The Nov. 8 election has already inspired a tsunami-sized wave of aspiring women politicians. An upcoming book from “Grace and Frankie” actress June Diane Raphael and Emily’s List Chief of Staff Kate Black aims to help them run ― and win.
The friends will collaborate on The Badass Woman’s Guide to Running for Office and Changing the World, People reported Wednesday, a sort of “workbook/planner.” The finished product, set for a 2019 debut, will “reveal the basics of what a woman needs to know to run for office, whether it’s on the local, state, or federal level,” according to a statement from publisher Workman.
“We can’t look at another photo of a bunch of older white dudes making decisions about women,” Raphael told People, explaining her inspiration for the project with Emily’s List, an organization that helps pro-choice Democratic women candidates run for office.
Perhaps the actress was thinking of this moment in recent history, when President Donald Trump gathered a room full of men to discuss maternity coverage in the planned American Health Care Act:
Viral moments aside, Raphael cited a basic statistic about American government that she called “haunting”: Women make up less than 20 percent of Congress (19.4 percent, to be precise) and less than 25 percent of state legislatures (24.8 percent, at the moment).
As HuffPost’s Emma Gray reported in December, women and men have a roughly equal shot at winning an election. The trouble is that fewer women actually run for office ― an issue Raphael and Black aim to help solve.
The Badass Women’s Guide comes as support for women’s campaigns for office has increased amid seemingly unprecedented numbers of women activists participating in marches across the U.S. One art exhibit, “She Inspires,” currently on view at New York’s Untitled Space gallery, is donating 10 percent of its proceeds to She Should Run, a nonpartisan organization that supports women running for office.
The need for funding is real: An Emily’s List representative told The Washington Post last month that the organization had spoken with 11,000 women about running for office throughout all 50 states, including some prospective House candidates.
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