There are 174 elected members of the Mississippi Legislature. Only 26 of those seats are held by women.
Locally, both the Columbus City Council and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors have no women serving, while Starkville Board of Aldermen and Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors each have one woman seated.
Mississippi University for Women political science professor Chanley Rainey said those numbers show the under-representation of women serving in office, which led to the National Education for Women’s (NEW) Leadership program held each summer at the university. Rainey, who serves as a program coordinator, said NEW accepts any woman enrolled in public, private or community college, to the six-day residential program geared toward building young women’s confidence in politics.
“We don’t have many women in positions of elected leadership in the state,” Rainey said. “A lot of young women in Mississippi probably look at that and feel that’s because you can’t get elected if you run. All of the political science research says that’s not what’s going on. When women run, they are actually really good fundraisers even though they think they won’t be. They win at least as, if not more, often than men. It’s really just a matter of building their confidence.”
This year’s program will be May 19-24. Each year about 24 students are chosen to work with program alumna and women in leadership positions, covering topics ranging from women’s roles in politics to running a campaign. They also work on an “action project” where they prepare a mock legislative committee hearing, earning a two-hour college credit in the process.
MUW senior and student body president Maddy Norgard said the program was the confidence boost she needed to move forward in college.
“I don’t think I would have had the confidence to go all the way for student president,” Norgard said. “From that program, I was connected to other programs. I even went to a conference in Washington, D.C. It really just provided a lot of opportunities to grow my leadership skills and encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone.”
Through NEW, Norgard met MUW alumna Kristie Metcalfe who is the Mississippi Senate attorney and was a law clerk for the Mississippi Supreme Court. Norgard said Metcalfe offered advice to help further her education after she graduates in May.
“She offered a lot of great advice about being involved in the Legislature in a nonpartisan capacity,” Norgard said. “She also shared about her experiences at law school. I’m still deciding between law school or a different option for grad school, which is why I’m taking a year off. Her advice was really helpful in considering what to expect and gain out of attending law school.”
Why it matters
Rainey said while women pushed forward on the federal level during the mid-term elections, with women now holding 23.4 percent of the U.S. House of Representative seats and 25 percent of Senate seats, Mississippi is still lagging behind with less than 15 percent female legislative representation.
“Local elected offices are no different than state offices,” Rainey said. “Women think there are strong biases against them in the process. They feel like people will judge them more harshly than men. Men are a little bit more reckless than women, but men lose all the time. Women should, at the local level, throw their hat in the ring. You can still make an impact on the political conversation even if you run a losing race.”
Rainey added, on a local level, women are historically represented well on school boards, because she said women feel their opinions will be heard. Rainey said that falls in line with many stereotypes that she feels follow women in politics.
“Some of those stereotypes are in favor of women,” Rainey said. “(The voters think) we are more compassionate, they think we are more honest. They think we are better at health care and education. There’s a ton of stuff that goes in our favor. To the extent that any of those stereotypes are true, we need women in office. Anytime that you are systematically losing out on half of our population, you’re missing out on a lot of potential there.”
With the university program, Rainey said she hopes young women’s confidence is built and hopes for an increase in women leadership both in a local and national level.
“(Students) get exposure to political careers that they might not know about,” Rainey said. “They get to meet and learn from women that are in those careers. They talk about work-life balance and the politics they address. If they don’t know a woman in those careers, they might wonder about those things and be deterred for those careers because they don’t have a model. (We are) giving them that confidence and encouragement and they can do this. We need them in office.”
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