You Should Run for Office: Part I

While the percentage of women in Congress has recently increased to around 18 percent, the percentage of young women in Congress is still only less than 1 percent.  So if you are a young woman, you're not exactly represented by someone who is coming from your same level of life experience. In the United States, an individual must be at least 35 to be President or Vice President, 30 to be a Senator, or 25 to be a Representative. YOU should run for office!

Win or lose, the earlier you run for office, the greater are your chances of success.   Nineteen of the last U.S. presidents first ran for office before they were 35 years old.  Of the women currently in Congress, 54 percent of them participated in student government. One of the most powerful positions in Congress is to serve as a committee chair.  The only way to get there is through seniority, so if you enter Congress when you are younger, you have a better chance of truly making an impact by serving as a committee chair. 

Below are organizations that support women running for office.  Consider attending one of their trainings, donating money or volunteering for them.  Running for office is a topic we will continually explore in this blog, so stay tuned for more discussion!

Ask a Woman to Run for Office!

Feel free to add a comment and share other resources!

Check out this other comprehensive list: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/site/pages/about_allies.php

Running Start- trains high school and young women to run for office
http://www.runningstartonline.org/

Name it, Change It- work to end sexist and misogynistic coverage of women candidates by all members of the press
http://www.nameitchangeit.org/

Ignite- trains high school students to run for office
http://www.igniteca.org

Susan B. Anthony List- Pro Life Women
http://www.sba-list.org/

Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute- Conservative Women
http://www.cblpi.org/

The 2012 Project- encouraging more women to run in 2012
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/site/pages/2012Project.php

Emerge America- training program for Democratic women
http://www.emergeamerica.org/

Congressional Black Caucus Internship Program
http://www.cbcfinc.org/programs/leadership-development/90.html

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Internship Program
http://www.chci.org/internships/

Women’s Campaign Forum- a non-partisan national network dedicated to achieving parity for women in public office
http://www.wcfonline.org/ and http://sheshouldrun.org/

EMILY’s LIST- elects Pro-Choice, Democratic women
http://www.emilyslist.org/

The White House Project- provides different leadership trainings nationwide such as “Go Run”
http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/

Women Under Forty PAC- the nation’s only non-partisan organization that identifies, encourages, and supports women 40 years of age and under running for local, state and federal office.
http://www.wufpac.org/

American Association of University Women (AAUW) Elect Her Program- trains college women to run for student government
http://www.aauw.org/learn/LeadershipPrograms/electHer.cfm

Women’s Research & Education Institute (WREI)- Congressional fellowships for women
http://www.wrei.org/

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
http://napawf.org/

Disability, Power, & Pride
http://mypowerandpride.org/

Sewall-Belmont House & Museum- women’s suffrage museum in Washington, DC
http://sewallbelmont.org/

Women’s Information Network (WIN)- Pro-Choice, Democratic women’s organization in DC
http://www.winonline.org/

National Women’s Political Caucus- multipartisan, multicultural, grassroots organization dedicated to increasing women's participation in politics
http://www.nwpc.org/ 

Women’s Media Center- makes women visible and powerful in the media
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/

The Op-Ed Project- media trainings for women
http://theopedproject.org/

National Congress of Black Women
http://nationalcongressbw.org/

Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund
http://www.victoryfund.org/home

United4Equality- a social justice enterprise dedicated to ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) by 2015
http://united4equality.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/era-now/

American University, Women & Politics Institute
http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/ and DC based training program We Lead http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/welead.cfm

Rutgers University, Center for American Women and Politics
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/

The Women’s Campaign School at Yale
http://www.wcsyale.org/

The Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy
http://www.eleanorslegacy.com/

National Democratic Institute- women's political participation abroad
http://www.ndi.org/womens-political-participation

Women's Democracy Network- International Republican Institute's initiative for women's political participation abroad
http://www.wdn.org/

Women's Campaign International- women's political participation abroad
http://www.womenscampaigninternational.org/

Political Parity- nonpartisan initiative to double the number of women at the highest levels of US government by 2022
http://www.politicalparity.org/

Latinas United for Political Empowerment
 http://www.lupenj.org/

National Hispana Leadership Institute
http://www.nhli.org/

ElectWomen.Com
http://electwomen.com/

She the People- news about women & politics in The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people

Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN)
 http://plen.org/