Dear members and friends of the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee,
With the June gloom lifting, I hope you are enjoying a nice start to summer. The beginning of summer means we are just a little over 100 days until the presidential election and also less than two months until National Voter Registration Day! So much is at stake that people — and especially women –need to pay close attention to who is running, and their positions on the issues.
Just over two weeks ago Mexico made history by electing Claudia Shienbaum as its first female President in a landslide victory. Sheinbaum is a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City. She’s also the first Jewish leader of the largely Catholic country, which was not a major point of discussion during the campaign. Mexican women were granted the right to vote in 1953, and in 2019, and Mexico made gender parity in all three branches of government a constitutional requirement. Feminist activists pushed for those changes—alongside decades of activism against gender-based violence and femicide.
Mexico’s selection makes me wonder when the U.S. will elect a woman as our President. A new study suggests that fears about electability keep people from voting for women, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy based on stereotypes and fears; however, countering this bias may change how we vote. Barriers to electability can be reduced when voters believe that Americans not only want but also will take action to support women candidates.
How can we remove those barriers? That’s where the SBWPC candidate assessment process comes in. SBWPC’s Candidate Assessment Committee carefully interviews and evaluates candidates to ensure that the range of feminist issues we care about are being addressed and then we promote them to ensure people know our candidates are indeed electable. The process is already getting underway in preparation for the upcoming election. The SBWPC wants to create a pipeline of political leaders who might start at the local level but work their way up into state and federal positions.
Because of the number of candidates running, the SBWPC needs your help more than ever. The Elections and Appointment Committee needs volunteers to be a part of the Candidate Assessment Teams (CAT) to interview and evaluate candidates for local offices. We want to publicize the events and activist opportunities prior to the November election. The SBWPC Media Committee needs volunteers who are wordsmiths, can help write articles and craft press releases, conduct research to craft and help get our messages across through a multi-media approach (print, FB, Instagram, Eblasts).
My friends, I know I don’t need to remind you about what’s at stake this November. Our reproductive rights are in danger of being further stripped away with several key cases coming before the U.S. Supreme court. Issues continuing to face women include the Gender Wage Gap, Lack of Affordable Childcare, Family Caretaking Responsibilities, the Costs and Burdens of Pregnancy, Domestic Violence and Abuse. Because “it takes a village” to achieve legislative and policy victories for women, I am pleased to say that we are collaborating with some other like-minded feminist organizations in this election cycle; for instance, a Social Lab is being planned for the end of July. Stay tuned for details.
If he is elected, Presidential candidate Donald Trump could have two more appointments to the Supreme Court. To me, that thought alone is terrifying. However, I remember just how powerful we feminists are when we stand up and speak with one voice, just as the women in Mexico did. As Michelle Obama said, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”