Jenkins says women are gaining power, will soon win White House

Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins chats with Dole Institute director Bill Lacy during a 2015 Dole Lecture series event Sunday afternoon at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Dr.

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins said women have been gaining more power in Washington and in American business in recent years, and she thinks it won’t be long before a woman is elected president of the United States.

Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins chats with Dole Institute director Bill Lacy during a 2015 Dole Lecture series event Sunday afternoon at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Dr.

“I think it’s time,” Jenkins said during an appearance at the Dole Institute of Politics on the Kansas University campus Sunday. “I’m not a big fan of voting for a person just because they’re a woman, or a man. I want the best person for the job. So I’m not going to get hung up on what their gender is, but I think we’ve got some great talent.”

But Jenkins, a Republican who represents the 2nd District of Kansas, which includes Lawrence, wouldn’t go so far as to say whether she thinks the first woman president will be a Republican or a Democrat.

Two women have announced plans to run for president in 2016. Former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton formally announced her bid for the Democratic nomination this month. And Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate from California in 2010, has said she plans to announce her candidacy for the GOP nomination May 4.

“Carly Fiorina is a tiger and she’s proven herself to be a tough gal,” Jenkins said. “Secretary Clinton has proven herself in the arena. So I don’t know who it’s going to be, but I think the prospects are good. I think it will be in a very few number of years that we see a woman president.”

Much of Jenkins’ conversation at the Dole Institute was devoted to the role of women in politics. Currently in her fourth term, she serves as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, making her one of only a few dozen women who have ever held a GOP leadership post in the House.

This year, there are more women than ever serving in Congress. But the numbers — 20 in the Senate and 84 in the House — are still relatively low, given that women make up more than half of the voting population.

Jenkins, who grew up on a dairy farm near Holton, said she was raised by parents who had the same expectations for their daughters as their sons.

“We all had to milk the cows. We all had to throw hay bales up on the trailer,” she said.

But she said she believes some women are reluctant to go into politics because their expectations of themselves are too high, and as a result, many don’t take the initiative to run for office unless they’re encouraged by someone else to do so.

2015 Robert Hemingway Public service award winner Caleb Bobo, right, smiles as he is introduced to the audience at the Dole Institute, 2350 Petefish Dr, Sunday afternoon. Standing with Bobo are award finalists Monica Saha, left, and Christina Ostmeyer.

“I’m ashamed to say, I’ve had to be asked to run for office,” she said. “When I first ran, and for about every office I’ve ever run for, I waited for someone to say, ‘Hey, would you be interested in doing that,’ and that’s wrong. I think men sometimes just wake up in the morning, look at the mirror and say, ‘Darn, I’m so good, I’m going to run for Congress.'”

“Ladies just, I don’t know what it is about us, but we’re just not really wired like that, but we need to be,” Jenkins said. “Because we have a lot to offer. Whether we learn it as babysitters or big sisters or mothers, we are good at keeping everybody happy, and a lot of balls in the air and multi-tasking. We just have these unique skill sets that maybe some of our men don’t have. We are needed, and we are wanted.”

Jenkins also said Sunday that she has been pleased by the new spirit of bipartisanship in Washington that has taken hold since the start of the 114th Congress in January.

“Today, I will tell you, we have had one of the most productive first 100 days of a Congress in a very, very long time,” Jenkins said.

“We’ve passed more legislation in the House than in most recent Congresses,” she added. “We’ve had more bills come out of committee as a percent of those that have been introduced, and we’ve had more bills actually signed into law. There have been eight bills in the first hundred days that have been signed into law.”

She cited passage last week of a Medicare reform bill, which President Obama signed into law, that permanently reforms the way doctors are reimbursed and prevents a huge cut in payments to physicians.

And later this week, she said, both chambers are expected to pass resolutions agreeing to the general outlines of next year’s federal budget, something the House and Senate have not been able to agree on for several years.

“I’m more optimistic today than I have been in the entire six years that I’ve been there,” Jenkins said.