The good news about Akin: we got angry. Now we may get even.

A SYTYCB entry

The one under-reported headline this week coming out of the Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) debacle has been the good news — that Sen. Claire McCaskill might just keep her Senate seat. Before Akin’s now infamous “legitimate rape” comment, McCaskill was all but finished. The race was not a close one–Akin led the one-term Senator in the polls, and no one was forecasting a win for the female incumbent. And then, in the blink of an eye, Akin’s ludicrous statement turned the tide, turned up the heat, and could very likely turn out a vote that swings much the opposite of what it would have one week ago.

Let’s face it: Rep. Todd Akin saved Sen. Claire McCaskill. In a Congress that is 83% male, in a year where many of the few female Senators we do have are in jeopardy or are stepping down in protest of toxic hyperpartisanship, the McCaskill comeback is good news this community should be celebrating. But the headlines have all focused on Akin. Let’s talk about McCaskill. Let’s talk about how we get more women in leadership. Let’s talk about the good news: because we got angry, we can get [closer to] even.

McCaskill is not a progressive lioness of the left. She’s a pretty moderate Democrat. But her record on women’s issues is fairly strong–she has of course pounced on the “legitimate rape” comment in defense of women’s rights, and her campaign website is plastered with her positions in support of Planned Parenthood and free contraception. Sen. McCaskill is the kind of electable candidate we need to support, to defend, to develop more of if we’re to weather the most recent epoch of the war on women.

This is not to say that even gender representation is a cure-all for anti-female policy. Male candidates can and do support women’s rights, and not all women inherently do. As a Senator, Vice President Biden sponsored the original Violence Against Women Act and an international version, too. During the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act earlier this year, we witnessed Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL) take two very different sides on an issue that was deeply personal for both of them.

Be that as it may, according to research by the American Association of Political Scientists, female members of Congress are more effective legislators. They sponsor more bills, get more cosponsors than male counterparts, and are more successful at getting them passed.  Indeed, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was one of the most effective Speakers of the House in history, according to experts.  Whatever criticism she may have faced in her ability to effectively communicate her positions to the public, she knew how to get votes and pass bills.

Studies of legislatures that have gender quotas (ahem, not ours, although this year Iowa has mandated that all local boards and councils need to be 50% female) have demonstrated female legislators are more likely to reach across lines of conflict (political parties, ethnic groups, religions etc) and build coalitions for their policy priorities.  Some suggest that more women in power leads to better governance, less corruption and enhanced transparency.

These trends of female leadership hold up in other sectors, too–studies by Credit Suisse , Mckinsey, Catalyst, and Harvard Business School have all shown financial and competitiveness benefits for companies with more female board directors and/or managers.  They might also exercise greater care and be less susceptible to the frat-boy competitiveness that begets crashes–IMF chief Christine Lagarde famously suggested that if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman sisters there might not have been a global economic crisis.

If for no other reason than the guiding principle of our democracy–that government should be representative of the people (half of whom are female!)–there is clearly an urgency for change. McCaskill should be the focus of our Akin-revived energies, not Akin. We have a long road ahead of us before we sniff equal representation, and McCaskill’s seat (and her voice) is critical.

Todd Akin made me angry.  The last year of policy assaults on women made me angry.  But we must harness our anger and direct it in support of progressive, female leaders, like Claire McCaskill, Tammy Baldwin, and Elizabeth Warren, even as we condemn the offending, anti-woman antagonists. We need to get equally angry–and equally active–when the presumptive Republican candidate for Vice President has a platform that would restrict women’s reproductive access over a murky definition of “forcible rape,” or when “Governor Vaginal Probe” heads the Republican Governor’s Association and will soak up the spotlight at the Tampa convention.

Let’s get angry. And while we’re at it, let’s get even.