Why Women? Why Now?

by Andrea Dew Steele

Democrats have just won one of the most historic victories in the history of American politics, so why should we continue to care about getting more women elected at the local and state level?

For me the issue is twofold:  Personally, I want my two daughters to see a world where women can achieve at the same rates as men, where being Senator or Congresswoman or even President is possible.

Equally important, I know that research shows women in office pursue a more progressive agenda than their male counterparts.  So whether your issue is health care, the environment, or education, investing in electing women will impact ALL of those.

After eight disastrous years of the Bush administration, where we have seen a degradation of civil liberties, human rights, the environment, education, health care -- the list goes on and on -- we need Democratic women ready to run in the 2009 and 2010 elections and move our country back in the right direction while we have the chance.

Despite the historic election of Barack Obama at the national level, we are still electing women at a deathly slow pace.  The number of women in the Senate rose from just 16 to 17.  We now have only 13 Democratic women in the United States Senate.  The percentage of women who are state legislators grew for the first time in years -- good news until you note that the change is only from 23.7% to 24.2%.  And we still have 16 states without women in either house of Congress.  Four states have NEVER sent a woman to either the U.S. House or Senate.

Women usually enter politics at the local level and work their way up --  in fact nine of the 13 Democratic women in the U.S. Senate  started their political careers in local office.

This is why the work we are doing at Emerge America is so important. There is no other organization singularly devoted to recruiting and training Democratic women to run for office.  We all know that the people who serve at the local and state level today will be seated in the halls of Congress tomorrow.  Emerge wants to make sure that those people are Democratic women.

As President and Founder of Emerge America, I welcome you to join our discussion on the new Emerge America blog.  I will be posting regularly, joining a series of guest bloggers to discuss issues surrounding women and politics.  Please become part of an online community of people who are passionate about increasing the number of Democratic women in office!

Andrea Dew Steele is President and Founder of Emerge America.