Bringing Women to the Table

Emerge MA Lightning Talk

Rwanda Namibia Angola

The F.Y.R. of Macedonia Sudan Australia Viet Nam Dominica

Bolivia Nicaragua Slovenia El Salvador Guyana IsraelEquatorial Guinea Guinea

Cuba Spain

United Republic of Tanzania Switzerland Nepal Iraq Singapore

Republic of Moldova

Seychelles Mozambique Germany AlgeriaUnited Kingdom South Sudan Estonia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sweden Norway Burundi Zimbabwe Luxembourg France Cabo VerdeDominican Republic

Senegal Andorra Argentina New Zealand Afghanistan Canada China Monaco

Mexico Belgium Portugal Tunisia

Lao People's Democratic Republic Honduras Lithuania Albania

South Africa Ethiopia Serbia Cameroon Poland TurkmenistanUnited Arab Emirates Pakistan

Ecuador Timor-Leste Uganda Italy Belarus Suriname Peru Madagascar

Finland Denmark Costa RicaTrinidad and Tobago Philippines Mauritania Ireland Bulgaria

Iceland Netherlands Grenada Austria Kazakhstan Lesotho Eritrea Cambodia

Kenya Greece Saudi Arabia Colombia Slovakia LiechtensteinCzech Republic Bangladesh

Where We Are

United States is ranked 97th in the world for female representation at the national level

Massachusetts is ranked 25th in the country for female representation at the state level

25% Elected at the State level Never elected a female governor Elected one US Senator

Why This Matters

Why This Happens

Women are less likely to win their electoral campaigns

THIS IS NOT TRUE

Why This Happens

Women are less likely to run for office Women are less likely to think they are qualified to run for office Women are less likely to identify themselves as “confident”, “competitive” or

“risk taking” Women are less likely to be encouraged to run for office Women are more likely to perceive the electoral environment as highly

competitive and biased against female candidates Treatment of prominent female candidates aggravated women’s perceptions

of gender bias in the electoral arena Women react more negatively to many aspects of the modern campaign Women are still responsible to the majority of childcare and household tasks

What Is Emerge Doing?: Recruiting Recruiting

Women are less likely to be encouraged to run for office Women are less likely to think they are qualified to run for office

What Is Emerge Doing?: Training

Training Campaigns are highly

competitive and biased against female candidates

Treatment of prominent female candidates aggravated women’s perceptions of gender bias in the electoral arena

Women react more negatively to many aspects of the modern campaign

Mentoring Women are less likely to identify

themselves as “confident”, “competitive” or “risk taking”

Women are still responsible to the majority of childcare and household tasks

What Is Emerge Doing?: Mentoring

Emerge’s Successes

• 160 women trained(and 24 graduate this Sunday!)

• 40% ran for office• 67% have won• 25 ran last year• 20 won• 25 are running this

year

Closing Thoughts Where else are we falling because we don’t have a diverse group at the table?

How can we create opportunities to get them there?

How else can we encourage women to run for office? Encourage someone in your life to run Run yourself! (and reach out to me!) How can we make the political system seem less biased? How can we make political campaigns more accessible? How can we make dents in the systematic sexism that leads women to see themselves as less qualified? How can we create policy that makes the care of a family less burdensome?

How can we help women win and lead once they are in office?

How can we use innovations from other sectors to help bolster small nonprofits

How can you learn from the Emerge model? How can you use the power of community to address other issues?

Thank you!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested in Emerge or in continuing this conversation! Ryanne Olsen, Executive Director Ryanne@emergema.org 617-871-0056 @EmergeMass Facebook.com/EmergeMass