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At this year's BlogHer conference, we are partnering with The White House Project to encourage women to learn about running for office. BlogHer's commitment to women's issues, women's rights, and women in politics goes beyond the blog, as evidenced by Jill Miller Zimon, one of BlogHer's contributing editors, now elected to City Council in Ohio, who will be speaking in New York. Arianna Huffington, another woman who knows a bit about blogging and what it takes to run for office, spoke last week in San Francisco at two events, giving her advice on what women need to shatter the glass ceiling and change our world.
While some authors have written massive volumes on these subjects, Huffington sums up her advice in three words: tenacity, perseverance and empathy. These qualities, Arianna says, embody our ability as women to transcend existing paradigms of work, politics and society in general. Yet "beyond the cultural, legal & political obstacles are the personal." At times, we are our own worst enemies, letting fears get in the way of our own successes. She encourages all women to push on, knowing fear is essential to success, but creating supportive tribes to help us along the journey.
While she only spoke briefly at the Emerge America event last Wednesday night, Huffington, a former candidate for California governor, inspired a room full of Democratic women leaders. As one friend of mine said, "there's a lot of girl power in this room!" Emerge is training the next generation of women leaders, much like The White House Project, but in longer, more concentrated programs organized by state. Many of the women in that room had run for office or plan to run.
A few hours earlier, Huffington spoke at length for the Equal Rights Advocates (ERA, not to be confused with the Equal Rights Amendment) annual luncheon fundraiser. The ERA chose Huffington as their keynote speaker because of her fearlessness as a woman and mother. She rose to the challenge, citing the landmark lawsuit ERA continues to fight against Wal-Mart for wage discrimination. In ERA Plaintiff Edith Arana's words, "I am small, but I can do this because it is right." That fight has endured a decade now, like many legal battles ERA undertakes to protect women. "I'm so glad that they can't wear you down," exclaimed Huffington to the hundreds of women in the ballroom.
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Sarah Granger blogs here and there and she'll be speaking at BlogHer '10 in NYC and live blogging the White House Project event for BlogHer. She graduated from the Emerge California program in '05 and helped get the Emege America blog off the ground.
