Women in politics? Let’s face it the statistics are horrific. To name a few, only 37 women have ever served as Governor across the United States. Almost five times as many men hold elected office in the United States than women. The United States currently ranks 95th in the world in the number of women serving in their national legislatures. We are behind Mexico, China and Pakistan. In 2002 Andrea Dew Steele who is active in the Democratic Party was aroused by the incredible lack of women holding elected office at the local level in San Francisco and founded Emerge American. Today 22 other states use the program.
Colorado is one of those states. Karen Middleton a former member of Colorado House of Representatives in the State of Colorado and a founder of the Emerge Colorado says, “Women have the passion; it’s just that women need to be empowered, the attitude toward women needs to change.”
When Norma Ryan, present chair of Emerge Colorado, was asked what the participants are taught about how to handle such insults as Hilary Clinton had to endure in the last campaign, she pointed out, “I don’t think that we can protect women against the insults we saw in the 2016 presidential election. I don’t know how we can train women to respond to low blows with other low blows. But feeling empowered is important. Most of the women we train are running for their first office which is probably a local office. They won’t be in the news as often as someone running for the senate. Our training is the nuts and bolts of how to run a campaign.”
Emerge America trains only Democratic women who are ‘ready to run’ for office. The training includes public speaking and communication, fundraising, media relations, messaging, networking and voter contact including anti-oppression training, information about labor partners and a module on ethical leadership. The training is one weekend a month for over a six-month period which builds among the participants a lasting networking team.
Emma Pinter who participated in Emerge Colorado and who is presently running for Adams County commissioner after having been asked to run by other already elected commissioners said that she was surprised to learn at Emerge Colorado that women in general only run after being asked. Adams County is near Denver, the capital of Colorado. As a commissioner Emma will participate in such needs as budget decisions, making sure that services such as health and recreation are working properly. Emma specified that she liked that Emerge Colorado lasted over 6 months because “It gave me time to digest the material we were given, perhaps see it differently and enabled me, if needed, to ask more questions.”
Emma also appreciated the networking aspect of Emerge Colorado. “I am still in touch with my cohorts.”
Edith Lynn Beer is a seasoned journalist who covers news in Colorado, Montana and Wyoming.