by H. Fields Grenee
Carol Moseley Braun, D-IL (1993–1999), 1st Black female Senator.
Statistically, a woman has to be asked seven different times to run for a political office before she will seriously consider throwing her hat into the ring – seven different times.
When the average women pursues a political office; be it a local school board, county elected position, statewide or national office – they tend to do so after there children are grown. Whereas men, because they have assistance with family obligations, tend to just wake up one morning and decide they are ready.
“When women have to be asked multiple times to run for a position, it takes on the equivalent of being drafted,” stated Malia Cohen, an African American candidate for the District 10, San Francisco Board of Supervisors; a position similar to a county board and regional aldermanic member. “Women do not self select to run for office whereas men do. We still have challenges with breaking into the old boy network,” said Cohen, who as a single female is bucking the trend by applying for her first office while still in her early thirties.
Hopefully groups like Emerge California (part of Emerge America) and its affiliates are sculpting more diversity into the existing political landscape. Emerge California; a political training program from which Cohen graduated, is nationally recognized for its commitment to honing the skills of Democratic women to pursue and achieve political office.
Founded in 2002, Emerge California is among the oldest female-specific political training programs in the country (including those funded by the DNP). It also represents the only successfully duplicated training model nationwide. By focusing on a long term investment in its graduates, Emerge California’s seven month training program develops applicants’ political and media skills, expands their knowledge of local issues, connects them with mentors, and provides them with savvy fund-raising experience.
As a single woman who has never run for office, Cohen feels the Emerge California training program provided her candidacy with creditability. “(Emerge) laid the foundation for a solid base to fundraise from and provided a network of politically savvy, engaged women to brainstorm and structure ideas,” Cohen explained.
Despite Emerge America’s advances during the past eight years, the perception that men have more credibility then women when running for a political office still exists. A belief that often leads to campaign contributors holding back funding based on the bias – if she is here, then who’s taking care of her children – a thought that bears no consideration when men run for office. The breath of this unspoken bias now really lays siege when you contemplate the staggeringly low number of minority women who have achieved a national political office.
Since Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964, a mere total of 39 women of color have served in the U.S. Congress. Three-quarters, roughly (30) of these women were elected after 1990 with Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois (1993–1999), as the first and only African American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.
A breakdown of these numbers shows that the 1968 election of Shirley Chisholm of New York was followed by 25 African American women. Whereas since the first Hispanic American woman, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida was elected twenty years later to Congress in 1989, six other Hispanic American women have served. And the precedence begun by Congresswoman Mink has vetted only four other women of Asian Pacific American decent through the corridors of the U.S. Legislature.
Julie Turner, second chair of the Ways and Means for The Virginia Democratic Women’s Caucus, contends that part of the reason for such a low number of minority females running for office stems from various Democratic Women’s organizations just not gaining traction with women of color. “(For) those who have worked in the trenches – wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could enhance [the potential minority candidate’s] skills and get her to run?”
Far too often,” Turner vented “a lack of fund raising services, well-sculpted political positions and public speaking skills prevent these women – African American and Latinos – from running. They don’t step up because they think they don’t have [appropriate] skills.”
With this in mind, starting in 2009 (through a scholarship program) Turner said the VDWC began actively canvassing rural and underprivileged areas to locate women of color and other female community activists to bring them into the democratic cactus. “We assess their skills, see what positions will be available in their area and provide the appropriate training needed for them to pursue and win [an office],” Turner said.
Running a successful political campaign – which does not always entail winning –requires money, so a candidate’s message does not vanish into thin air. Now more than ever, a candidate must be skilled in political nuances. Such training can cost up to $20,000 for a single program.
Unfortunately, the oldest Democratic organizations geared toward getting women into political office are less than ten years old and rely on independent fund raising efforts. Statistics show time and again that women are critical to the advancement of democracy. A higher level of female officials have resulted in the creation of more women-friendly policies in the areas of health care, child welfare, domestic violence, child support, unemployment benefits and education, according to research from the Center for Women’s Policy Studies.
Women have a more collaborative and harmonious work style and have a positive impact on public policy. Furthermore, the organization states that the impact of women on the legislative agenda “in a nutshell, is very strong.” “I think that sometimes, as women, we are our worse enemy because we don’t leave that ladder down. We pull it up instead of helping the next woman who comes along”, Turner said. “Instead of closing the door – we must leave it open,” Turner added. “We are so much stronger and we shine brighter when we do this together.”
