Getting Women "Ready to Run"
By Jane Morse
If ever there was a "gender gap," it is in the area of confidence – especially confidence to run for political office.
"Women tend to think they need to be prepared," says Jean Sinzdak, project manager for Rutgers University's Program for Women Public Officials. "Men will wake up and say: 'You know, I could run for Congress today.' But a woman will say: 'I want to learn how to run for Congress.'"
To help encourage more women to take the first steps towards a career in politics, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), which is a national organization based at Rutgers State University of New Jersey, developed a training program called "Ready to Run." Offered once a year, the non-partisan, one-day Saturday program is a crash course on how to position oneself for a political career, how to launch a campaign, how to do interviews, and how to raise campaign funds.
"Ready to Run" was born 10 years ago, when CAWP, which keeps track of how many women hold political office in all the states of the United States, found that New Jersey was consistently ranking in the bottom 10 states. Nowadays, "Ready to Run" seems to have helped: New Jersey is now ranked 15th, according to Sinzdak.
"This year, we had an election in which every single (New Jersey) state legislative seat was up for election and a record number of women won seats," Sinzdak says. "Over a quarter of the women who actually won seats – there are 35 of them now – were 'Ready to Run' alumni."
She adds that, although most of the approximately 850 women who have completed "Ready to Run" have been from New Jersey, women attend from all around the United States and from every age group. More recently, "Ready to Run" has been targeting the needs of minority women, specifically, Latinas, African Americans, and Asian Americans. Steering committees for the three groups have found that the issues are the same: Women need to be asked to run for office; they're afraid to take the first step on their own. What differs, she believes, is the level of political sophistication.
According to Sinzdak, African-American women already have a strong presence in the political arena. CAWP statistics show that as of October 2007, of the 87 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress, 12 are African American. Of the 1,734 women state legislators serving nationwide, 231 are African American. African-American women hoping for a political career can take advantage of CAWP's "Run Sister Run," a program newly launched in 2007.
Latinas are slowly but surely entering American politics. CAWP reports that of the 87 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress, seven are Latina. Of the 1,734 women state legislators serving nationwide, 71 are Latina. "For Latinas," Sinzdak says, "one of the issues is finding common ground across different backgrounds – there's a big difference between Latinas from South America and Cuba, for example. They're working on finding a common voice." "Election Latina," now completing its fourth year, addresses those needs.
South Asian immigrants, on the other hand, are pouring into New Jersey and have made strides in business and professions, but few have entered politics. Nationwide, there are only two Asian- American women of the 87 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress. Only 30 of the 1,734 women state legislators serving nationwide are Asian American.
In response to these numbers, CAWP launched last year "Rising Stars: Educating Asian-American Women for Politics," a program aimed specifically at this group. About 40 Asian-American women came to the program, which featured Asian-American women speakers who had been elected or appointed to political positions or who had worked on political campaigns.
"The women who were in the audience came up to us afterwards and said, 'This is so great! I never see Asian women in politics,'" Sinzdak recalls. This reaction points to one of the most important benefits of the minority-specific programs, in Sinzdak's view: "the opportunity for people to see people who look like them and to find mentors and role models."
Other Programs
Other institutions also provide training programs for would-be women politicians. The "Go Run" training program, for example, was established in 2005 by the White House Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing women in leadership roles.
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