[Kostas Katsaros] [Assignment] [ I n s t r u c t o r M r s M a r i a K y r i a k i d o y • H i s t o r y ]

08 Fall

2 [Women in Politics • Kostas Katsaros]

Table of Contents Women in U.S. Politics .................................................................................. 4 The White House Project ............................................................................... 6 Marie C. Wilson .............................................................................................. 8 Bibliography ................................................................................................. 11

[Women in Politics • Kostas Katsaros] 3

More and more women are getting higher to the leadership roles, even in

some of the mainly male-dominated industries and organizations. It is noticed

a high percentage of women attending in the workplace or starting their own

business has proved to men who own businesses that women can do both,

be leaders, wives and mothers, so women showing to males that they can

actually do it all. Also it is obvious that women have been making gains in a

wide variety of fields, and one of these is politics. The last decades womanʼs

role in politics have been solidified and the stereotype of “politics only for men”

have been erased. This achievement for womenʼs right was very important

and played a huge role to the gender equality. This is confirmed with the next

two quotes of two vital personalities in the womenʼs rights movement. Bella

Abzug one of the great leaders of the women's movement said that: “pushing

for political parity for women was among the most important issues of our

age.” And then Frances Perkins who was the first woman to serve in a

Cabinet level position, spoke of the need for diversity in leadership and the

importance of ensuring women's rights "to sit in the high seats."

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Women in U.S. Politics

Nowadays women in U.S. are trying even more to involve themselves into

political life. They want to participate in the political system of their country

and this is proved thought the year by year rapid growth of womenʼs rate in

the U.S. political system. So as Marie C. Wilson mention in her article “The

Government in Exile: What Obama Can Do for Women”.: ”Even in this

election, where more women ran for congress than ever before in a

presidential year, the net gain for women candidates was a mere four seats --

one in the Senate and three in the House.” So based on the statistic that

published the percentage of women in Congress is raised from a meager 16%

to an equally paltry 17%, assuring that the U.S. would continue to pause sadly

behind other countries in the numbers of women in national political

leadership. So despite the rise of women as political contenders and voters in

the 2008 election season, the U.S. is miserably behind other nations in terms

[Women in Politics • Kostas Katsaros] 5

of parity in representation. Over the last decade, the United States has fallen

from 47th in the world in women's political representation to 71st -- behind

such stalwarts of democracy as Iraq (33rd), Sudan (65th) and the Democratic

People's Republic of Korea (57th). Only weeks ago, Rwanda made global

history when it became the first nation electing women to outnumber men in

parliament.

So women started to promote the women parity in politics through the

Presidential Commission on Women and Democracy which is using important

academic and experiential methodologies to reverse the solidity in gender

parity. Members of the commission would be carefully chosen from a variety

of sectors to bring a full range of non-partisan domestic and international

approaches, setting achievable goals by way of practical methods. Possible

strategies might include: priority voting and other democracy reforms which

result in wins by outsider candidates, guaranteed campaign loan funds, civil

society programme in schools, increased training for women candidates,

increased support from central party leadership for women candidates and

popular culture initiatives.

However, because of the difficultness of this vision that US policy will leave

these women to achieve this goal, Marie C Wilson mentioned in her article

Obamaʼs speech that said “All we require is a commitment on the part of our

governmental leaders to make gender parity in political leadership a priority at

local, state and national levels. That is why <The White House Project> has

called for the administration to establish a commission, or a federal task force,

on women and democracy -- a group of experts who would be narrowly

focused on ways, both public and private, that we can get a diverse and

critical mass of women into leadership, from rural county boards to the very

highest of the "high seats".

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The White House Project

The White House Project is a national, nonpartisan and not-for-profit

organization,who is dedicated to advancing women's leadership across many

sectors, enhancing public perceptions of women's ability to lead and fostering

the entry of women into leadership positions, including the U.S. Presidency.

By filling the leadership seats with a multi diverse, critical mass of women,

they make American institutions, businesses and government truly

representative.Through multi-platform programs, The White House Project

creates a culture where Americaʼs most valuable untapped resource—

women—can succeed in all terms. To advance this mission, The White House

Project strives to support women and the issues that allow women to lead in

their own lives and in the world. When women leaders bring their voices,

vision and leadership to the table alongside men, the debate is more strong

and the policy is more inclusive and supportable. By supporting women and

the values that allow women to succeed, support the full range of health

options, security platforms that used all resources and economic stability for

all because The White House Project works to create an equitable culture.

