“Every day is Election Day. People are sizing you up every day,” Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) once said. She was referring to the constant campaigning that goes on in Congress, but her statement also inspired Rebecca Sive’s new book, Every Day is Election Day: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House (Chicago Review Press, August 2013). Sive will discuss the book at Politics and Prose tonight at 7 p.m.
Career advice for women has been a trending topic lately, between Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In mantra and debates about “having it all.” Women currently make up less than 19 percent of Congressional members, so Sive’s gender-specific handbook is especially timely. But her advice also applies to a larger population of women who are already in pursuit of their career paths. After all, there are many steps an aspiring candidate must take in order to appear on a ballot.
The book’s chapters are easy to breeze through, each with a theme (“Just Show Up”, “Show You Care”, “Learn To Negotiate”) demonstrated by many examples of females in the public sphere. In a chapter about being willing to start small, Sive talks about Hillary Clinton right after moving to Arkansas in 1974. She had high leadership ambitions, so she continued her advocacy work for low-income children, and later joined the board of directors for Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Defense Fund. People who are deeply knowledgeable on an issue are likely to be recognized and treated as invaluable (also useful for getting elected).
Each chapter ends with “strategic imperatives” summing up main points. Many are universal to working women, like “characterize your dream,” “develop personal relationships, then show up for those people,” “adopt this attitude: I can organize anything — just ask me” and the tip that “asking for money hones your messaging and sales skills.”
In terms of running for office, Sive doesn’t sugarcoat some of the challenges and advantages women encounter. Just like other groups in the legislature’s minority, she encourages women to build “unique alliances” and use “shared experiences” to relate to wives, mothers, and connect on women’s issues. She says sometimes certain political values must be sacrificed in the short term to gain leverage — “the process of leading and governing will be different than the process of advocating.” And of course, man or woman, it never hurts to “find rich and powerful people and get them to do things for you.” Just being real.
Sive herself has been a leader of many public-interest organizations and an adviser to fellow women leaders such as Rep. Geraldine Ferraro (D-N.Y.), Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). She frequently contributes to The Huffington Post.
The event will be free and open to the public, and will include a question-and-answer session and book signing.
