Why Female Law Students Should Consider Running for Office
By: CATHARINE RICHMOND & MELISSA RICHMOND
Women are missing from leadership.
While there are a myriad of causes, young women in law school can be part of the solution by taking on leadership positions early and often. Early leadership allows female law school students to lay the groundwork to run for political office in the future. Women in law school can start this process of self-selecting as political leaders through openly considering a career in politics, attending formal leadership programs, becoming involved in student government, volunteering on political campaigns, and interning for elected officials.
Law and politics are inextricably linked. In the simplest of terms, elected officials are in charge of making and helping to enforce laws, so a legal education is useful. But the relationship between law and politics is more complex than that: legal training is also good leadership training. For instance, 25 of our 43 Presidents had legal training and among the 535 current Members of Congress, 226 attended law school. What these numbers show is that from the talent pool of lawyers, leaders emerge. What these numbers conceal, however, is a disproportionate number of male leaders. Young women need to be part of the political-legal leadership pipeline from the very beginning, starting in law school.
Where are the Women Leaders in Law and Politics?
Historically, the imbalance of male leadership more closely reflected the imbalance in law school enrollment. For instance, before the 1970s, less than 5% of law school students were women. By the time our dad started law school in the early 1980s, about 32% of law school graduates were women. Last year we helped bring that percentage up to 47%.
Although women have now almost achieved parity in law school graduation rates, there are still increasingly fewer women through the ranks of post-law school leadership — in law firms, law schools, and large businesses. And, though the gap appears to be closing, female lawyers continue to earn less than their male counterparts. So, while the current initial pool of legally trained women is large, as women advance in their legal careers they self-select out of political-legal leadership options, thereby decreasing the overall number of women holding elected office.
As in legal leadership, women are missing from political leadership, especially at the top levels.
In the United States, less than 1 in 4 elected leaders is a woman. In state legislatures, the percentage of women hovers just below 25% and in Congress it’s less than 20%. Only one woman has ever served as Speaker of the House. And, women fill a mere 6 of 22 presidentially appointed cabinet-level positions. Currently, just 5 of 50 Governors are women, and in our 100 biggest cities, there are only 13 female mayors. Female judges make up about about one-third of the bench. Given these statistics, it may come as no surprise that the United States is ranked 86th in the world for women’s representation.
Despite this low ranking, overall worldwide averages of women in government are close to those in the United States. Even though more than half of the world’s population is women, women remain underrepresented as voters, political leaders, and elected officials. For instance, just 1 in 4 nations have had a female head of government. Astonishingly, only 18 of 195 countries are led by women today. In national parliaments, women make up about 20% of the membership and only 1 in 6 parliamentary bodies are presided over by a woman. Unsurprisingly, women are also underrepresented as appointed cabinet members and heads of ministries worldwide.
This absence of women from national and global legal and political leadership, particularly at the highest levels, is problematic.
On a base level, greater numbers of women are needed in government to make representation more reflective of the overall population. But increased female leadership would bring more than base representation: women also bring new issues into focus and pour their legislative energies in making progress on often overlooked problems. In addition, generally women are more collaborative and work with their colleagues from other political parties more cohesively. Essentially, women bring a different basket of interests, experiences, skills, and leadership styles to the table — in business and government, more diverse groups make better bottom line decisions because of the multitude of perspectives, and women are key to this mix.
Given the unique benefits women leaders provide, the United Nations, and many scholars worldwide, believe that increasing the number of women serving in top political positions will also improve not only political, but overall, equality. And, data shows that there aren’t as many women as men holding office because there are not as many female candidates, even though women win at the same rates as men when they run.
Why Women Should Get Involved in Law School
We know that more than any other professional group, lawyers become political leaders. But, why should female law students devote time to setting the stage for future political involvement? Isn’t becoming a political leader something they can focus on once they have graduated and become successful in their careers? Sadly, the answer is often no.
Unfortunately, as women grow older they often lose their confidence, which is key to becoming a candidate. At age 8, confidence peaks in girls. And, while political ambition in boys and girls in grade school is almost equal, that ambition declines sharply during the years when young women are in high school, college, and graduate school. By the time women are 10–15 years into their careers, even though they have the same qualifications as their men colleagues (like a law degree), they are half as likely to think of themselves as potential political candidates. The numbers of young women elected officials reflect this reality: just 5 of the 535 Members of Congress are women under 40 years old.
Research shows that women don’t run for office because they face a number of both internal and external barriers that men do not. These barriers include a lack of recruitment and encouragement of women candidates; fear of media scrutiny; discomfort with fundraising; problems with the “old boys” network; work/life balance concerns; feelings of under-qualification; and unease with the ruthlessly competitive nature of many political campaigns.
To combat these barriers, young women must put themselves into the political-legal pipeline early. Below are five suggestions for how women can actively prepare themselves early for elected office.
How to Get Involved in Politics in Law School
1) Confidently and Openly Consider a Career in Politics
Women in law school should be brave enough to identify that they are interested in politics and to let their classmates and professors know. The first step to becoming a successful candidate is to think of yourself as such and help others do so.
2) Attend Formal Leadership Trainings
There are a multitude of organizations that provide leadership training to young women (and young men) around the country. Some progressive law schools are also starting to focus on developing this vital skill. Search out the best trainings at your school or in your area and show up.
For example, Running Start, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, DC where Melissa is the Vice President, encourages and trains young women to get involved in politics. In partnership with the American Association of University Women, Running Start offers a daylong training called Elect Her: Campus Women Win. The training is offered on 50 college campuses each year and focuses on how to run for student government. This year, one of the trainings was offered at the Washington & Lee law school. The Elect Her program will hopefully be expanded to include more law schools in the near future.
3) Become Involved in Student Government
Forty-three percent of the current female Members of Congress got their start in student government. Getting early practice running (whether you win or lose) is vital. Women must start running young in order to rise to the highest levels of political leadership, which often hinge on seniority and tenure.
4) Volunteer on a Political Campaign
The best way to decide if you ever want to be a candidate is to work for one. Campaign work is humbling and hard, but it’s also incredibly exciting. Even if you are young and inexperienced, the good news is that most campaigns will never turn away a volunteer. Campaigns provide accelerated on-the-job training in a myriad of real life skills and add a nice line to the resume of anyone searching for a paid position after law school.
5) Intern for an Elected Official
Interning for an elected official, whether it’s a Member of Congress, a state legislator, or a District Attorney is a valuable experience. Both of us had the opportunity to intern for the District Attorney in Los Angeles and absolutely adored it. Melissa also had the chance to intern for the Governor of Massachusetts several times. In each of these instances, we emerged with a renewed interest in public service and a deep respect for the great leaders who serve in government. As a plus, government internships are sometimes easier to come by than summer associate positions or judicial clerkships.
Get Out There and Run!
Women in law schools are perfectly positioned to become political leaders.
It’s never too early to become engaged. Female law school students should take active steps to become involved in politics while they are in school, including openly considering a career in politics, attending formal leadership trainings, becoming involved in student government, volunteering on a political campaign, or interning for an elected official. By doing so, some of the best and brightest law school students will be poised to become our political leaders of the future.
