The Hope For Change

The United States is 84^th in the world for women holding elected office. This ranks us behind Mexico, China, and Pakistan.

Although half the population, women make up only 17% of the US Congress.

Nineteen states in the country have no female representation in their legislature.

I wonder if these statistics surprise you as much as they surprised me. Last week, John and I were honored to host an event for Emerge America featuring Berkeley Professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Emerge America is an organization that does the important work of encouraging and helping to train Democratic women who are interested in running for elective office.  It was through Emerge that I learned about the under-representation of women in our political process. Being a Californian I assumed the statistics were much higher since our two US senators are women and the Speaker of the House for the United States representing San Francisco is a woman.

I also had a great friend and mentor, Ann Richards, who embodied the spirit of public service. Ann was an incredible inspiration to me and just about everyone she touched. When she was elected Governor of Texas, she made good on a campaign promise and appointed a record number of underrepresented people to positions in the Texas government. She believed that a government should look like the people it serves. As she stated in her famous keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, we should "have the same chance as anyone else and it doesn't matter whether we are black or Hispanic or disabled or a woman."

By Joanna Rees, Emerge America Supporter