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Now after the 10 years existance, The White House Project is succeeding in

keeping the political scene full of equipped, empowered, and energized

women by challenging popular notions of what a leader looks like, and in

normalizing the idea of women leaders from all backgrounds.

Since 2004, its Vote, Run, Lead (VRL) leadership trainings have recruited and

equipped a diverse group of women who do not traditionally identify as

political leaders to become politically empowered but spcialize in running and

helping other women to run for elective office. Its signature training, Go Run,

is a multi-day conference that pairs national speakers and trainers with local

experts and elected officials to inspire, inform and equip women to be

effective leaders in their communities. Their skill building sessions, which

address the fundamentals of campaign organizing, fundraising and

communications, instill women with confidence to lead a political life.

But all these achivements wonʼt be made without the participation and the

involment of a very important women in the leadership woman issue, Marie C.

Wilson. An advocate of womenʼs issues for more than 30 years, Marie C.

Wilson is founder and President of The White House Project, co-creator of

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day and author of Closing the

Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World.

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Marie C. Wilson

Born and raised in Georgia, Wilson worked in the civil rights movement. Then

she went on to pioneer workplace innovations such as flexitime and job

sharing as director of women's programs at Drake University. In 1998, Wilson

founded The White House Project in recognition of the need to build a truly

representative democracy – one where women lead alongside men in all

spheres. Since its inception, The White House Project has been a leading

advocate and voice on womenʼs leadership. But before she took the helm at

The White House Project, Wilson was, for nearly two decades, the President

of the Ms. Foundation for Women. She is an honorary “founding mother” of

the Ms. Foundation. In honour of her work, the Ms. Foundation has created

The Marie C. Wilson Leadership Fund. Over the last thirty years, Wilsonʼs

accomplishments span becoming the first woman elected to the Des Moines

City Council as a member-at-large in 1983, co-authoring the critically

acclaimed Mother Daughter Revolution (1993, Bantam Books), and serving as

an official government delegate to the United Nations Fourth World

Conference on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995.

[Women in Politics • Kostas Katsaros] 9

With Wilson at the helm, the White House Project ran a national straw poll

alerting voters to qualified female presidential candidates, conducted research

on successful campaigning, uncovered the fact that women represented only

11 percent of guests featured on the influential Sunday morning news shows,

and created a database of suitable female experts to remedy the situation.

Now it's teaming with V-Day, started by playwright Eve Ensler to support

organizations eradicating violence against women, in a joint initiative. Called

Women Elect the Future, it's a national effort to mobilize women to vote and

develop leadership skills so they can run for office. Putting a woman in the

White House is Wilson's ultimate goal, but she'll be pleased if her latest

projects encourage every woman to say what one girl did when asked what

she'd learned from Take Our Daughters to Work Day: "I'm the president of my

own life."

Wilson now is written an inspiring new book, “Closing the Leadership Gap”,

that suggests large and small ways to take charge of the future. Wilson in her

book as a founder of the White House project on women's leadership, she is

passionate in her belief that women's voices at the table offer an opportunity

to shape policy around the marginalized issues of violence, education and

healthcare. Making room for women at the top also gives men permission to

bring their soft side to work." As she explains, "Both men and women must be

in power to moderate the influence of masculinity in all of us." Such policy

does not prevent Wilson from making a persuasive case for role expansion

rather than role reversal. Her practical approach to developing women as

leaders has two parts. First, individual women must confront four issues such

as authority, ambition, ability and authenticity that create barriers to

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leadership. And then, she describes the cultural and institutional changes that

would involve men and women in sharing domestic leadership.

Finally, as it is mentioned through the whole essay and in general through

women rights issues, women should have participation in politics as

leadership and even more participation in an equal society. Because this in

not only womenʼs issue but even more a social-human issue. And as Mary

Parker Follett (1868-1933), an American organizational manager, writer,

sociologist and lecturer said “Our rate of progress, then, and the degree in

which we actualize the perfect democracy, depend upon our understanding

that man has the power of creating, and that he gets this power through his

capacity to join with others to form a real, whole living group.” (The New

State--Group Organisation, the Solution for Popular Government, p. 7, 1918)

[Women in Politics • Kostas Katsaros] 11

Bibliography

1) http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm 2) http://www.idea.int/gender/ 3) http://www.thewhitehouseproject.org/about/marie/ 4) http://www.nywici.org/features/five-q/marie-c-wilson