New initiative aims to increase number of women in student governments

In college student governments across the country, women occupy 45% of the executive positions, according to the American Association of University Women.

These women will serve as a voice for their constituents while they're in college and in some cases, after they graduate. More than half the women in U.S. Congress held student government positions during their college years.

Elect Her-Campus Women Win, a nationwide program held on college campuses across the nation, aims to increase the number of women in student governments.

This year, the program will go to 30 different campuses to train women to run for student government and to win elected positions after college.

The training looks at each campus's specific student government, so the women know how to run for office and when, said Kate Farrar, AAUW director of leadership programs. That training is transferrable down the line.

"Student governments really have a lot of power on campus," Farrar said. "What's wonderful is they are getting experience to speak on issues they care about."

The training also includes how to network with different officials and how to maximize resources for a campaign. A communications expert explains how to best campaign for a position, and each woman gets to practice her "elevator speech."

"You learn how a campaign really works," said Kristen Tellis, site coordinator for Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Farrar said Elect Her officials have found that women hold leadership positions on campus, but not high profile positions, because they often feel they don't have the skills or confidence to run a campaign.

"We want to break those issues," Farrar said.

Student governments are often insular environments, Farrar said. Elect Her wants to open the pool to more women.

"When you arrive freshman year, if you see a lot of males in student government, you think that that's what campus is like," Tellis said. "Some women don't know that they can run for those positions."

Since Elect Her started in 2008, Farrar has seen three direct benefits: more women are in leadership roles, more women are running for executive office and the women on campus are better supporting each other.

On one campus, she added, there were zero women in executive positions in 2011. After training, the number increased to more than half.

"It really opens the door."

Paige Cornwell is a Spring 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.