A woman at the helm

WASHINGTON — As an intern for Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), Alejandro Rivas often gave tours of the U.S. Capitol. When he came to "The Portrait Monument," a seven-ton sculpture in the Rotunda honoring three pioneers of women's suffrage, he would tell visitors that Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were "pivotal in gaining women equal access to democracy, but their work is not complete until we have a woman president."

"And neither will this statue be complete until then," he would add.

Behind the stone figures of Mott, Stanton and Anthony, sculpted by Adelaide Johnson and unveiled in 1921, is a block of solid marble, waiting to be shaped.

For years, tour guides such as Rivas have been telling visitors that it is intended for the image of the first female president of the U.S.

Although the story is just an amusing anecdote, it doesn't seem likely that the guides will stop telling it -- given the speculation that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) will run for president in 2008.

And with Tuesday's premiere of the ABC show "Commander in Chief," in which Geena Davis plays the U.S.' first female president, talk about a woman in the White House can only escalate.

"You can't be what you can't see," said Marie C. Wilson, president of the White House Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group whose goal is to advance women into leadership positions, up to and including the presidency. Wilson started the organization in 1998 out of frustration that women were creating important and effective social policies, but few were in positions of power to implement them.

"Why are we continuing to make these changes and not putting these women in power and making them permanent?" she asked. "We kept working toward women's rights, but didn't put women in power."

And there was a second reason: "I kept getting letters from girls that they expected to be president. I thought, 'Maybe we better do something.'

"In this country, you could never see a woman president. In this show, Geena Davis is playing a very rich role as president -- and then you start to shape public perception that she can do it."

Rod Lurie, who created the show, addressed a similar issue in "The Contender," the 2000 film in which a senator, played by Joan Allen, is nominated as vice president of the U.S. He said that his young daughter, Paige, inspired him.