News Articles

PROGRESSIVE WOMEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE EMERGE AS KEY TO FUTURE

liza — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:42:45 -0400

In the winter months before Scott Walker really got rumbling with his extremist agenda -- destroying bargaining rights, public education and stripping communities of their power to fix things -- leaders of the progressive and union communities held several meetings with the articulate Karen Middleton, a multi-term elected official in Colorado with a national reputation.

She was seeking support and money for Emerge America, a national program that finds, trains, prepares and inspires committed progressive Democrat women to run for public office.

Not, you'll notice, just any woman, though Middleton would probably concede that the lack of women in public office is a major problem. But women on the progressive side of the Democratic Party - that's really her mission and the kind of woman she thinks will make a difference in the current political climate.

Don't turn Limbaugh-Lite on me and dismiss the goal as a niche movement, a long shot, a pie-in-the-sky fancy. Just speed ahead seven months after Middleton's pitch in Milwaukee and consider what has happened. Progressive women are on the march and they seem a key reason why the national media now looks at the results of the Wisconsin recall elections as confirming a balance between conservative and liberal forces.

Democrat women knocked off two GOP male incumbents in the state senate as the Democrats won 5 out of the 9 recalls even while missing by one a reversal of the senate. News reports point out two things - that the progressives had enough money and more enthusiasm to compete even while it took literally tons of outside money and pleas to the right wing base to keep the GOP in power.

Those same reports reveal that it was largely women out in their neighborhoods talking to other families, not just union families, and finding the voice to speak out at public forums they were once reluctant to participate in - and discovered they could stalemate the impact of outside money.

Women are now the key political presence in many communities, because they are no longer content to sit on the sidelines of debate and turmoil and let their children lose educational opportunities or be sent off to strange wars.

Women who never thought of themselves as progressives, liberals, put the label you want on them, found that the roots of that approach - caring what happened to everyday people -- dovetailed with their family and religious beliefs, their nutritional and environmental concerns, their preference for something other than edicts and bossiness. Suddenly well-heeled funders far beyond Emily's List (which always emphasized women candidates) were joining the support but even more amazing was the nickel and dime giving by women on the Internet.

Political and community leaders openly acknowledge not just the strength of women's concerns but how progressive Democratic women may well be the door to the future political success, especially as so many citizens tire of the false promises, stubbornness and plain foolishness of the conservative GOP.

So what once seemed far-fetched is no longer silly. Take the idea that media pundits used to laugh at, that Wisconsin as a whole might embrace a dynamic, outspokenly progressive woman to be its newest senator. But now that longtime Madison Rep. Tammy Baldwin has announced she will run to replace retiring Sen. Herb Kohl, state voters are seeing the logic of a talented, practiced legislator known for nifty compromise, stand-up principles and fighting for working families as an alternative to wimpy wishy-washy.

Left or right may not prove as important as capable and human. The scoffing at Baldwin's candidacy, the jeering from conservative talk radio, should remind the observant of the last time such radio goons chuckled that more conservative males would wipe the floor with any progressive woman who expected the working class to embrace her. That jeering in 2004 was about Gwen Moore, next to Kohl the most successful politician in the state for those who play the numbers game.

More reality. Women carried a major presence in the recall elections on both sides, but it was two Democrat women who defeated male Republican opponents in the state Senate. One, Jessica King, the largely unknown deputy mayor of Oshkosh, is actually a graduate of the Emerge Wisconsin program. She is now State Sen. Jessica King. She has fellow Emerge colleagues in the Assembly, including the only Latina, JoCasta Zamarippa of Milwaukee.

So now backtrack to Middleton's visit. It would be fair to say the Wisconsin union leaders asked her hard questions about why she wanted their money as well as their influence. While they no longer ask such questions today, it's worth revisiting what they were concerned about.

Why, they probed, of all the fine causes dunning them, should they help Middleton -- and Wendy Strout, the organizer who left an AFSCME job to serve as executive director of Emerge Wisconsin, one of the national group's state chapters.

Why should unions help Emerge by identifying or encouraging women to run for public office? Doesn't labor itself need more women leaders? Unions are struggling not just to draw more minorities, young people, immigrants and veterans but also more women to take leadership. Their sex already makes up almost half the union workers in the US but only a minority of the leadership positions.

To that concern, the articulate Middleton had a sly and telling answer. The move to public office doesn't lose progressive women to the union cause. It puts them in a position to advance union goals, and it makes room within the union ranks for the women who have the ability for leadership but don't want to displace members of their own sex. (Displacing the men above them, of course, is an entirely different matter.)

The dilemma - not enough forward looking women in public office - contains the roots of Emerge America's growth. More women would bring a fresh approach to problems, especially progressive women who don't want to pretend to act like men. If there are not enough women in the front ranks, you attract more with intense preparation and networking, providing the tools to succeed and developing the skills to compete - and learning to do it well.

"We help women get into office, stay in office and like it," Middleton is fond of saying -- but it is determined work, she concedes, because women are different. They are not drawn to open domination as men are. They have to be coaxed. They actually have to believe they can make that difference -- and deal with some scorn and doubts not just from men but other women.

