approvingly. The Speaker rewarded her with House plums, making her a member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Secretary to the House Democratic Caucus and, in 1983, a member of the powerful Budget Committee.