MOBILIZING EMOTIONS TO ELECT WOMEN: THE SYMBOLIC MEANING OF MINNESOTA'S FIRST WOMAN SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Abstract

*† Rosalie Wahl’s appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court and her subsequent election reveals how emotions make events historical, how they signal symbolic meanings, and how they mobilize social movements. The treatment of political women in the 1970s engendered the emotions that Wahl’s appointment and campaign surfaced. Relegating women party activists to the role of chore doers rather than decision makers humiliated them. Homemakers felt discarded and downwardly mobile after divorce. Exclusion and discrimination stung women lawyers. Feminism surfaced the powerful emotions of anger, exhilaration, solidarity, and hope that women would break down barriers. By deconstructing the rhetorical arguments of Wahl’s speeches, interviewing participants in the campaigns, reading the letters that Minnesotans sent to Wahl, and examining my own emotional reactions, I uncover the emotional dimensions of these events. Understanding what catalyzed intense emotional identifications and what this historical event symbolized to participants facilitates theorizing gender as a social process and understanding why other women first to hold public office or first women candidacies generally do not become historical events. Why are some events turning points? Why did it seem to me, a seventh grader, that the pride and dignity of all women and girls hung in the balance of whether Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs at tennis? Why did Geraldine Ferraro’s candidacy for the vice presidency lead women to hoist their daughters on their shoulders to see her? Why did Anita Hill’s testimony stop daily life and mesmerize the entire country? Public policy scholars use the term “focusing event” to explain why issues such as homeland security after 9/11, disaster management after Hurricane Katrina, or bridge inspection after the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, rose to the top of the government’s agenda. Social movement scholars define a critical event as one that makes the targets of social movement activity more vulnerable, makes resources more available to the movement, and encourages individuals and groups to set aside their differences and work together, thereby making coalitions possible (Staggenborg 1993: 321). 1