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Making Sure Women's Voices Are Heard in the 2004 Elections and Into the Future
President Judith Shapiro joined Marie Wilson of The White House Project for a conversation on "Why Women Matter" in politics, the kick-off session on Friday, June 17, of a young women's political leadership project hosted by the Women's College Coalition and The New York Times. As part of the "Vote, Run, Lead" project to mobilize women to run for political office and to vote this coming Election Day, students from 34 of the 68 women's colleges in the United States participated in an all-day training session, held at The New York Times offices in Manhattan. Three Barnard students, Maria Fitzgerald, Tiffany Mummey and Anne Tatreau, were among 100 young women who heard from leading political strategists, organizers of voter drives such as Rock the Vote and the Young Vote Coalition, and other on-the-ground political mobilizers.
This nonpartisan initiative, launched in March by The White House Project, under Wilson's leadership, intends to recruit 25,000 women to participate in the November 2004 election, and to train and mobilize 1,000 women to run for political office.
The goal is to reverse the trend that leaves the United States lagging in political representation by women at every level of government and with a disheartening voting record by women. Internationally, the U.S. ranks 57th in women's political leadership, behind Slovakia and Burundi. In the 2000 election, more than half of 18-to- 34-year-old women did not vote - roughly 15 million women.
Shapiro and Wilson stressed the importance of the "Vote, Run, Lead" project in expanding the pipeline of women officeholders in the United States at all levels of government. In particular, they said, women candidates and officeholders often suffer "the burden of being the first woman," making their electability more difficult. Right now, women represent only 59 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives and only 14 of the 100 senators. The numbers are no better at the state and local level.
Wilson said when a woman is alone as a candidate for a particular office, commentary about her tends to run along the lines of "hair, hemlines and husbands."
"This has to do with the numbers," said Wilson. "We need a critical mass. Only with larger numbers of women in office and many more running as candidates will voters look at a woman's agenda, not gender alone."
Shapiro noted that while women candidates and politicians should never be viewed as a monolithic group, as their views vary on many issues, they are essential to a healthy representative democracy. "Women have a different life experience than men," she said. "So naturally they will bring a perspective to political issues that is based on that experience. Without more women in the political process, the question becomes: What does our society lose without their perspective?"
The student training sessions include those on voter registration, canvassing and targeting, getting out the vote strategies and campus political mobilization.
Among Barnard's three student participants was Tiffaney Mummey, an English major and rising senior who will become co-editor in chief of the Barnard Bulletin this fall. She plans a career as a journalist.
Maria Fitzgerald, from Milford, Connecticut, is a political science major concentrating
in American politics, and an English minor. This summer, Fitzgerald plans two internships that involve volunteer work and research that explores the effect on families when a mother spends time in prison.
Anne Tatreau, from Philadelphia, PA., is a rising sophomore who is a double major in political science and Middle Eastern and Asian languages and cultures, focusing on South Asia. She is a volunteer for Peace by Peace, which teaches conflict resolution to elementary school students. She is interested in how the media impacts public policy.
For more information, please contact Suzanne Trimel in the Barnard Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-2037, strimel@barnard.edu. |
