Run, girl, run!

This, my friends, is an invocation. This is a call of action to all of the sisters, aunts, mothers and daughters out there. Where are you? Where are all of these strong women? One place they are not is in the South Carolina state senate. With only 17 women serving in our state house and none in the United States Senate or Congress, South Carolina ranks last in the country for the number of women in elected office. Why is this? Why, in a state where women make up over half of the population, do women only occupy less than 20 percent of local elected offices?

More and more female names creep onto the ballots each year. In fact, Representative Nikki Haley is currently running for the Republican nomination for the 2010 Governor's race. Women such as Nikki Haley, Gaye Spraugeor and former US Representative Liz Patterson serve as beacons of hope for women across the state. The presence of such women on the political stage, however, is simply not enough. Statistically, these few women who have entered the political world in South Carolina barely make a splash. Rwanda is the world leader in regards to the percentage of women in politics, with women serving in 48.8 percent of their elected positions. It is true that this particular success is due to their gender quota regulations, which would not be the correct policy for the United States. But Rwanda has done something that the United States has failed to do. They have publicly acknowledged the need for women in politics and have made significant and successful attempts to remedy the gender gap in politics.

Women are necessary factors in politics and policy-making. Laura Armstrong points out in her Nov 13 column, "Lending to empower" that women have the ability to revitalize their communities by harnessing the infinite power of micro-loans. Women bring a new face to politics, pushing for issues that are traditionally overlooked and, at the same time, most often disregarding gender stereotypes and simply serving as strong guardians of their constituency. We no longer have valid arguments against why women should serve in office - we
simply have a lack of women geared up and ready to go.

Madeleine Kunin, author of "Pearls, Politics, and Power. How Women Can Win and Lead" and the first female governor of Vermont, claims that women do not enter politics for several reasons, the first and most important of which is the limitations that they place upon themselves. It is said that, faced with a national budget-related issue, any woman lacking a Ph.D. in economics would feel under-qualified to tackle the issue, but that a man that sells Hondas esteems himself to be an expert of finance. Ladies, we are qualified. We have what it takes and we can win - if we only run.

Hillary Clinton claimed last year that women had not shattered the glass ceiling, but instead had made in it 18 million cracks. Well, ladies, it is time for us to arm ourselves with pebbles and to shatter that ceiling. We have the skills and we definitely have the desire. The first step is convincing yourself that you have what it takes. The She Should Run program, an affiliate of the Women's Campaign Forum, operates under the guiding principle that, if women are asked to run, they will.

So ladies, now is your time. Will you run?