Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics

A recent article in the Post and Courier outlines the key to reaching goals for women aiming to succeed in business: overcoming societal obstacles. This piece examines pertinent female business leaders and offers advice that is applicable to both the corporate world and the political sphere.

There are few stereotypes in society today that lend themselves to comic impression better than the female politician. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler proved this time and time again as Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton during the 2008 election cycle. Back in 2011, Kristen Wiig picked up the torch with an outstanding rendition of Rep. Michele Bachmann.

There's more than just being a woman that attracts people to women candidates. Voters, especially disenchanted voters, want women as they represent a refreshing change from what they see in public office today. Dr. Beverly Forbers, an author and professor known for her pioneering work in the area of women as transformational leaders, says American voters are looking for the style of leadership most commonly found in women

Mexico's conservative ruling party has picked a former education secretary as its nominee for the nation's top job. If she wins, she will become Mexico's first female president.

The biggest winners in last weekend's S.C. Republican Primary may have been Leslie Gaines and Ruth Sherlock. Prior to last Saturday, Gaines and Sherlock had spent the better part of their time at their fledgling political consulting company running themselves ragged – fundraising for this candidate, marketing for that one, scheduling for a third. "We decided to hit reset," Gaines said, co-owner of the Greenville-based Sherlock & Gaines Consulting Group.

File for office by March 30th at 5 pm

There are some things going in the next two weeks that might help address [the] deficit [of women in politics in SC] in the short and long term. Do the state a favor. Invite a woman to go see the documentary "Miss Representation" at the College of Charleston and then invite that same woman to register for the Southeastern Institute for Women in politics' online training course.

In the immediate wake of the state's GOP presidential primary, the Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics (the Institute), in conjunction with our partners Blue Cross Blue Shield South Carolina (BCBSSC) and IT-oLogy, is announcing an exciting and innovative plan geared at encouraging and educating women to run for elected office in the Palmetto State.

If you are considering running for office, consider this: You can have a great impact on young women. What do you want your daughter, niece, or grand-daughter to see when she looks at you? Check out the findings of this new study on Women in leadership roles and the impact it can have on young women.

Many female politicians overplay or underplay their femininity in order to get on in a male-dominated world. Writer Helen Lewis-Hasteley finds that Elizabeth Warren, would-be senator and Wall Street watchdog, refreshingly does neither. Instead, she looks and sounds like exactly what she is - a 62-year-old grandmother from Oklahoma, with the patient tones of a teacher and an expression of perpetual mild concern.

It seems like only yesterday that Sarah Palin stepped into a pair of red, Naughty Monkey peep-toe pumps and blew up every assumption about the Republican Party and women. With a briefing book in her hands, a baby on her hip, and a party enamored with her, Palin created the impression in 2008 that the GOP was not only willing, but eager, to elect a women to the highest, or at least second-highest, office in the land.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is setting up a community aid foundation, the Original Six, to help put the state's poorest counties back on track. Haley has hired Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics Board member Wendy Homeyer as the executive director. The foundation derives its name from her family - her parents and siblings are the original six. She remembers her parents filling shopping carts with groceries for charities when she was growing up. There's a distinction, she notes, ...

Female politicians, both real and imagined, are getting ready to take over HBO this spring. The premium cable channel premiered a teaser for its upcoming show, "Veep," over the weekend. Production crews for the comedy series, which stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, of "Seinfeld" fame, in the nation’s No. 2 job, spent a lot of time filming around D.C. over the last few months.

Colorado has the highest percentage of female legislators- 41%!  The tradition of women's political activism goes as far back as 1894, when Clara Cressingham, Carrie Clyde Holly and Frances Klock became the first women in the US to be elected to a state's legislature.  These women helped pave the way to women's suffrage across the country. 

Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberian political activist, demanded a meeting with the opposition of Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected woman serving as a head of state in Africa, when they caused violence during Tuesday runoff election. She called for the meeting as more than a diplomat saying she would take her tears with her to meet with fellow African leader Johnson Sirleaf's opponents - to shame them, to make them see that what the violence they were ...

Defense Undersecretary for Policy, Michele Flournoy, is the highest-ranking woman in Pentagon history. She is "the voice of calm" guiding the transition from Gates to Panetta at the Pentagon. Will she be the first female secretary of defense?

"If Congress were 50 percent women," NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tasked a group in San Francisco, "you think we'd be in Afghanistan and Iraq? If 50 percent of the (Securities and Exchange Commission) were women, do you think we would have had a financial meltdown?" She continued by noting that women have longer views of things than men and are better at consensus-building, better listeners.

When presidential elections overlap with redistricting - which happens only once every 20 years - opportunities increase vastly for women candidates, according to analysis by The 2012 Project, a non-partisan campaign to elect more women to office. The Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, an affiliate of The 2012 Project, believes the same prospects will bear out for South Carolina.

Female representation matters. Research by the Center for American Women in Politics found a gender gap in public policy issues. Women are less militaristic, more often opposed to the death penalty, more likely to favor gun control and environmental protections. They are less critical of government, more critical of business and more supportive of laws to regulate social vices. Those views are diluted when half of the population is elected to office at a much lower proportion. As voters see ...

After years of earnest pleading, glacial progress, tired excuses and fleeting victories we now, suddenly, have four female premiers, a handful of prominent women opposition leaders and, even in the socio-cultural backwater of Ottawa, rustlings of change. It isn't full equality, but it could be a belated step toward normalizing our politics.

The Nobel Peach Prize Committee awarded this year's prize to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, her countrywoman and peace activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni journalist–democracy advocate Tawakul Karman. Especially after a year of such tumult in that part of the world, the selection of three women from Arab and African countries sends a clear signal "designed to give impetus to the cause for women’s rights around the world," as the New York Times put it. “We cannot achieve democracy ...

Joanne Bamberger, "mommy blogger" and author, moderated a panel called: Networked: What Women Want and Why You Should Care recently. Her panel found it evident that organizations see women in general, and mothers in particular, as a source of easy advertising, rather than as potential partners and effective influencers in their communities. Bamberger calls that a "costly mistake", pointing out that politicians miss the huge value of a tremendously influential audience - women.

The Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics is laying the groundwork now in an effort to make the 2012 elections a game-changer.

Thirty years ago, Sandra Day O'Connor made history by becoming the first female justice on the Supreme Court — and opened doors for wise women everywhere. In her first case, the lawyer (male). In her first case on that court, a prominent Southern lawyer was certain the Supreme Court would rule in his favor — because, he said, she was "flirting" with him. The comment says something about the person who weaved her way through a male-dominated world to become the first female justice and served ...

For the first time in history, the President is appointing more women and minorities to the federal bench than white males. Almost three fourths of appointees are women or minorities.