Union leaders relate to her stories - how, in a roomful of both sexes it was the men who tended to volunteer for leadership and elected office while the women held back. Much of this is heritage and expectation, the historical role of women, but as Middleton pointed out it is also a matter of a different view of the nature of leadership.

Many of the women Emerge America is finding are not focused on public office and public speaking. Events led them to those roles. These women are often the quiet leaders in a neighborhood, a school, a committee, who don't thrust themselves forward to get votes until circumstances force their natural initiative out into the open. In other words, they don't know their own power. In some ways, the progressive ideals are the best way to waken them, since these concerns are natural to their own concerns about faith and family. Creating better schools, better environment, spending what is needed for jobs, not letting economics control the reproductive choices - that's far more appealing than the protective self-gratification that many see in the navel-gazing Tea Party women.

Middleton clearly believes that awakened rounded thinking women who never seriously contemplated a public career are naturally drawn to become progressive Democrats. And events in Wisconsin seem to be proving her right.

That's why you will find Wendy Strout running all over the state wherever there are rallies. She's not only a speaker but mainly a quiet scout searching the crowd for women no one previously heard of but who show that instinct and intelligence for leadership and organization.
That's why Emerge Wisconsin seeks money so that economics don't control involvement (the program costs thousands but no accepted applicant gives more than $350 for weekends of training). Emerge Wisconsin is having such an impact that it has moved its training classes up a year and has one group of applicants attending courses this month at union locations.

Nationally, Emerge is also making a mark, with a major awards ceremony in San Francisco, a powerhouse board and with Middleton speeding around the nation. Her energy could be the main reason Gov. Walker worked so hard to oppose the bullet train - she drops in on training classes in many states, talks on TV and radio, gets profiled in the New Yorker, pushes this "state of the art" concept to prepare women for public office.

Emerge America also has chapters in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and (get ready Rand Paul) now Kentucky.

To learn more about the program and its stepped up classes, visit www.emergewi.org or contact wendy@emergewi.org.

WILL MORE WOMEN IN PUBLIC OFFICE SOLVE WHAT AILS AMERICA?

liza — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:31:56 -0400

News events seem to have caught up with the speculation I raised in the August Labor Press and in a related online story last week about Emerge America: Has the time truly arrived for the widespread emergence of progressive women in politics?

Lots of political savvy Democrats seem to think so.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin, one of the US House's busiest liberals with a clear vision of public service, is running to replace Herb Kohl in the US Senate, the only announced Democrat. Meanwhile, the state GOP is scuffling about whether Tommy Thompson has swung far enough into the trees to woo the Tea Party and whether Mark Neumann has swung so far up into the extreme right-wing branches that he can no longer win the center, especially after criticizing Scott Walker in the primary as not experienced enough and not conservative enough (remember?) for governor.

In Massachusetts, where the senate seat has seesawed from Kennedy to Brown while the governor's mansion has similarly whipsawed from Romney to Patrick, a champion of consumer protection, Elizabeth Warren (probably the current national definition of brainy progressive woman), is the hottest explorer for a senate campaign. That Warren type trend is popping up in other states as well.

Wisconsin's replacement elections dumped men or are empowering a heady share of women to move against Walker supporters - and some of those Walker acolytes have further put their seats in jeopardy by trying to run for other offices on his coattails or isolating their seats by seeking to serve in his administration. On top of that, as things are shaping up, many of the April nonpartisan races for judicial, county, municipal and school board offices will feature female candidates claiming to make a difference.

Already, Joanne Kloppenburg -- the balanced, thoughtful assistant attorney general under several administrations who came out of nowhere to end within a few thousand votes of David Prosser for the Wisconsin Supreme Court (in a lost-votes story that continues to stain Waukesha County's reputation) -- has announced she will run for a vacancy on the District 4 Appeals Court. The state is divided into four appeals districts and this is one of the most influential -- anchored in Dane County and other south and west communities where Kloppenburg won handily over Prosser.

Whether Kloppenburg is progressive (she has never telegraphed her partisan leanings as Prosser has), her candidacy reflects the sort of reasoned even-tempered woman open to argument that many candidates in judicial contests around the state will now be required to reassure voters about.

But really, has the time come for progressive women? You'll get an argument in traditional media and even on suburban streets. Only partly supported by national polls but certainly thumped upon by big money right-wing media, the political outlook is that the nation is far too conservative for a wave of progressive (usually liberal Democrat) women to succeed in being elected to major public office.

On the other side are forward-looking thinkers who have noted how much America is changing and how more national polls reflect profound movement across the political spectrum.

Sexual orientation or religious affiliation -- or lack of either -- is not an issue for many voters under 30, and for a growing number of older voters no longer buffaloed by old myths and views of what matters in public service. That's a backlash against constantly proclaiming morality by politicians who seem to behave quite differently behind closed doors. When you look at how the consumer has been treated, and how many are women, the simply transparency advocated by Warren and blocked by tired old GOP carries quite a weight.
Still, 2010 was clearly reactionary old school not progressive in the liberal sense of the term, and if things are changing, in the summer of 2011 Wisconsin demonstrated hardly all the way.

But nationally as well as locally, the body electorate does seem to be in transition. This may be a natural reaction to the reluctance of congressional Republicans to do anything to help the country if it might also help Obama. A lot of voters have had it with these old ways and obstinacy.

