Melissa Sargent has made it a point to visit local elementary schools since she was elected four years ago to the state assembly in Wisconsin. “I think it’s really important for kids to know they matter to policy makers,” said Sargent, a Democrat whose district includes part of Madison. “How are little girls going to look forward and say, ‘I can be that,’ if they don’t see anyone doing that?”
The “that” Sargent is referring to is being a leader. Nurturing political interest in girls and young women has taken on new urgency for many after the widely unexpected defeat of Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential candidate from a major political party.
Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the nation’s highest office — even after a videotape surfaced of him bragging about groping women — was a rude wake up call for many, said Anne Moses, founder of IGNITE, a California-based nonpartisan group that aims to encourage political ambition in young women and girls. “To see the video and then to see that he got elected — it was pretty shocking to young women who thought that dealing with sexism was their mother’s issue.”
Her group and others have seen a surge in interest on the part of girls, mothers and educators. “This country is exploding with interest in political involvement for women,” she said.
There has been a push — from social media campaigns to living room conversations to classrooms — to channel the energy and passion of the post-election women’s marches, which drew record crowds around the country, into sustained interest, education and action. And that includes teaching girls that they can and should get into politics.
Since the presidential election, IGNITE has been contacted by over 300 educators — a three-fold increase — from most every state about its 50-hour high school curriculum that trains young women to understand how government works and why it matters. Girls learn to analyze policy and discern ways to get involved in issues they care about, Moses said. IGNITE is now working on adapting that programming for younger girls, in middle and even elementary schools.
Running Start, which for the past decade has provided leadership training for teenage girls, also has seen an uptick in donations and applications, said Sara Blanco, the communications director. The group has a flagship program that brings 60 high school girls from around the country to Washington, D.C., during the summer for a week-long crash-course in national politics.
Sophia Houdaigui, who is about to graduate from high school and head off to Barnard College in New York City, participated when she was 15. “Before going into it I was interested in international affairs — I was in the model UN in middle school, but I never saw politics as a viable option for me,” she said. Now? “I tell as many people as I can that I want to be the first female senator from Virginia,” says Houdaigui. She allows, however, that she won’t be disappointed if another woman gets there first.
AAcross the board — from town councils to the nation’s highest offices — women are significantly underrepresented in politics. More than half the population is female, but men hold more than three-quarters of elected offices nationwide, according to information compiled by the Center for American Women in Politics at New Jersey’s Rutgers University.
The lack of political engagement can begin as early as elementary school, as girls eschew leadership roles for fear of being labeled “bossy,” or worse. Between high school and college, engagement can drop off significantly, research shows.
In “Girls Just Wanna Not Run,” a 2013 report published by American University, the authors surveyed young woman and found, among other things, that boys may be more conditioned to focus on winning because they participate in organized sports at higher rates than girls. The survey also found that parents were more encouraging of boys to think about politics, and that girls were less likely to think of themselves as qualified for office — a factor that points to the “confidence gap” that often bedevils females.
AA groundbreaking survey by the American Association of University Women in 1991 found that the confidence gap widened early, with a precipitous drop in girls’ self-esteem happening in middle school. The study, though it was later disputed by some, prompted efforts over the past generation to address the imbalance. And advocates say the problem persists.
Girls are often hesitant about essential political tasks like fundraising and public speaking.
“A lot of the barriers boil down to confidence,” Blanco said. Young women often don’t think they’re qualified when they are and they often need to be asked, more than once, to lead or run for office, said Lauren Schueler, director of new leadership and civic engagement at the women’s leadership initiative at the University of Oklahoma.
While the source of that phenomenon is a complex stew of societal and familial norms, advocates say the antidote can sometimes be found in simple exercises. IGNITE’s website, for instance, features mother-daughter discussion guides that include exercises like showing girls a picture of all 45 U.S. presidents and talking about why no women appear.
The Center for American Women in Politics has sent children’s books to nearly 2,000 women who serve as governors and legislators around the country as part of their “Teach a Girl to Lead” initiative. The center hopes these women, like Sargent from Wisconsin, will then venture into classrooms to read to children and provide living, concrete examples of women’s leadership. This year’s selection was If I Were President, by Cathering Stier, with illustrations by Diane DiSalvo-Ryan. The book — geared toward kids in kindergarten through third grade — includes a diverse cast of children, including girls, who imagine themselves in the presidency as the book provides an overview of what the office entails.
“Every kid could see themselves in that book,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Center for American Women in Politics. The political leaders who come bearing the book are also a powerful role model, she said. “It’s not that you need to make a big point of a woman in office — kids don’t absorb the gender politics, it’s just that they will grow up thinking of women in elected positions.”
One Running Start program, called Elect Her, trains young women to run for student government — often a precursor to seeking office beyond school. And social media campaigns are aimed at young girls, such as #notbossy and #declareyourambition, which launched in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
While new initiatives have flowered in recent years, other programs, credited with making a difference, have been around for decades.
Sixteen thousand high school girls nationwide participate in Girls State programs that have been run during the summer by the American Legion Auxiliary since 1937. There they learn about government at the local and state levels. “We teach the girls to be good citizens and to participate in government, but at the core of it it’s a female empowerment program,” said Kristen Geczy, a spokeswoman for the group.
And, of course, there are the Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, whose programs go far beyond earning merit badges for civics. “From a very young age, Girl Scouts are encouraged to take the lead every day in both large and small ways. From trying a new activity at camp, to advocating for change in their communities to their elected officials,” said Stewart Goodbody, senior director of communications and external affairs at Girl Scouts of the USA. “And, we know that our programming works: Girl Scout alumnae make up the majority of women in leadership positions in the current U.S. government, including 76 percent of women senators, 54 percent of women representatives, and four of the five women governors.”
Advocates are buoyed by the momentum they see following the presidential election. Houdaigui, who is from McLean, Va., says she has seen her peers energized, rather than crushed, by the results. “I have more faith than I did a year ago,” she said. “More girls in school are coming up to me and asking how they can get involved.” For her part, Sargent, the Wisconsin Assemblywoman, will keep visiting classrooms. “There have been 6,000 people elected to the state legislature and I was only the 126th woman,” she said. “I’m not going to let it be, ‘This is the way it’s always been.’ Government needs to represent everyone and it needs to look like everyone.”
