BATON ROUGE – From Louisiana Women Lead: On Aug. 26, Louisiana Women Lead celebrates Women’s Equality Day and 101 years since the certification of the 19th Amendment, enfranchising women with the right to vote. Great strides have been made by women in those 101 years, but there is still more work to be done to truly achieve equality.
We are grateful for all the women across the political spectrum that have paved the way for us today. Women like Governor Kathleen Blanco, Congresswoman Lindy Boggs, Congresswoman Julia Letlow, and Vice President Kamala Harris are trailblazers who were the first women elected to their respective offices and broke the glass ceiling for all of us. Their courage to step up and lead is a model for any aspiring female politician.
With that being said, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates 51.2 percent of Louisianans and 50.8 percent of Americans are female and yet only 18 percent of our legislature and 26.7 percent of Congress reflect the dominant sex in both our state and nation. How can this be? What is it that is keeping women from running or being appointed to office? That is the question we asked ourselves before arriving at a potential answer: some just do not know where to start.
We decided to change that.
Louisiana Women Lead is offering a full day of training for center-right women where they will learn how to fundraise, run a campaign, utilize their networks, and other critical skills needed to run and win. Training will be held in Monroe on October 16 and we encourage all women who are passionate about their community, concerned about the direction our country is heading, or just want to make a difference to apply today at our website www.louisianawomenlead.org.
Women were able to achieve the right to vote with little financial, legal or political power. In 101 years, we can now achieve so much more by giving you that power to win. Today serves as a symbol of our continued fight for equal representation at all levels of government and we need you to help make that happen.
###