Within the state, you can credit Gov. Walker's excessive attack on basic family rights as too obvious a political catering to the tired policies of his richest supporters, many living out of state.

So however you read the causations, or whether you think the timing is too early or just ripe, Wisconsin progressives have clearly made gains. And much of it has come from turning to women.

The national press of all political persuasions looked at the recall election results in August and now talks about parity between conservative and liberal in the electorate, where once they saw only red. Further, many of the media's stories are about how many women have been activated. It has been women, unheralded and often unknown women, who have been a key to this social advancement.

There is also growing recognition that the chauvinist extremism paralyzing the nation -- and we are not just talking about men but about the ugliest, bigoted, over-the-top religiosity side of partisanship -- might not have happened except for the paucity of brainy, compassionate women in public office. That may well be holding the nation back from new ways of looking at issues, empathizing with everyday problems and talking about fresh solutions in public chambers.

Barbara Lawton, the former Wisconsin lieutenant governor, takes both political parties to task for making women's reproductive health the first slash in balancing budgets at both the state and federal level.

US Rep. Barbara Lee and other members of Progressive Congress touring America lamented our historic dependence on war and physical conflict to solve political disputes and spoke of how women felt helpless in the face of this tendency toward violence that destroyed their families.

Men as well as women complain aloud that the dead hands and old habits of power, control and philosophy dominate the national debate. At a time when more businesses are turning to women leaders to promote sales and innovation, their historic attitudes that women are worth less than men have come back to slap them down. If businesses better valued women as employees and customers, many gurus of Wall Street now say, perhaps we could shake off these economic doldrums and create more value rather than frills in the nation's products.

The Tea Party influence on the GOP may have set the cause of women back in 2010, though the media continues to be fascinated by the Tweeter women at the top of the pile. All that coverage makes it seem that women are more prominent in public office. The facts reveal that a lot of women, established and forward-moving public servants, were displaced in 2010 - in fact, there are fewer women in influential policy positions than before, even in state houses, where the presence of Tea Party elected females has to be balanced against their submissive catering to the creaky ideas and lobby-happy habits of male right-wingers.

Women may have voted less for Democrats in 2010 but they hardly replaced them with women. In fact, despite the toxicity of how females view the current Congress, their votes actually increased the number of men -- many political veterans, many insiders eager to play the hoary games both in D.C. and in statehouses.

The times have changed, as many articles and politicians point out. The keynote speaker at Milwaukee's Legal Aid Society ceremonies September 8, Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, noted it was hardly coincidence that the three honorees for the equal justice award were women - Dominican Sister Ann Halloran, Benedict Center innovator Kit McNally and labor council CFO Sheila Cochran. And much of his following speech was devoted to the need for more progressive women in public office.

In the 1960s - an era that the right-wing still demeans because of the advance of civil rights, peace movements, Medicare and, gasp, feminism -- classified ads even in major liberal newspapers like the New York Times were still categorizing careers by gender. That was also an era when only 38% of women attended college and only 11% earned Ph Ds.

Today 57% of US college graduates are women. More than half of Ph Ds go to women. According to US Dept. of Labor, of the 122 million US women age 16 years and over, 72 million, or 59.2%, were labor force participants -- working or looking for work. Women comprise 46.8% of the total US labor force. And nearly half of union membership is female.

Now look at public office - minimal representation for the maximum gender.Currently of 100 US senators, 17 are women. Women lost seats in the House. And only three states out of 50 - Maine, Connecticut and Hawaii - can boast gender parity in their US House representatives even while the census reveals more adult women than men in the US.

In Wisconsin, 23% of the Wisconsin legislature are women. 15% of City Councils have no women and of the 12,935 town and village board seats, only 2,646 are held by women.

The statistics cited confirm the push for progressive women in public office is long overdue - and under the tireless promotion of leader Karen Middleton, Emerge America pumps its solution that these should be women tied to the progressive wing of the Democrat Party.

What some once saw as a sliver movement in the need to get more women running, Emerge seems the Rosetta Stone of success - putting potential candidates through their paces and preparation in how to understand policies, talk about issues, use the Democratic principles, network with men and women, raise money and dig deep into the grassroots. (In fact, one new state senator, Jessica King, is actually an Emerge Wisconsin graduate.)

It's been working, which may be why the national media is paying attention and why Emerge Wisconsin, headed by executive director Wendy Strout, has been singled out by state Democrats and moved up its planned training classes and publicity efforts.

The fact that progressive women are a hot topic for male political leaders such as Abele, the reality of these statistics, the gains of candidates across the nation, reflect that the dream of more progressive women in public office - more independent women in general -- is turning into a genuine mission. And something of a nightmare for the Republican Party.

Endorsements and Other "Opportunities" for Women Seeking Office

liza — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:17:41 -0400

One of the issues facing women running for office is being labeled 'the outsider' or the 'risky choice' among candidates on a ballot. In a Denver city council election, Susan Shepherd had a mail piece dropped against her that claims most of her support is 'from outside of the district.'

