05 March 2009
Activist Discusses Empowering Women to Run for Political Office
CO.NX webchat transcript, March 5
Jessica Grounds, the president of the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee and an associate director with Running Start, an organization that educates young women about the importance of politics, answered questions in a March 5 CO.NX webchat on the skills women need to become leaders and run for political office.
Following is the transcript:
(begin transcript)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Bureau of International Information Programs
Webchat Transcript
Empowering Young Women to Run for Political Office
Guest: Jessica Grounds, President of Women Under Forty Political Action Committee
Date: March 5, 2009
Time: 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT)
Webchat Moderator (Kristin): Please join us on March 5 at 13:00 GMT and share your thoughts on getting young women involved in politics and government with the world in our Global Forum.
Then join us for a Q&A with Jessica Grounds, President of the Women Under Forty Political Action Committee, on March 5 at 14:00 GMT.
Jessica Grounds: Hi everyone! This is Jessica Grounds, I’m so happy to join all of you today for this online conversation. I am the President of WUFPAC, a political organization that supports young women candidates running for elected office. I am also the Associate Director of Running Start an organization that focuses on educating girls and young women about the importance of pursuing careers in politics and running for elected office. WUFPAC and Running Start are sister organizations. WUFPAC supports the actual candidates running for office and Running Start focuses on educating young women about why it’s important for more young women to run for political office. I welcome your questions today!
Question [Minthe Mohamed]: Is there an advantage to have women as political leaders?
Answer [Jessica Grounds]: Yes, I think there are many advantages to having women in political leadership roles. Women's perspectives are crucial in the policy making process because women bring their own experiences to their office and it is critical that our representatives reflect the diversity of people they govern. I believe that women bring their own experiences to their elected office, as do men, but women have been much more absent in political leadership roles and we need women's perspectives. There have also been a number of studies that show that when women are empowered to lead in their country, their presence helps build economic and societal stability in that country.
Comment [Kadiatou Balde]: Hi Jessica welcome! We are glad to have you too.
Comment [Minthe Mohamed]: Hi Jessica, it is a great pleasure to share ideas.
Comment [Minthe Mohamed 2]: My name is Mohamed Minthe from Guinea. I am delighted to share this time on the great issue of women in the political process.
Comment [med 2]: Welcome Jessica.
Comment [labtm]: This is the club Thurgood Marshall of the American library in Guinea, centered on education, good governance and rights of man, we also militate for emancipation of the woman.
Comment [labtm]: Hi Ms. Jessica, it is a big pleasure for us to met with you to share ideas which concern us about the politics in the world, it's the THURGOOD MARSHALL CLUB in Guinea.
Q [med]: Why do the political parties refuse to accept women to head political parties?
A [Jessica Grounds]: This is a complicated question but a good one because it is relevant throughout the world, even in the United States. I believe there are a number of barriers that women face running for elected office and holding political leadership positions. One of the major problems women face in elected politics is credibility. Women are often considered less credible and less capable of making challenging political decisions. There is also a perception that women are not as well-versed on a variety of political issues. Often times perceptions about what people think women are good at can affect how an individual perceives a woman running for elected office.
A great example of this is Hillary Clinton. When Hillary ran for President, she had to be very careful about her stance on the war in Iraq. She did not support the war, but she knew she could not look “weak” on an issue like war and national security. She understood that voters still have reservations about women’s abilities to tackle foreign policy or military issues. Hillary was able to overcome this perception by being extremely well versed in each policy topic she debated and portray and tough and driven confidence.
Q [Kadiatou Balde]: Thanks for the introductory comments. Why women are in general not that very interested in the agenda of the political parties?
A [Jessica Grounds]: This is another fantastic question! Politics for a long time have been dominated by men and male political leaders, so this lack of female representation has often led to women thinking that politics isn't something that affects them or should interest them. But politics is SO relevant to women's lives!
Politics is the process of making our policies and nations better for everyone. When women take on leadership roles in politics they get to set the agenda of how the country is led and what issues are important. Let me give you another example of this. A Congresswoman in the United States named Pat Shroeder was in Congress in the 1990's. She came to Congress as a mother and knew it was critical that women needed to not lose their job if they decided to have a child. Her voice is Congress was critical in passing legislation that protected women AND men who decided to take some time off of work when they decided to have children. This kind of legislation would not happen if women didn't work in politics and bring their own experiences to their office.
Q [Leah]: How do you interest young people for politics? Apathy is a big challenge don't you agree?
