Thursday, August 14, 2008
By Jen Simon
This time of year, if you are driving through Teton County looking at the yard signs, it is easy to see who is running for elected office. Unfortunately, if you read the first names, it is equally easy to see that very few women are running for office. In fact, there is one woman running for Town Council, one woman running for County Commission, no women running for a state office and only one woman running for any of Wyoming’s three open congressional seats.
In fact, in spite of this being the Equality State - the first state to grant women the right to vote - there is a dearth of female electeds and a similar dearth of female candidates.
According to Equality Initiatives, women hold only 14 of 90 seats in the state Legislature. Pat Aullman, one of the few women in the Legislature, is not seeking re-election for her seat this year, likely further reducing the total. Of the 10 electeds on the Town Council and Board of County Commissioners, only one is a woman. Recently, the Teton County Republican Party accepted applications from those interested in filling the seat left vacant by the passing of Bill Paddleford. Of 13 applicants, only two were women.
What is preventing more women from running? There are excellent female candidates for the local school board. The vast majority of local (and national) nonprofit organizations are run by women. Women are starting and running businesses all over this valley and are heading up some of the most powerful and progressive initiatives in Wyoming and Teton County today. But we are not running for elected offices.
According to Marie C. Wilson, founder and president of The White House Project - a nonpartisan organization that aims to advance women’s leadership - women in the Equality State have a long way to go to reach the “30 percent tipping point” necessary to address effectively gender issues. Town Councilwoman Melissa Turley points out that Wilson and other experts say women’s participation in the halls of government provide a more thorough representation on statewide issues.
A poll conducted by GfKRoper Public Affairs and commissioned by The White House Project shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans continue to believe a woman president would be as good as or better than a man at leading on the issues of foreign policy (78 percent), homeland security (77 percent) and the economy (88 percent).
The late Speaker of the House Tip O’Neil once said, “all politics is local.” If this is the case and women are not running for local office, the poll results are merely hypothetical.
And though it is too late for this election cycle, I encourage you to start thinking now. The next major set of elections is in two years. That is more than enough time to hone your thinking, sharpen your platform and run a campaign. There are trainings and funding available through myriad resources: Equality Initiatives, The Equipoise Fun, Womentum, The Equality State Policy Center, Go Run Trainings from The White House Project.
The only way to change the outcome is to change the conversation. Introducing a critical mass of women into the electoral process will accomplish that. So it is time. Go. Run.