Her opponent is quoted as saying, "But why does she list support from people outside the district? Why should life long residents and voters like me be concerned or interested in who these outside politicians supports. I want to focus on what's important for northwest Denver." (Denver Post Spot Blog, May 25, 2011) This candidate says that endorsements from outside the district and that should not matter to neighbors.

I beg to differ. Endorsements matter. Why? When you are in office, you work with other elected leaders in a variety of ways. You serve on regional boards, such as DRCOG (Denver Regional Council of Governments) or metropolitan transportation or shared service districts. You need relationships with other elected officials, and you need to work across levels of government.

As an elected official, you approach and advocate state legislators about those issues that affect your district. Your reputation as a newly elected official is based a great deal on who already thinks you would do a good job. If you already know the mayor in an adjacent city or a legislator who supports your views on development, you are positioned well ahead of someone who does not have those relationships in place when there is a piece of legislation or a thorny issue to address.

A candidate with a broad range of endorsements can demonstrate to their neighbors that they already know how to work with people in their community and state in order to get things done. I have met plenty of elected officials who tout their 'residency' credentials who don't necessarily make great public officials.

Who you know, and who you have already impressed with your vision, knowledge and experience, does matter. If you are seeking an elected official who can serve your needs, and they understand how to work with multiple levels of government, that should influence your decision about a candidate. What you want to accomplish and who you know to help you meet your goals does matter. Neighbors should pay attention to all of these things as they decide who to vote for in an election.

I think this aspect of campaigning is especially important for women seeking office. Someone will try to paint you as 'less qualified' if you are new on the scene, younger, or offer a different experience than an incumbent or someone who wants to categorize you as 'other.' Women tend not to build their entire lives around the goal of running for office, so they will have broader and more varied experience that may not read like a traditional political candidate. Women tend not to think of themselves as future candidates no matter what their background.

I encourage candidates to avoid the rhetoric, get the endorsements, own the endorsements and go for it. I suggest that voters should look at the whole package -- what is this candidate offering to you and what kind of experience, interest and validation to they bring to the table?

If my endorsements as an out of state supporter would help a candidate, I would offer it. In this instance, I want to make it clear that neighbors should go beyond how long someone has been in one place before casting your ballot.

Keeping Up With the News of the Day

alisha — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:31:10 -0500

I have been unable to get my head around the endless series of attacks on women, women's rights, reproductive rights, choice, and now the rights of working families. I daydream about the blogs I would write if I chose not to sleep, but I am too busy to effectively process the depth and breadth of the attacks we are seeing across the states. Each day we hear a new story, a new headline and a new outrage.

Many leading women in office and many of our sister organizations have written to share the latest news on these attacks and some have been able to impact the proposed policies before they are final. I don't feel the need to restate what has already been said, but would join the chorus to ask why redefining rape, limiting choice or targeting abortion service providers are being discussed ahead of job growth, economic development and protecting our most vulnerable citizens who may need services provided by the government.

The level of protesting and organizing in Wisconsin gives me hope that Americans will realize that some of our most basic needs are provided by government and you want our workers there when you need them - to teach your kids, renew your license or process your unemployment claim. In uncertain times, they bridge the gap, in times of crisis, they provide a net, and in the good times, they leverage state resources to reinvest in your community. Emerge is standing arm in arm with our labor partners to help fight the assault on working families. We stand with Wisconsin in solidarity.

These recent assaults on our freedoms and on sensibility reaffirms that I am in the right place at the right time. The answer to the question "how do we change policy to reflect what we want and need in the world" is to change who is determining policy and making the laws. Training, running and electing Democratic women will give us different outcomes. The time is now. Emerge America is part of the solution. Women are harder to recruit to run for office, but if we can identify, encourage and train them to successfully run and win, we have done our part to expand the pool of qualified candidates.

The news of the day is a call to action - to fight the attacks on women's right, worker's rights and human rights. Everyone needs to do their part to ensure the outcome is a future America that we want to see. "We are the change we wish to see in the world."

Take action now - make an impact. We need everyone' voice to be heard right now.

Gloria Feldt named to Emerge America Board of Directors

alisha — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:11:49 -0400

For Immediate Release

Inquiries:

Karen Middleton, 415-344-0323 or 720-427-3239 kmiddleton@emergeamerica.org

Gloria Feldt, gloria@gloriafeldt.com

Media requests for Gloria Feldt: Andie East, andie.east@perseusbooks.com

Gloria Feldt named to Emerge America Board of Directors

Feldt on a national book tour, in San Francisco October 20

Leading author Gloria Feldt has been named Emerge America's newest board member. Feldt, the former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to Emerge America, a political organization that trains Democratic women to run for elected office.

Gloria Feldt, in accepting this role, said, "I am delighted to join the board of Emerge America, and I believe we need Emerge more than ever to help women claim their power and particularly to help elect progressive women to their rightful position in the House, the Senate and in legislatures across America. Our moment is now, but it's up to us to take it."

"In an election year where the role of women as voters, candidates and elected officials is critical, we welcome the opportunity to work with Gloria to help women own their power. Her new book, "No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think about Power" speaks directly to the women we want to see training and running for office all across the country," said Karen Middleton, president of Emerge America.

