Feisty Aphrodite Archives
Women Lead Each Other Into Political Ring
The following is an excerpt from the article written by Jacqueline Lee for Women's eNews:
The White House Project's "Vote, Run, Lead" program--launched in 2004 with an eye on "pipeline" posts--has recruited more than 16,000 women to participate in politics and trained more than 1,000 women to run for office.
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In June CosmoGirl and the White House Project released a poll on whether the next generation is ready for a female president. Answer: yes, from about 73 percent of the 1,000 young women and men surveyed. Of the respondents, 92 percent were between the ages of 13 and 19.
The study also found that 69 percent would be more likely to vote on Election Day if a woman was on the presidential ballot, underscoring the theory that women don't run for office in equal numbers because they do not see themselves reflected in the political process.
Wilson said part of the purpose of the Vote, Run, Lead program is to diversify the political ranks. "We're reaching out to women who have been working on not-for-profit political issues; therefore many of them are women who are making less money and women of color."
Among the women who have received White House Project training in the past two years, 80 have run or declared their intention to run for political office while 36 are currently in office.
Jan Bach, for example, was elected in November 2005 to serve on the city council of Thornton, Colo.
She said the trainings gave her the necessary skills to win after she had decided to run for office despite her limited knowledge of campaigns.
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The White House Project estimates that about 42 percent of their participants identify as women of color and that 38 percent have an annual income of less than $30,000.
On Oct. 15, television network Lifetime resumed its "Every Woman Counts" campaign--for the fifth presidential election since it launched in 1992--to encourage women to be engaged in the political process as voters and as candidates.
This year, Lifetime will also host "boot-camp" trainings in several states and online for women interested in running for office. Also available online are interviews with 86 female senators and representatives.
In another effort to increase the number of women in government, the Washington-based Women's Campaign Forum launched its "She Should Run" campaign June 27 to encourage the online nominations of 1,000 pro-choice women for political offices.
The organization had already received close to 900 nominations and plans to continue the campaign beyond the initial goal of 1,000 nominations.
The forum receives the nominations, contacts the nominators to learn more about the potential candidates and then lets the nominee know that someone thinks she has the talent and ability to lead and that she should run. Read the entire story here.
