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What Jane Swift has to say about what it’s like to be a woman in politics

"But in interaction after interaction, I was being lauded, at last, for attaining some superficial signal of 'woman-to-be-admired.' I couldn’t bear it."

Jane Swift, the 69th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2003 and Acting Governor from 2001 to 2003, during "Nonpartisan Lessons Learned & Shared: For the Next Generation," a women in politics forum, at Faneuil Hall in Boston, on March 16, 2017. The event featured Martha Coakley, Dr. Kerry Healey, Evelyn Murphy, Shannon O'Brien and Jane Swift discussing lessons learned from their experiences in public life and politics. (Globe staff photo/Craig F. Walker)

By Gwen Egan

March 12, 2023

2 minutes to read

Jane Swift, former governor and lieutenant governor, praised current Gov. Maura Healey for “setting the right example” for women in politics in a recent piece for WBUR, but said there’s still work that needs to be done.

Swift talked about how her time in politics and how the focus on “hair, hemlines and husbands” above her policy and work of substance still affected her 20 years after her service.

“About a month ago, I fled from a Massachusetts women-in-politics event about halfway through,” she wrote.

Swift was governor of Massachusetts from 2001 until 2003, and in her piece recounted how she felt the press coverage of her at the time not only focused on her appearance but her decision to start a family.

Joanna Weiss, a seasoned reporter, recounted how she knocked on Swift’s door some 20 years ago, and was turned away soundly, in a piece published in Boston Magazine in January.

“It’s been two decades since the former governor booted me off her front porch as a young reporter. What I’ve learned about her—and myself—since then,” reads the sub-headline.

Weiss discussed with Swift in that article how she wished 20 years ago she had been more kind to Swift.

“If Swift was once a public symbol of the challenges of managing motherhood and a career, she’s now a semiprivate example of how you can actually make it happen when nobody’s scrutinizing your every move.

Swift is also a symbol of what might have been if we’d all had a little more perspective, a little more generosity, and a little more restraint,” Weiss wrote.

Swift, in her own piece published two months later, mentioned how that night Weiss came knocking 20 years ago, she wasn’t upset by a sudden visitor, but rather she felt she would be met with judgment for her family’s socio-economic background.

“I didn’t fit the profile of what a governor should look like, and I paid for it dearly. I’ve never forgotten that feeling,” she wrote.

At the aforementioned women-in-politics event, she said she was still receiving well-intentioned compliments focusing on her appearance instead of her work, bringing back her feelings from 20 years ago.

In experiencing the grief of losing her husband around a year ago, she said, she gained courage, which led her to write her piece

Swift left readers off with a call to action and a set of instructions moving forward.

“The world remains entirely too focused on hair, hemlines and husbands. And the implicit bias against women continues to be fueled not just by gender, but also race and class. Even those of us who fight it, practice it. … So the next time you are at a work event — no matter how pink or festive — condition yourself to make your first comment about work.”