Feldt's book provides women with 9 "power tools" they can use in achieving power in relationships and at work, and as political and cultural change-makers. Timely and hard-hitting, No Excuses is an invaluable resource that will help women equalize gender power in politics, work, and love.

Emerge America is inviting its Bay Area friends and supporters to hear Gloria Feldt read from her new book on Wednesday, October 20, 7:00pm at Books, Inc. in the Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness Avenue.

About Gloria Feldt (www.gloriafeldt.com)

Gloria Feldt is a nationally renowned activist and author whose passion for social justice has propelled her life's work. Her new book, "No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think about Power" explores women's current progress and ambivalent relationship with power while offering practical tools for leading an unlimited life. Her previous books include the New York Times bestseller Send Yourself Roses, coauthored with actress Kathleen Turner, Behind Every Choice Is a Story, and The War on Choice.

People magazine calls Feldt "the voice of experience." A teen mother from rural Texas, Feldt served as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest reproductive health and advocacy organization, from 1996-2005.

Feldt's passion for bettering women's lives remains her driving force as an independent commentator on women's issues, politics, media, and leadership. She teaches "Women, Power, and Leadership" at Arizona State University and serves on the board of the Women's Media Center.

Gloria has book events in the following locations. You can visit her website for full details.

Washington, DC
Wed. 10/13 @5:30 pm
Busboys and Poets
1025 5th St. NW
202-789-2227
Reception and book signing sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, RH Reality Check, and the Women's Campaign Forum.

Rochester, NY
Fri. 10/15 @12:00 pm
Keynote
Stanton/Anthony Conversations

Oakland, CA
Tue 10/19 @7:00 pm
Mills College

San Francisco, CA
Wed 10/20 @7:00 pm
Books Inc.
Opera Plaza
More info at Yelp and Inside Bay Area.

Menlo Park, CA
Thurs 10/21 @7:00 pm
Kepler's Bookstore

Tempe, AZ
Tue 10/26 @7:00 pm
Changing Hands Bookstore

New Orleans, LA
Wed. 11/10 @ 6:00 pm
Octavia Books

New Canaan, CT
Mon. 11/15 @7:30 PM
Elm Street Books

Tucson, AZ
Fri 11/19 @7:00 pm
Antigone Books

About Emerge America (www.emergeamerica.org)

Emerge America is the premier training program for Democratic women. We inspire women to run and we hone their skills to win. Our goal is clear: to increase the number of Democratic women in public office

Emerge America was created to address the under-representation of women in office at the local, state, and federal level. Our program is the essential step for Democratic women who want to run for public office. It is the only in-depth, seven-month training program for Democratic women that inspires candidates to run and gives them the tools to win.

Emerge affiliates are in nine states: Arizona, California, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Wisconsin.

Over 40% of Emerge America's graduates have run for office and close to 50% have won. 40% of EA's program members are women of color.

AARP Magazine

alisha — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:14:51 -0400

The U.S. lags behind the world when electing women to office. Is that about to change?

Republican state senate candidate Wendy Rogers strode confidently up the front walk of a suburban tract house in Tempe, Arizona, and rapped on the door. She scanned a printout of registered voters in her district, found the name of the homeowner, and repeated it under her breath. Hearing footsteps inside, Rogers, her brunette bob held in place by a strong blast of hairspray, adjusted her sky-blue polo shirt and smoothed her khaki shorts. Even before the door swung open, she started her spiel.

"Hi, Mr. Smith, I'm Wendy Rogers and I'm running for the state legislature. I'm a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel pilot, served 20 years in the military, and for the past 13 years have been a small business owner in our district. I'd be honored to have you sign my nominating petition."

It's a late June day in the Southwest, and at 9:30 in the morning it's already 100 degrees. But Rogers, 56, is as cool and focused as she was flying her C-141B Starlifter filled with Marines over Okinawa in 1985. With an incumbent as her opponent, she decided early that getting to know voters - and getting voters to know her - should be her first priority. Since July of 2009 she's been hitting the streets on her 20-year-old mountain bike, a handmade "Rogers For Senate" sign slung over the rear tire, searching for votes one door at a time. Her motive? "When I see people in the legislature who aren't balancing the budget and don't have a plan for doing so, I can't just sit on the sidelines," she says. To date, Rogers has visited 10,000 households.

And she's not alone. As the fall elections approach, women like Rogers, mentored by more than 50 different partisan and nonpartisan groups, are fanning out across the country, turning the passion for public service they've picked up as business leaders, stay-at-home moms, and members of the military into full-blown political activism. Ninety years after women won the right to vote, they're helping to correct a shocking inequity. High-profile female politicians such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin notwithstanding, the number of women in elected office in the United States is disproportionately low. When ranked among the world's democracies, the U.S. is 73rd out of 186 countries in electing females to public office, worse than Turkmenistan but slightly better than the tiny republic of San Marino.

One key force in the movement to get women into office is the nonpartisan 2012 Project, which specifically targets women age 45 and up. "Midlife women make strong candidates, and they're at a point in life when they can take on the task," says 2012 Project head Mary Hughes. "They are about to have fewer family responsibilities, are more likely to be financially stable, and have deep roots in the community."

