In a field dominated by the minority -- wealthy, educated, white men -- women with political aspirations have a challenging road. In a recent WomenCount Radio interview, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner discussed her efforts to organize and establish mentorships for women who want to run for office in Ohio. Her goal is to crowd her field as "first woman" and "only woman" a little (or a lot) more.

WomenCount and other groups keep working to that end, too.

It's harder, though, when respected mainstream media such as Vanity Fair writes something like this in a recent article ("It Came from Wasilla,"):

"Palin is unlike any other national figure in modern American life — neither Anna Nicole Smith nor Margaret Chase Smith but a phenomenon all her own... Palin’s life has sometimes played out like an unholy amalgam of Desperate Housewives and Northern Exposure."

It continued, "Another aspect of the Palin phenomenon bears examination, even if the mere act of raising it invites intimations of sexism: she is by far the best-looking woman ever to rise to such heights in national politics, the first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs. This pheromonal reality has been a blessing and a curse. It has captivated people who would never have given someone with Palin’s record a second glance if Palin had looked like Susan Boyle. And it has made others reluctant to give her a second chance because she looks like a beauty queen."

I'd like to reassure Todd S. Purdum that not only is that over the line sexist, but it's also erroneous.

Eight women total have given birth while holding national office, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep Linda Snachez (D-CA). Many more were mothers before coming to office, some many times over such as Nancy Pelosi. Others rose to office through their motherhood, such as Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) who was a PTA member and school board president. Motherhood and activism within it is an excellent preparation and springboard into politics, as Christine Pelosi pointed out in her recent WomenCount Radio interview.

I object, however, to the whole "hockey mom" derivation because, well, let's be honest, it's derivative.

I haven't heard President Obama referred to as a soccer dad, despite his overt statements that its a priority in his life. That's probably because -- and I'm going on a limb, but a fairly sturdy one I think -- we admire dads for parenting. Meanwhile, moms are just... where they are supposed to be when they parent.

Ouch.

I object even more to the classification of a professional, successful, elected woman's "hotness." This is the professional, grown-up world, not a frat party. Sarah Palin is no more or less attractive than many other women in politics. But at some point some guy made some implication that he'd "do her" because she's a beauty queen hottie" and now she's a sex object. See how harmful that is? Even if only said one time by one person? I'm not fan of Palin's politics, but they deserve to be respected (or debated) for what they are, independent of her looks and fertility.

Plenty of nice looking men have held elected office, too, including movie stars. I didn't hear too many people calling Ronald Reagan hot stuff, though.

Quit making it about looks. Quit making it about fertility and parenting status. Quit making it about gender and sex. Conscious and aware sexism is still sexism.

Women in office arrived there through hard work. Let's make it about the work and the job done while in office. Todd Purdum did so in the rest of his article -- quite eloquently -- but he couldn't leave the looks, gender, and uterus out of it. I so, so wish he had.

I second your motions! Why is this not a national conversation on every media outlet? Women in media, we are calling on you to call this out each and every time and only then will we even begin to make a dent. It's in the stamina of keeping it a conversation, not in unrealistically (and unfortunately I'm guilty of this) waiting for someone to come along to galvanize us. It is not going to happen. It's a silent killer and hard to rope and wrangle. So, we need the conversation out there big time. Please start talking about it nonstop. Okay...okay...we can wait until after MJ's funeral.