Organization brings women to government

News – The Branding Iron Online Encouraging women to run for city council positions is one of the ways Wyoming Women Rise hopes to get more women into public office. The organization also will increase activism for young women in politics. (Photo by Katy Grogan)
A future nonprofit is being set up to encourage Wyoming women to run for public office.
Wyoming Women Rise, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created to encourage more women to run for public office. The organization was founded by Samantha Case, a former UW Genders and Women Studies.
“The hope is that the organization will focus on increasing female representation and participation in our state’s politics,” Case said.
In order to provide the resources a candidate might need in order to run for office, Wyoming Women Rise will hold campaign trainings.
“Specifically, the organization will focus on providing campaign training to women who are interested in running for office,” Case said. “Those trainings will teach them essential components on how to run a campaign.”
Case said the lack of women in public office may be an issue of recruitment.
“I think a big reason why there aren’t more women in those offices is because they’re not being recruited,” Case said. “So they’re not being trained. They don’t know how to run for office, they don’t have those resources available.”
Only 11% of the Wyoming Legislature is made up of women. According to the Wyoming Women Rise website, that number is the lowest in the nation. In 2008, 23% of Wyoming Legislators were women.
“When you consider that we’re the equality state and that early on we made significant gains for women, it’s a big problem that women have been losing those seats,” Case said.
Case said the organization will focus on future generations as well.
“Another important part of the organization will be focusing on getting ...


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