With a record number of women serving in Congress, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, coupled with the prominent roles former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton played in the 2008 presidential election, women have never been bigger players in American politics.
On Tuesday, Patricia Russo, first vice president of the Women’s Campaign School at Yale University, spoke at the Hinckley Institute of Politics and encouraged women to continue to become more active in politics and not compromise who they are in order to succeed.
WCS is a five-day boot camp where women8212;and some men8212;are trained on how to effectively run political campaigns, Russo said.
“(After attending WCS) maybe they wouldn’t be interested in running for office, but maybe they’d be interested in running a campaign,” she said.
Although more women are involved in politics than ever before, Russo said women are unacceptably still a minority in government. Many women suffer from “Girl Scout Syndrome,” meaning they never feel fully prepared when it comes to running for political office, she said.
Megan Paulsen, a senior in Middle East studies and Arabic, said she agrees with Russo.
“I believe women often are afraid to speak up on political issues,” Paulsen said.
Russo used Clinton’s presidential campaign as an example of how women can still feel alienated in politics.
“(Clinton) was not true to herself,” Russo said. She was too worried about following what her advisers wanted her to do, which made people doubt the few moments where she was actually being genuine, Russo said.
Blayde McIntire, a sophomore in civil engineering, said he thinks Clinton’s campaign was too focused on her being a woman and not enough on the issues.
“It seemed like every debate, the issue that she was a woman would come up, and it wasn’t really relevant,” McIntire said.
Russo said women cannot be afraid to take leadership positions.
“In order to be a leader, all you have to do is raise your hand and say, “I can do that.’ ”
Julian GomezForbes magazine named Patricia Russo the 10th most powerful woman in the world in 2007. Tuesday, Russo spoke to students at the Hinckley Institute of Politics.