A [Jessica Grounds]: Engaging young people in politics has always been a challenge. Thankfully in this last election for President in the U.S. we saw more young people engaging in the political process then ever before. You are completely correct that apathy is a major issue, but we can overcome this by showing young people that politics is important and relevant to them. Obama did a good job at doing this by talking about issues that young people care about like tuition for college and stronger better education for everyone.
My organization Running Start is trying to combat the lack of interest in politics by girls and young women by educating them early about why politics is so important. Our high school leadership training program teaches high school girls about the importance of politics. This program is a 4 day program in Washington, DC, that brings high school aged girls together from across the United States to learn about why politics is important and specifically why running for elected office is important. They hear from speakers on various topics like advocacy, networking, how to speak in public and how to run a campaign.
Comment [Faith Simukoko]: Hello I am Faith from Zambia, this is true Jessica, that is why a number of women's issues are not adequately addressed in our country because we have little representation of women in the political sphere.
Q [Kadiatou Balde]: What are the cultural bonds of women in political activities?
A [Jessica Grounds]: First, I’d like to point out that I believe that there are common challenges that women experience who run for elected office regardless of the country or culture they come from. While I do realize that there are significant cultural differences and varying views of the role of women in different societies, common barriers are shared. Here are a few specific barriers that I have noted through my experience working with candidates and in some of the research I have conducted. I already mentioned the issue of credibility, but there are other factors as well.
Voter’s Perception of “Women’s Issues” - As I mentioned before, there are societal perceptions that affect the way people view what policies or political issues women are good at. This is something that goes both ways, meaning there are certain issues that people see men at being better at handling and certain issues that people see women being better at. Historically, women have been considered better at “soft issues” like education and health care. Conversely, men are often considered better at “hard issues” like the economy, the military or foreign policy. While these views have changed some over the years, the fact remains that a woman running for office needs to be aware of the issues that her voters perceive her to be better at and those her voters perceive her to be weak on. This will help her to define her platform as a candidate.
News and Media Reporting – Numerous research studies in the United States have shown that when the media (television, newspapers, online media) report about female candidates, it is much more likely that the news source will describe their physical appearance and their marital status, compared with male candidates. These studies found when the media described male candidates they were more likely to highlight substantive policy of the male candidates. This is important to know and work to combat because female candidates are not being described to the public with the same substantive descriptions that the male candidates are receiving.
Self-promotion & the Pipeline Problem – Generally speaking, women are much less likely to promote their own abilities and knowledge and much less likely than men to decide to run for elected office. This is a problem because the shear numbers of women that run for political office are far less than men. To help increase the number of women who hold elected office it is critical that more women run. Women need to be encouraged by friends, family and colleagues to run for office. When this happens women are much more likely to actually run for office.
Q [Ela]: My next question: How do you make ladies feel the courage to run for political office in a culture where ladies are not expected to go beyond the role of mother and housekeeper? How do you respond?
A [Jessica Grounds]: This is a wonderful question. I know in certain countries there are still very few women taking leadership roles, particularly in politics. Here in the U.S. we still only have roughly 16% of Congress held by women legislators. I think even in a society where there are very defined gender roles about what women should do, this does not mean that they should not have a role in political office. As I've stated a number of times, I believe women bring their own personal experiences to their leadership roles. If a majority of women in a society are mothers and housekeepers, that is still a critical background to bring to elected office. Mothers understand the importance of their children's education. They know this better than anyone. If you want to strengthen education in that country, isn't it important to have that mother's perspective when making decisions that affect education? I think so!
Comment [Minthe Mohamed]: Jessica, we must encourage them, they are more sensitive to social problems.
Comment [towela]: In many African countries it is difficult for women to receive encouragement because of the background they come from. I feel it would be important to introduce sensitization programmes in these rural areas to encourage them from a well informed point of view.
Comment [Angela]: I agree; more advocacy should be done at family level. Family should be their to support women, particularly husbands.
Comment [Faith Simukoko]: Education level is also critical, because we may want to encourage more women in politics but if their education level is far beyond then it still remains a challenge.
Q [Diallo Elhadj Abdoul]: What is the role of women in the resolution of the conflicts in Africa?
