BY: VANESSA CRESPO, SUMMER 2021 COLLABORATOR AT POWER IN PLACE
I think it is no surprise to find out about the disproportionate sex ratio of elected officials at the local, state, and national level. The organization I was introduced to this summer seeks to rectify this problem. Dare to Run is committed to increasing the number of elected female officials at all levels thus increasing representation for women and successfully implementing public policy that positively affects their communities. Dare to Run is a nonprofit organization founded by Rachelle Suissa, a female leader dedicated to empowering and inspiring women through education. Dare to Run’s mission is to educate and prepare women with the necessary set of skills for public office as well as women of all backgrounds to join the mission of increasing women’s representation in government and politics.
Image from Dare to Run
I had the awesome opportunity to attend Dare to Run’s summer social in New York City at a lovely place located by the financial district near the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, and I was utterly impressed with the interesting personalities of every board member and attendee at the event. I would consider myself a shy person wherever I go, but even though I didn’t know anyone, I managed to feel completely comfortable. They were so easy to talk to and their commitment to the organization was inspirational. Of course I had to ask Rachelle what her inspiration to start the organization was, and I’m paraphrasing this, but in simple words: “We (women) are tired of men making decisions for us”. She couldn’t have said it better. If we really think about it, women make up 26.7% of the US Congress as of 2021 and 30.6% of statewide executives. In other words, female politicians are still a minority compared to their male counterparts, and this number decreases if we break it up into women of color in public office.
One consequence of this deficit I’d like to highlight is the recent bill signed by Texas Governor Gregg Abbott that bans abortion at six weeks, which is before many women could possibly be aware of a pregnancy. If this is signed into law, it will restrict and limit the possibilities of women getting an abortion in the safest way possible given that women are running on a short timeframe to make the decision, find a clinic, schedule and appointment, and in some cases, save up enough money for the procedure.
This is one of the many examples of how decisions made by men will affect the lives of many women by restricting their freedom and right to privacy. When I think about these issues, I cannot thank Dare to Run enough for their initiative to inspire and educate women from all backgrounds to run for public office in order to avoid harmful policy decisions. One of the organization’s values is equality, and it tells us that women should have an equal say in the development of the public policy agenda at all levels of government. I think it is fair to say that we need stronger voices protecting us from future damage done by politicians who do not even understand the complications of being a woman, and more specifically, being a woman of color (in my case at least). Since Dare to Run is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, they are nonpartisan by law which opens the door to women from all different sides of the political spectrum to speak for and represent various groups. I respect this given that intersectionality takes into account more factors than only sex and race, but also ethnicity, ideology, and culture. Intersectionality demands more diversity in public office to represent these sub-groups. So I believe that we should support more organizations like Dare to Run. We should have the goal of increasing representation for those who might not identify with one politician or party, but may relate to someone who’s willing to speak up for them.
Vanessa Crespo is an upcoming senior at the University of Texas at Austin double majoring in Political Science and Philosophy. She is interested in women’s rights, feminist theory, and Latin American politics. In the future, she is aiming at a career in Law but also sees herself as an advocate of women’s rights and human rights in Latin American.