Route for women to become leaders
Arkansas isn’t exactly a front runner when it comes to the number of women in elective offices.
In 2013, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, none of Arkansas’ U.S. senators or members of our U.S. House of Representatives (we have four) are women. There are no women in statewide elected executive positions. We have 35 state senators; six of them are women. Among our 100 state House members, 17 are women. We’ve never had a female governor.
Arkansas’ ranking among state legislatures for the proportion of women is 41 out of 50.
Why don’t women seek elective positions? They don’t see themselves as qualified. That’s the finding of Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox in their Citizen Political Ambition Panel Study that examines women and men in typical occupations that lead to candidacy such as business, law, education and political activism.
The reason people who have the right backgrounds to run but don’t, the researchers say, is the “ambition gap.” In the first wave of their study, conducted in 2001, they found that 19 percent of men and 10 percent of women had seriously considered running for office, whereas 57 percent of women, compared with 41 percent of men, had never thought about it.
Women Lead Arkansas wants that to change. Founded by Stephanie Harris of Little Rock, a lawyer and the communications counsel for the Arkansas Supreme Court, the organization’s goal is to empower, encourage and train women and girls to engage in politics, shaping policy, and leadership.
The idea for the organization started a couple of years ago, Harris says, when “I really started paying attention to the status of women in politics, business, and society. Although in my subconscious I always knew we don’t share the same status as men, I did not realize how little progress we’ve made since the tremendous gains of the previous generations of feminists. I decided to do what I can to carry the baton through the next leg.”
There are many reasons Arkansas doesn’t have more female leaders, she says. “The easy answer is to say we are being held back by others, which is true to an extent. But as women, we can be our most formidable barriers. We are less likely to negotiate for raises or pursue promotions without being 100 percent qualified. We are less likely to risk a run for political office. I have heard so many women say they don’t want to put their families through what could be a dirty campaign. We are more fearful of our pasts being judged unfairly—or being judged at all.
“Women also tend to be the primary managers of families, often in addition to working outside the home,” Harris says. “I know women who have been asked on the campaign trail who was taking care of their children while they were getting an education or advancing professionally. We never ask men those questions because we assume there’s a woman holding down the fort. Women who exhibit the same ‘leadership qualities’ as men are described as bossy, or another B-word. Women are doing this to each other. Until we stop judging each other’s choices, no one else is going to stop.”
Harris is getting support from a group of women with diverse backgrounds in politics, business, communications and education. “They are helping me draft the mission and work out the organization’s structure and activities to help us reach our goals,” she says. “Amanda Denton is an intellectual property attorney and local food activist. Erin O’Leary is an attorney and Clinton School graduate. Johnnie Roebuck is a former state representative. Alice Stewart is a Republican strategist. Lynnette Watts is executive director of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas.”
There is no right path to take, Harris says. “This is not an effort to make every woman a senator, a CEO, or the boss. It is an effort to normalize women being in these roles so that we can focus on who is most qualified and not what their gender is, what they look like, or what they are wearing.
“I want to see it grow into a fulltime organization that works with other groups and people throughout the state to improve the economic status of women,” she says. “I think Arkansas can become an example of how empowering women can contribute to the economic development of the state. We have a stake in Arkansas’ success. We love this beautiful place and want to see it be the best place to raise families, to get an education, and to innovate in business.”
To that end, Women Lead Arkansas is offering training for women who are thinking about running for public office. The sessions are scheduled from 8:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Nov. 16 at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. The training will cover how to decide which office to pursue, how to prepare to run, fundraising and field organizing, messaging, communications and working with the media, filing, avoiding ethical pitfalls, applying for appointments to state boards and commissions, and a question-and-answer panel with political party representatives.
“The goal of the training is to give women enough information to get started and to get them thinking about what they need to be doing,” Harris says. “I also want to make sure they have an opportunity to meet party representatives and women who have run for office or are currently in office. If there are resources they need, I’d like to make sure we help them find them.”
Cost to attend is $50, which covers materials and lunch. Registration is available at facebook.com/womenleadAR.
Regarding the new organization’s expenses, “I am paying for this myself so far,” Harris says. “I am about to launch an Indigogo campaign to raise money to apply for 501(c)(3) status, develop branding, build a website, and create merchandising and materials for events and awareness campaigns. I’m shooting for $6,800 to cover those expenses. In order for this to work long-term, I will have to apply for grants and find donations and benefactors.
“Know anyone with a huge endowment they need a home for? We’ll pay it back in spades, in the form of a better state.”