The Howard Dean campaign is resonating with some people in the Tri-Cities area, but not for the reasons you might think.
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has fallen behind at the polls in recent weeks, but his wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean, is gaining favor with feminists because of her choice to continue working instead of going on the road with her husband’s campaign.
“My feminist hero of the week is Howard Dean’s wife,” said Dr. Amber Kinser, director of the Women’s Studies program at ETSU.
Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean is a medical doctor with a full-time practice in the Dean’s hometown of Burlington, Vt. She is known professionally there as Judy Steinberg.
Steinberg graduated from Princeton University and went on to attend Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Steinberg met Dean while they were both attending that medical school.
The Deans moved to Vermont after graduating from medical school and opened their practice together.
Dean and his wife shared the medical practice up until the time he became lieutenant governor of Vermont in 1986.
After he became lieutenant governor, she continued to work, absorbing much of his patient load.
Dean became governor in 1991, and Steinberg continued with her responsibilities at the medical practice.
Feelings about Steinberg and her decision to continue her practice while her husband campaigns are finding words of praise among other women on the ETSU campus.
“She can take care of 100 sick patients in a day or ride in an airplane to attend a luncheon and stand beside her husband clapping and smiling as he makes a speech,” said Elizabeth Cichowski, 38, a public relations major. “Meanwhile, those 100 sick patients wait for someone to take care of them. “
Dean has fielded some questions about the absence of his wife during his campaign, but has shrugged them off by pointing out that she is doing the important job of saving lives.
“We support each other’s goals in life,” Dean said. “Her goal is to be a good doctor and a good mom. I think that’s a pretty good goal, and I support that.”
This message is well-received by some listeners. “I love the message Howard Dean is sending, that the presidency is ‘my’ thing,” Kinser said. “She had ‘her’ thing before I ever thought about the presidency.”
Steinberg herself has remained mostly quiet regarding her decisions, but she spoke out on the subject in a recent interview with Diane Sawyer.
“I am kind of private, and I have a son in Burlington I like to stay with, and I have a medical practice which I love,” she said.
“It’s really important for me, and Howard knows it’s important to me. But, I also love Howard, and I think he would make a terrific president.”
In past elections, prospective first ladies have received criticism while on the campaign trail.
“It wasn’t too long ago that Hillary Clinton was being pilloried for not baking cookies,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization of Women.
This critical view, Kinser says, along with his wife’s absence, could hurt Dean’s chances at the presidency.
Other women on campus also fear Dean may pay a political price for his wife’s decisions.
“I think it will do wonders with women who hate the idea of being a ball and chain,” said Randi Brockman, a journalism major at ETSU. “However, I think it will hurt him with the more conservative people who believe that a woman’s place is behind her man.

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