For 25 years Hughes has worked on campaigns to elect women. Women currently hold about a quarter of all elected offices in this country and 17 percent of the seats in Congress, but that figure is less impressive, she says, when you consider that women make up about 51 percent of the American population. "We never say 83 percent of Congress is male. We say we're up to 17 percent," says Hughes. "We are penalized for our optimism."

To be sure, women are better represented in national politics now than they were 35 years ago. The 93rd Congress, which served from 1973 to 1975, had no women senators and just 16 women in the House of Representatives. Women made only incremental political gains until 1992, referred to by pundits as "The Year of the Woman." Angered by the way an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee treated Anita Hill during the 1991 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, women around the country stepped up as candidates. They secured 47 seats in the House (up from 28) and 7 in the Senate (up from 3) in the ensuing election. Currently there are 73 women in the House and 17 in the Senate. It's an improvement, but not as much as some would hope. Women pick up a Congressional seat or two in each election cycle but lose the same number of elected positions when an incumbent retires, or when a female governor like Kathleen Sibelius leaves office to join the President's cabinet. "We've been kind of stuck," says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, which follows women's political participation.

Women can get elected just as easily as men, Walsh adds. The problem is that women usually run only if they're asked - and the parties are far more likely to ask men. "Both political parties are not recruiting and grooming women as they do men," Walsh says.

Most of the groups that recruit or train women candidates focus on young women, believing that's the best way to build a political pipeline for the future. Hughes, however, decided in 2009 that women 45 and up were a talented, untapped pool of ready-to-serve candidates. "Almost a third of American women are 50 or older," she says. "Many are pioneers in their industries who chose to go into male-dominated fields or start small businesses." Her 2012 Project - so named to mark the upcoming election in which Congressional seats will be reapportioned based on the recent census, creating opportunities for women who generally fare well in contests for open seats - specifically targets accomplished women in fields ranging from health to the environment.

Once the 2012 Project identifies potential women candidates, it directs them to any number of training programs across the country. One of them, the Yale Women's Campaign School, offers candidates five days of "street smarts, not book smarts" training, says its president, Deb Sofield. Participants role-play giving fund-raising speeches and handling the media. For example, how should a candidate respond when her son gets arrested for a DUI? "Well, you need a contrite son," says Sofield. "Then you say, 'We expected better of our child, and it's a family issue and we're dealing with it.' " It's no surprise that family issues make their way into the training. History has shown - remember Sarah Palin and her teenage, pregnant daughter Bristol - that female candidates more often than male candidates are asked to explain the actions of wayward offspring.

THE MOTIVATION TO RUN

In 2007, Democrat Rosie Gonzalez, a 45-year-old family law attorney from San Antonio, Texas, enrolled in the Yale Women's Campaign School. In classrooms at the prestigious New Canaan, Connecticut, campus, she soaked up lectures and participated in one-on-one counseling sessions. This year, Carol Vernon, an executive coach, videotaped participants and used the film to fine-tune their communication skills - both verbal and nonverbal. "It's not about creating an image," says Vernon. "It's about leveraging the parts that are already there." For instance, Vernon believes that women have a huge advantage over men when it comes to listening to others and hearing voters' concerns.

Gonzalez's own well-honed listening skills led her to run for a Bexar County judgeship in San Antonio. The unmarried career woman spent nearly two decades working with adolescents in the juvenile justice system, first as an admissions desk clerk at the local juvenile lockup, then as a social worker, and later as a lawyer specializing in troubled youth. Based on her experiences, Gonzales believes the majority of kids in the system have suffered some profound childhood trauma or brain disorder. "These kids didn't have the emotional skills to deal with their behaviors," she says. Gonzalez thinks she can improve life for troubled teens given her years on the front line.

"My message is that I have a passion for justice," she adds. "If we don't have passionate people dealing with our youth, they will become as complacent as the judges on the bench now."

"Rosie's been working with kids in crisis for years," says Sofield, of the Yale Women's Campaign School. "She understands what works and what doesn't work in the system."

While women, like Gonzalez, are often propelled into politics because of specific issues, men are more likely to cite personal ambition as their reason for running for office. Jennifer Lawless, director of American University's Women & Politics Institute, believes part of the difference lies in societal mores. "We are still living in a time when women are not thought well of when they speak candidly of ambition," she says. Her research shows that the issues that women focus on once elected are issues closely linked to them, especially families, children, childcare, and education.

"America could be a much stronger country if we made our judgments with our values connected to a realistic idea of family life," says House Speaker Pelosi. "Women are very close to the choices they had to make while raising their children."

"Women are responsible for more of the nurturing, which makes them more sensitive to individual and family needs," notes former Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole. When Dole served in office, her main focus was on safety rather than building more roads. She succeeded in passing nationwide compulsory seatbelt legislation, and pushed hard for manufacturers to include airbags in their designs. "It's a joy to make things happen that will help people," she says, "especially those who do not have a voice."

Chiquita Coggs, 62, a Republican running for Kansas State Senate from the economically disadvantaged northeastern section of Kansas City, is promoting stronger economic development in her district. But the real reason she entered a long-shot race - she's taking on an eight-term incumbent who has never had an opponent, in a district with 9,000 registered Democrats and only 1,119 Republicans - is to make changes in the way charter schools operate in the state.

