Women’s Equality Day
by Jennifer on 08.26.2009
Women need to run for office, now more than ever. While arguments abound about whether we should even focus on differences between genders, it is life experiences that matter to making a good elected public servant.
What is different about electing a woman?
Many women's life experiences have honed skills that are exceptional for holding public office-like multi-tasking, being good communicators, listening skills, collaborating, being task driven when there's not enough time in the day.
And then there's being determined in the face of obstacles. Many women and men have faced such challenges. Those who have successfully faced and learned from them understand that it is the tough times that prepare us for even greater challenges ahead.
Today is the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to our U.S. Constitution in 1920, giving women the right to vote. The struggle for women's suffrage was one fought by courageous women who endured taunts and ridicule, arrests and jail and even starvation to fight for the right to vote. I know as Secretary of State of Ohio what it means to fight hard to protect that right to vote for each individual voter.
In recent years, women have voted in higher percentages than men. So, when I hear that many women don't run for public office because they have "doubts about their qualifications" or because "no one asked them to run," I say that this is precisely why more women need to run.
The voices and concerns of women are still widely underrepresented in the halls of power from the Statehouse to the halls of the U.S. Senate.
And yet there are countless issues we women are especially passionate about, that we will advocate tirelessly for, in part because of our experiences, some unique to our gender.
I'll always defend a woman's right to choose on issues that affect her health, and I will fight to restore the rights to reproductive health and access to sex education denied to both women and men under the Bush Administration.
I'll support funding for early childhood education. I have seen firsthand in caring for young children in my family that this is essential to later success.
I will fight hard for health care reform so that no parent or child will have to watch the other suffer needlessly. Health care must be accessible to all Americans so that they may live with the dignity that is being stripped away year by year as health insurance premiums skyrocket and burgeoning costs of health care shut more Americans out of the system.
And, like the women in Congress who led the charge for the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act ... I will continue to fight for pay equity, because equality is where empowerment begins in our democracy.
I know firsthand that policies that have the effect of hindering or denying equality often come straight from Washington, and I want to change that.
But first I need to get there. And for that, I need you.
At every turn, I've been told that my choices were too risky, that I was pushing too hard, that I was the wrong person taking on the wrong challenge at the wrong time.
And at each improbable turn, I've proved them wrong.
This choice, my decision to challenge the political establishment, and to run for the United States Senate, is no different.
But history turns on improbable choices. And our last presidential election proved that.
As I listen to the grassroots Democrats of my state, I know that Ohio is hungry for more change. I know that this nation looks to Ohio time and time again for electing presidents and often as the political barometer for what lies ahead.
Never has a woman from Ohio been elected to the U.S. Senate-and it is time. With your support that time can come-and soon.
As Americans are finding out, change doesn't come easily. When people, not institutions, are the driving force, we can succeed at challenging the status quo. In America, one person really can make a difference-and that includes you. This is the vigor of the American Dream.
We live in a time when the hope of individual empowerment is real, and we're looking for the right leaders to keep that hope real.
We know the challenges of the culture of Washington, and yet, we don't want to give up that hope.
We know that many lifelong politicians committed to the ways of the past have set us back, and we're looking for new and fresh approaches that spring from demonstrated commitment.
Many years ago women stood together and through their collective individual efforts they made significant change happen. I ask you to start standing with me now to grow that change for our families, our communities and our country.
Please help me make a difference in the U.S. Senate. Please stand with me and show your support today. We need it now more than ever.
Thank you.