Will You Vote for Me?

This is actually one of the first things I ask people when I meet them. The line I typically use goes something like this:

“Hi, my name is Cat. My goal in life is to be an advocate for women. I will run for president of the United States someday. Will you vote for me?”

What? Is that not normal?

Aside from a guy from New Zealand I met who told me that he could not vote for me, the responses I receive are positive. I usually end up shaking a few hands and scrounging up a few promised votes — due, undeniably, to my charm, persuasive nature, and passion for the issues.

Here’s my problem: Only 17 percent of the U.S. Congress is made up of women. Only 36 percent of the women who challenged congressional incumbents in primaries in the 2010 midterm election even made it to the general election. And not only are fewer women running for office and even fewer being elected, women’s leadership roles in the 112^th Congress are also diminishing.

Now what? Obviously the greatest consideration for any political candidate should be merit. We cannot grow as a society if we elect women who are less qualified just to achieve equal representation within the House and the Senate. This false sense of equity would detract from the goals of Congress and the goals of feminism.

With that being said, there are many qualified women who do not run for office, and there is something we can do to fix this: Support AAUW’s Elect Her initiative, which empowers women from high school onward to view themselves as political candidates.

If this is the first step in diminishing the long-standing political leadership gender gap, then let’s do it.

It was Maya Angelou who said, “If you don’t like something, change it.”

OK. I’m in.

This blog post was written by 2010–11 AAUW National Student Advisory Council member Cat Cleary.