A [Jessica Grounds]: This is a very powerful question. As I stated much earlier, having women in political leadership positions has shown to help improve a nation's economy and build stability. This is also true when it comes to issues of war and building peace in a country. There is substantial evidence that when women gain leadership positions in elected office that sustainable peace is more easily attained and is longer lasting. There have been a number of exciting advances in Africa in the last decade or so. In Sierra Leone, a group called the 50/50 women are working to empower women to run for office there. This used to be one of the most war-torn regions in Africa and now these women have made major advances bringing women to leadership positions in the country. And Rwanda now has the highest number of women in elected office in the entire world! Bringing women to these positions of power have helped build stability because these women leaders are more likely to focus on issues that affect all of society, rather than just a few people.
Comment [Bamako 4]: You are right. Most of the time the educated women are not running they are scare of losing.
Comment [Brenda]: Brenda from Zambia. The other problem we have is just lack of interest in political issues because of the myths around politics. Few women read newspapers, listen to the news, or just have no interest in knowing what is happening in their country. This remains a challenge because then as women we will not be so knowledgeable of what is happening in the country and may not get the conviction to contribute to the nation in any way, as a result our issues remain unattended to.
Q [Aissatou]: What are the criteria to be candidate for the legislatives Elections?
A [Jessica Grounds]: You can be a candidate! That is something to always remember. You bring your own experiences and understanding of what is important to focus on in society.
Here are a few quick tips about becoming a candidate. 1) Do your research - Find out who finds and selects the candidates that run for office in your country. In many countries, the political parties are very powerful. You should find out who makes decisions and who you can meet with to talk about your interest in running for office.
2) Know your community - If you know what issues are affecting people in your community, this will help you formulate your position as a candidate. You want to talk about issues that are relevant to the people that live there. Also, meet with local people who make decisions for the community, like business owners and other elected officials.
3) Find friends and family to help - Solicit help from people you already know and ask them to reach out to their friends to help spread the word about your run for elected office.
Comment [Angela]: I think that if women are to believe in themselves and take part in political issues; it should start with education. As girls grow up they should be taught to believe in themselves before they become women in society.
Q [Angela]: Jessica, how can women and girls outside the USA be part of the running start programme?
A [Jessica Grounds]: Running Start understands that educating women about politics is the first step to get them involved in the political process. When you become informed about something it is less scary and much more easily accessible. We would love to help you use some of our programs and idea in your country. Here are details on some of the programs that we offer through Running Start. I would be happy to collaborate with you about how to build a program in your country. I already mentioned the high school leadership program. Here are the other programs:
Path to Politics – Each month Running Start hosts a luncheon that invites young women professionals to come together and learn more about various policy topics from experts. We also discuss barriers for women running for office and how to run a successful campaign. This program aims and encourages local women to learn more about how they can run for office and what steps they need to take to run a campaign for elected office.
Campaign College – We are working with two other organizations, the American Association of University Women and the Women & Politics Institute at American University, to promote a curriculum on college and university campuses that encourage college women to run for student body elected positions at their schools. We think this program gives young women actual experience running for office. The university that launched this program saw a 22% increase in the number of women who ran for student body elected office.
Star Fellowship Program – Our newest program places female college students into an office of a female Member of Congress (Parliament). This allows college students to learn first-hand from a woman who ran for elected office, won her election and is a now a politician making policy decisions. The program also includes a Friday seminar program where the female college students learn more about the elected side of the political process. Each Friday they learn about a new topic including the history of women in elected office, how to run a campaign and how to fundraise, among other important topics.
Please feel free to email me at jessica@runningstartonline.org or jessica@wufpac.org!
Thanks so much for joining me today for this webchat! I hope that my answers were helpful to you. Feel free to contact me with other questions. I encourage you to get more involved with the political process in your country and run! We need your voice in leadership!
Comment [Faith Simukoko]: Thanks for the inspiration Jessica.
Comment [towela]: Towela from Zambia. Thank you Jessica for the tips you have given on how to become a candidate. thank you for your time.
Webchat Moderator (Sarah): Thank you to everyone for your excellent questions!
Webchat Moderator (Marie): We would like to thank Ms. Grounds for joining us today and sharing her thoughts with us!
Webchat Moderator (Sarah): Please be sure to check back here or our Facebook page for a transcript from today's chat and information about future programs.
Webchat Moderator (Sarah): The Webchat is now closed. We wish to thank Jessica Grounds for joining us today. A transcript of today's webchat will be posted to http://co-nx.state.gov and to http://www.america.gov/multimedia/askamerica.html within one business day. Speakers are chosen for their expertise and may not reflect the views of the U.S. Department of State.
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