Called to run, called to win

New Hampshire Women’s Foundation program encourages women to run for elected office

It was a busy week for Tanna Clews, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation.

On Friday, the nonprofit hosted its annual Women Building Community Luncheon at the DoubleTree Hotel in Manchester, an event that packed a meeting room with several hundred people.

On Thursday, Clews accepted the Advocate for Women’s Empowerment Award from NH Business Review at our annual Powered by Women breakfast at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford.

The AWE award honors an individual or organization that has made a lasting impact on empowering women and girls in the Granite State. In 2017, the foundation launched Women Run, the Granite State’s only nonpartisan program empowering and training women to run for state and local office.

“My first day as CEO of Women’s Foundation was the day after the 2016 election,” Clews told the Powered by Women audience. “Do you remember where you were the day after the 2016 election? Well, I was going to be at our luncheon in front of 700 women, which is where we’ll be tomorrow. And I had to rewrite my entire speech because suddenly what I thought was going to be was suddenly very, very different.”

Nine months later, the foundation launched Women Run at an event in Manchester. The 100 spots available were reserved within two hours of opening registration, Clews recalled. Since then, the program has helped prepare women to run for — and win — local and state offices.

This year’s Powered by Women panel featured Kristi Baxter, associate executive coach, Sojourn Partners; Mackenzie Fraser, senior vice president, EVR Advertising; Donna Daneke, director of human resources, Summit Packaging Systems, Inc.; Geri Eisenman Pell, co-founder, Rise Private Wealth Management; and Dr. Stephanie Ihezie, neurosurgery medical resident, Dartmouth Health. (Photo by Mike Cote)

“We know qualified women to run for office, but they’re not running for office because no one’s asked them, because unlike men they don’t just think to themselves, ‘Oh, I should run for office,’” Clews said. “Just like they don’t think, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t apply for that job because there’s 10 qualifications.’ They meet nine of them, but they don’t meet the 10th one.”

We only need to look at who helped broker the end of the government shutdown to appreciate the impact of women in office. The Democrats who crossed the aisle included Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, who both first served as governors. Our current governor, Republican Kelly Ayotte, also first served as one of our U.S. senators.

“Women who are elected are more likely to work across the aisle,” said Clews, who did not allude to the government shutdown directly. “There are also more likely to take into account women and girls and the issues that most impact them. That’s not me just speculating. That data shows that there’s a good case for why it’s important to be electing and supporting women to run for office.”

Tanna Clews, president and CEO of the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation, accepted the Advocate for Women’s Empowerment Award on behalf of the foundation at NH Business Review’s Powered by Women luncheon Nov. 13. (Photo by Jodie Andruskevich)

While women have dominated our congressional delegation and the governor’s office in recent years, they represent only 36% of the New Hampshire Legislature. In addition, 38% of New Hampshire towns do not have a single woman on their Select Board, a fact the foundation noted in its recently released Status of Women in New Hampshire report.

But the foundation has learned that qualified women will run for office if they are encouraged to do so, Clews said.

“We are a safe entry point for women to consider running for office, to think about how they can have more women running at the local or statewide or even federal level,” Clews said.

“Since we launched Women Run, we’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women run,” said Clews, noting that 11 of the 13 candidates the program helped train won their positions during municipal elections in New Hampshire this month.

The foundation doesn’t have any “special sauce,” Clews said.

“But what we know to be true is that women in community, women empowered by one another, women seeing other women who have run for office, learning from them, and being encouraged to run can win.”

A powerful panel

This year’s Powered by Women panel, moderated by our managing editor, Amanda Andrews, featured compelling personal and professional journeys from an accomplished group of women.

We want to extend a big round of applause and heartfelt thanks to Dr. Stephanie Ihezie, neurosurgery medical resident, Dartmouth Health; Kristi Baxter, associate executive coach, Sojourn Partners; Geri Eisenman Pell, cofounder, Rise Private Wealth Management; Donna Daneke, director of human resources, Summit Packaging Systems Inc.; and Mackenzie Fraser, senior vice president, EVR Advertising.