One of the first questions potential candidates for political office ask themselves is, “can I win?”
Running Start, a nonpartisan national organization that aims to train women to run for elected office, is challenging the factors that make this question dubious for women. A Running Start training program will be held on Duke's campus March 5 as part of the organization's national Elect Her initiative, which equips women with skills to become better leaders and encourages them to be more politically active both on campus and post-graduation. The event will be sponsored by Duke's Center for Political Leadership, Innovation and Service.
Duke Student Government President Tara Bansal—who will lead a training session during the day-long event—said she hopes that she can “give the same advice to women considering leadership at Duke that others gave to me—trust yourself and don’t be ashamed of confidence."
“Particularly when it comes to student governance, boundless ambition is about seeing things not as they are, but as they could be," Bansal said. "There is a power and beauty to that."
The Elect Her workshop will feature an interactive portion led by Bansal and Union County Board of Education member Leslie Boyd, explained B.J. Rudell, associate director of POLIS.
Susannah Wellford, the founder and president of Running Start who will also be attending the event, noted that she first saw the lack of women in public office while working in Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist.
"I would sit around with the other women associates in our law firm and talk about how the influencers on the Hill are almost always men,” Wellford said. “[We women] started talking about, 'Where are our people? Where are the women in power that we can look up to and say, ‘these are our role models’?'”
Wellford explained that the Elect Her workshop aims to show younger women examples of professional, successful women and to help them achieve similar success. She said she hopes that because of her organization, young women will no longer have to ask, "Where are my people?"
Deondra Rose, assistant professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy who collaborated with POLIS in sponsoring the event, pointed out the importance of gender representation in politics.
“Political scientists have shown that when women are in office, women tend to bring issues that affect women and children to the table," Rose said. “Who’s in office has clear policy implications."
Although Capitol Hill may seem distant to those on Duke's campus, Rose noted interesting parallels between her observations in the classroom and the composition of Congress.
“I see women in the classroom—we are very prepared but are still quiet in class," Rose said. “It’s finding those tools [from Running Start] that allow women to be in these positions of influence in political institutions."
Wellford explained that the workshop especially aims to help college-age women, who may be unsure of their future career paths.
"It seems so daunting when you're in college to figure out a) what you want to do, and then b) I know what I want to do, [but] how do you get there?" Wellford said.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.