In 2008 Coggs helped found a charter school, but it folded after two years: Its community-based charter board couldn't raise a $250,000 operating fee imposed by the Board of Education. Coggs believes the program was set up to fail - the charter board lacked resources to raise such an unrealistic amount of cash - and maintains that district administrators and school unions are threatened by charter schools, viewing them as direct competition.

"I promised [the charter school] I would not stop until the laws were changed," says Coggs, who would like to see colleges and universities be allowed to sponsor charter schools in Kansas. If elected, she plans to insist that Kansas adopt portions of model legislation recently developed by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. To address her economic concerns for her distrct, she also plans to draft "sales tax-free zones" in the main commercial area. "Best I can get anyone to recall, my opponent has been to the microphone one time in 16 years in the legislature, and he's never offered a single piece of legislation," Coggs says. "As a result I think my chances of winning this election are really, really good, even with the long odds."

In preparation for her run, Coggs trained at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series in Kansas, a program that targets Republican women exclusively. Lisa Ritchie, administrator of Coggs's 2006 class, says that while she can't predict Coggs's chances of success, she will say, "Chiquita is a go-getter and is extremely organized. She has a very magnetic personality. She's very outgoing and friendly." She also has every intention of remaining in politics for the long haul. Coggs, a single mother of two grown daughters, has an 11-year-old grandson who plans to run for President one day and has asked her to manage his campaign.

TOUGH ENOUGH

One big fear for first-time female candidates is that they won't survive the rough-and-tumble of politics. In 2006, while she was an assistant professor of political science at Brown University, Jennifer Lawless of the Women & Politics Institute ran for Congress in Rhode Island and experienced some of the same insecurities that traditionally prevent other women from running. "We know that women think they don't have thick-enough skin for the insane level of scrutiny and criticism," Lawless says. "I would have put myself in that category as well. But after I launched my campaign, it took about two weeks to develop that skin."

Nancy Pelosi says she too toughened up quickly when she ran for Congress in San Francisco at the age of 47. "You have to believe in yourself if you are going to ask others to believe in you," Pelosi says. "The first thing you have to know about power is that it's not something that anyone gives away. There is going to be a battle. If your opponent were as capable and confident as he claims, he wouldn't need to undermine you. Be yourself and understand your strength."

Mary Hughes of the 2012 Project thinks that older women are stronger women - and better able to shrug off nasty campaigns. "They have a willingness to challenge the status quo," she says.

Rebecca Flaherty, 59, of Meade County, Kentucky, is one of them. The stay-at-home mother of three grown sons had been active for years as a youth minister in her church. A longtime Democrat, she began writing to Democratic representatives and to journalists including Dan Rather and Helen Thomas in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. "I had always looked to the media to hold politicians' feet to the fire," she explains. "It wasn't a protest letter as much as a call to action. I thought they weren't listening to other voices."

The few who responded to Flaherty's letters urged her to run for office on the local level. Instead, in 2003, Flaherty volunteered at the Meade County Democratic Women's Club and, in 2006, she became chair of the county's Democratic Club. She resigned when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2008. Two years later, after undergoing a mastectomy and successful chemotherapy, she felt less intimidated about running for elected office. She decided to challenge Judge Executive Harry Craycroft, a fellow Democrat whom Flaherty had helped elect in 2006. "If I hadn't had cancer, I would still be sitting on the sidelines and saying, 'Oh God, no one has stepped up,' " she says today.

In Meade County, north of Fort Knox, judge executive is the top supervisor position. Flaherty's friends noted that no woman had ever held that high an office in the county, and asked what she knew about supervising the county government. "I raised three sons on [my husband's] pipe fitter's salary," Flaherty says. "I know how to run a budget."

In this year's May 18 primary, Flaherty bested Craycroft by more than a thousand votes in a surprise upset. "I think I outworked him," she says of her opponent.

SACRIFICES AND SATISFACTION

For the general election campaign, Flaherty has knocked on doors (some 2,500 to date), held fundraising bean-soup-and-cornbread suppers, and staffed an eight-by-eight-foot yellow-and-green booth strung with paper lanterns at the county fair. Her husband, Allen, is one of her biggest supporters and accompanies her at least half the time when she's on the trail. "There are things we've given up this year," he admits. "We would have liked to take a vacation, but we're spending all our money on yard signs, bumper stickers, meals out. My wife is a great cook, and I miss that." He pauses, then adds with a smile, "If Becky wins, we'll just make some more sacrifices. You get paid back at another point when she makes Meade County a better place. And if she loses, well, we've worked hard and kept ourselves honest."

Back in Tempe, Wendy Rogers does her bicycle campaigning solo, while her husband, retired Air Force major Hal Kunnen, keeps things running at the home-inspection and termite-eradication company the couple started in 1995. (Their 23-year-old son just completed a tour of duty in the Marines and has moved back to Tempe to get his Ph.D. in electrical engineering; their daughter is a junior at the Honors Barrett College at Arizona State University and is living in a house her parents helped her buy using the first-time homebuyer's tax credit.) "I miss my partner," says Kunnen. "She's the outgoing type and has a skill set that she's able to use in our business. But I believe we need people like her to do what needs to be done at the state level."

