When Victoria Woodhull announced her presidential candidacy in 1870, women were still 50 years away from the right to vote. However, there was no law prohibiting them from running for office. She ran as the nominee for the Equal Rights Party and was supported by suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton among others. On January 11, 1871, Woodhull became the first woman to deliver a speech to Congress, speaking on the necessity of a woman’s right to vote.

She tried to run for president again in 1884 and 1892 but was unable to secure an official nomination. She died in 1927 at the age of 88.

Woodhull once said, “The truth is that I am too many years ahead of this age, and the exalted views and objects of humanitarianism can scarcely be grasped as yet by the unenlightened mind of the average man.

Belva Lockwood, the first woman attorney to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States & first woman to appear on official ballots as a candidate for U. S. president in 1884 & 1888.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed a bill that would make voting easier by automatically registering adult citizens in the state who have interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division but have not yet registered to vote. This bill makes Oregon the first state to implement automatic voter registration, 17 years after it became the first state to conduct all elections via mail-in ballots.

This week, the Associated Press declared Republican Dan Sullivan the winner of the Alaska Senate race, bringing a shift in the next Senate to 46 Democrats and 53 Republicans, with one contest in Louisiana awaiting a decision from a special runoff election on December 6. On Wednesday, Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter and Julia Brownley secured re-election after close races and will continue to represent New York’s 25th District and California’s 26th District, respectively. These victories bring the numbers in the next House to 186 Democrats and 244 Republicans, with five races still undecided. Meanwhile, the Senate GOP caucus, Senate Democratic caucus, and House GOP caucus held leadership elections for the 114th Congress, which begins in January. Senate Republicans unanimously elected Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to serve as majority leader, and Senate Democrats elected Nevada Sen. Harry Reid to lead the Senate minority. Senate Democrats also added new members to their leadership team, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

If you want a woman to run for office, you might have to ask her not once, not twice, but seven times.

Maybe that explains why so few women end up in Congress (we’re at just 18.5 percent representation right now). It certainly sheds some light on why 24 states have never elected a woman governor, 22 states have never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate, and four states have never elected a woman to either chamber of Congress.

An AAUW program called Elect Her–Campus Women Win trains college women how to run an effective political campaign.

There are thousands of Elect Her alumnae, and many have taken the skills and tools they learned from Elect Her and used them to launch successful campaigns for student government positions and even for local office!

Even more inspiring, 95 percent of alumnae from 2014 said that Elect Her prepared them to run for office. More than 50 percent of women surveyed after the training said they were thinking about running for office, and 21 percent reported that they planned to run in the next 10 years

Molly Rockett  got elected at age 20.  For two minutes watch this Elect Her graduate talk about her experience.  It’s inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCyw7qalg_k

05/30/2013 by Alexandra Bjerg

Voter turnout for the Los Angeles municipal election last week was depressing, but even more disheartening is the severe lack of women in elected office. The Los Angeles City Council is now just one seat away from reverting back to a Good Old Boys Club. And it gets worse. Come July 1, men will also hold all three city-wide elected offices.

That’s right, just one of 18 elected officials in Los Angeles will be a woman, despite women accounting for slightly more than 50 percent (!) of the population. Los Angeles women have experienced a decline in representation since having achieved critical mass on the city council more than a decade ago.

Surprisingly, women losing ground in the nation’s second largest city garnered little media or public attention during the election cycle.

All Californians, not just women and Angelenos, should be concerned by the setback. The drop reflects an unsettling trend that extends beyond LA’s city limits. The number of women serving in political office at all levels of government has either plateaued or declined.

California Women Lead Executive Director/CEO Rachel Michelin commented,  “Women bring a different perspective. That different perspective adds to the diversity of thought that members of [ny legislative body] need to have when they’re making public policy decisions. I think that you’re going to see a decline in certain issues and viewpoints being made because you don’t have more women[represented].”

So why aren’t more women being elected? Simply put, fewer women are running. If you don’t run, you can’t win.  Politically educated women are becoming a rare breed and this dearth is impeding the recruitment of female candidates.

“One of the problems of our political structure, whether you’re talking locally, state, or even nationally, the behind the scenes of politics, the consulting, the polling, the strategy, is still very much dominated by men,” said Michelin. The rules of politics, the rules of campaigning are written by men. We need to educate women about the rules of politics; they need to understand what goes on behind closed doors in terms of how some of those decisions are made.”

It’s vital that women have a seat at the table. Closing the gender gap by ensuring women are proportionately represented at all levels of government benefits all Californians, not just other women. Political leadership that adequately reflects the state’s diverse population helps legitimize our democracy and restore the public’s trust in government.

[Article courtesy of California Forward]