How to Run as a (Female) Candidate

June 5, 2018

Today, scores of female candidates compete in primaries across the country.  Over the coming months, the winners will face biased, sexist, and unfair questions and criticisms that their male counterparts will not.  It’s inevitable. 

But their responses don’t have to be.  Women who understand what “power” really means will eschew the typical "You wouldn't do that to a man!" response, in favor of the more self-assured “You will not do that to me.”  The difference matters: The former can only be seen as a complaint from someone who feels disempowered by “the system.”   The latter is a declaration of confidence from someone who doesn’t let “the system” stop her.  Which candidate would you vote for?   

Complaints about sexist treatment don’t work in electoral politics.  They leave women in an eternal game of catch-up, chasing a “male” standard. On the other hand, when you look people in the eye and say I am who I am and I will be treated with respect, period, you claim your own power, and set your own standard.    

This is the only way to become a candidate, as opposed to a female candidate.  When you rise above the gender noise and keep your communications focused on issues, people, and your unique ability to serve them, you make space to run as the powerfully multidimensional human being you are.