Emerge Blog

By Sarita Nair, Board President, Emerge New Mexico

"The shortage of women in politics never mattered to me." 

By Andrea Dew Steele, President, Emerge America

By Andrea Dew Steele, President, Emerge America
 

By Andrea Dew Steele, President and Founder
February 9, 2009
 

Marya Stark, Emerge America Board Member

In our 3rd convening of Emerge Affiliates from our eight states, I led a visioning exercise to come up with future headlines for 5, 10 and 25 years from now. One of my favorites was an imagined headline in the National Enquirer: "Emerge Graduate Gives Birth to Five-headed Baby". When Emerge bumps news of an Elvis sighting, you know it is having huge impact. Other favorite headlines included: "10,000 Women Gather for Emerge Convention", "Half of Democratic Governors Across the States are Emerge Graduates", "Emerge Credited with Filling Over Half of All Elected Positions with Women".

By Andrea Dew Steele, Emerge America President and Founder
 
The last time I was with Congresswoman Gillibrand was at a gathering at Senator Clinton's home in June. Gillibrand's new baby was six months old, I was pregnant with my third, and we were talking about what it's like to pump milk at work or on the road. She was not complaining, nor was I, but working mothers know how this new task adds a level of complexity to your already hectic day, particularly if that day takes place in the House of Representatives.

By Anne Moses, Emerge America COO
 
I met Kirsten Gillibrand when she ran for the House in 2006.  She was a relatively unknown attorney running for Congressman John Sweeney's seat.  Sweeney was a reliable footsoldier in the Bush Administration.  He led the fight against the environment, stem cell research, abortion rights and led the fight for social security privatization, tax cuts for the wealthy, and myriad other conservative issues.  And because he was outraged that an upstart woman like Gillibrand was challenging him in a district he viewed as his, he ran a smear campaign against Gillibrand that lambasted her, for among other things, being a working mother. How, Sweeney mused on the campaign trail, could a mother of young child possibly handle the demands of Congress and the demands of parenting?

by Sarah Granger

Hillary Clinton's dynamic run for the presidency has forever opened doors for women seeking higher office.  But there's still much to be done.  Moving forward, the '08 campaigns proved that in order to compete and win, all candidates will need to embrace the power of the Internet.

As we move toward more models of small donors and mass collaboration in campaigns and governance, we need a new framework that encompasses both the top-down and the bottom-up as we saw with the Obama campaign and

by Andrea Dew Steele