When the voter in the Tempe tract house finally opened his door, Rogers stepped back as she appraised her potential constituent. A registered Independent, he was a burly man wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt, with multiple facial piercings and tattoos on every limb. Rogers quickly listed the issues she's most interested in: tax problems facing small business owners, Arizona's education budget, and increasing the effectiveness of the state's mental health services. The voter's eyes grew wide. He told Rogers that he worked at a group home for mentally ill adolescents and the state had slashed its funding. All the employees voluntarily took a 15 percent pay cut to keep the home open.

As he spoke, Rogers's eyes grew moist. "That's an issue that means a lot to me," she said. "I got my master's in social work, focusing on the mentally ill, and I started out in the Air Force as a social worker. I think Arizona can do a lot better with the resources it has."

The voter's eyes also welled up, and Rogers asked for his cell phone number and e-mail address. "If I get elected, I want you to be on my advisory committee for mental health," she said. "We need people with your real-world experience advising on policy." She reached out to shake his hand. "You're a great American."

As she headed to the next doorstep, the voter called after her, "Good luck!"

Rogers turned back, grinning broadly at her newfound ally. "I'm gonna win!" she said.

Emerge America gives women a 'voice' in politics

alisha — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:11:26 -0400

Even as the recent primaries ushered in a new set of faces into the world of politics, a group of determined Bay Area women - many of them local community leaders - are working to equip other women to make a difference by running for office.

Emerge California, a branch of the national democratic women's group Emerge America, is a San-Francisco based nonprofit organization and political training program whose goals are to inspire and prepare more women to pursue positions in government and to increase the number of Democratic women in ffice. Since its inception, it has trained about 500 women, 40 percent of which have run for or been appointed to positions of office.

The group celebrated their eighth year in San Francisco with their sixth annual fundraiser on June 17, featuring former independent gubernatorial candidate Arianna Huffington and honoring co-founder Andrea Dew Steele as the 2010 Woman of the Year. The event, attended by about 400 people, showcased the program's achievements in recruiting and training women for political positions.

"We're passionate about seeing representation [from women] in the local, state and federal government, and to see the face of politics change by having women in all those levels," said Gretchen Schoenstein, co-founder of Emerge California and interim executive director of Emerge America. "We hope that people will see that women have a seat at the decision-making table, the agenda will change."

Through a seven-month training program, Emerge members undergo a series of weekend classes and workshops that train and equip them for positions of office.

Schoenstein said that the Emerge program has three components: the first is to equip women with skills and tools necessary for public office; the second, to partner them up with existing elected officials for mentorship; and the third, to create a strong network for its members, reaching out to alumni and gathering community support.

"We want to create that support because once you get your foot in the door, it's a little bit easier to make it to the next level," Schoenstein said.

Some of the workshops and classes include fundraising, networking, public speaking and ethics - all the "nitty gritty" of running a campaign. These are taught by trainers and facilitators from a variety of community organizations in the Bay Area.

"Politics still comes down to who can run the best campaign and communicate their message effectively," said co-founder Andrea Dew Steele. The national organization was founded in 2002 and has since spread to nine states, including Arizona, Maine and Nevada.

The community support is also a key factor to Emerge's recruitment of members, as alumni who win positions of office serve as ambassadors for the group, looking through their communities for qualified women - usually exemplary volunteers or community leaders - to go through the program. Labor unions, democratic organizations and other local social or political groups help draw worthy candidates to the program.

Among these leaders are San Pablo City Councilwoman Cecilia Valdez, who started as a co-founder of the Latina/o Democratic Club of West Contra Costa County, and Darleen Brooks, civil rights officer for the Alameda County Social Services Agency, who began as an Oakland activist working closely with council members.

Schoenstein and co-founder Steele were motivated to establish Emerge California in 2002, at a time when only two out of San Francisco's 11 supervisors were women and after doing extensive research on the number of women in politics.

Eight years later, even when more women have entered politics in both the city and the state, and many others appointed to city councils and school boards, Schoenstein said she believes California still has a long way to go, with women making up only 28 percent of the state legislature.

"It's hard to believe San Francisco has only had one woman mayor, and we're supposed to be one of the most progressive cities in the world," Schoenstein said.

She added that the public's common misconception is that women don't get as many votes, when in a reality, female candidates have the same chances of winning as their male counterparts. "But the problem is, we don't have as many women [candidates] to choose from," she said.

The organization's goal is to expand to three more states by 2012, and eventually reach every state.

"I have faith that when that happens, our communities will thrive in a way that they couldn't without these women," Schoenstein said.

Andrea Dew Steele Weighs in on CA Gubernatorial Race

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:56:40 -0500

KTVU recently did a piece on the California gubernatorial race, asking why there are so few choices on the ballot. Among others, Andrea Dew Steele, president and founder of Emerge America shared her perspective.

Upward Bound

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:06:03 -0500

A boot camp for Democratic women aims to decimate the gender gap in Oregon politics

Lessons From the Coakley Loss

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:45:48 -0500

Emerge America President & Founder, Andrea Dew Steele, gives her opinion on the importance of training candidates - and the difference it might have made in last night's special election.