A Run (and a Walk) for Congress

Jennifer Lawless is traversing the state of Rhode Island on foot. It's part of her campaign for Congress. "So many Rhode Islanders I've spoken with over the past few months have talked about how they feel ignored by politicians. I care about issues that are relevant in every city and town. I want to show Rhode Islanders that - rain or shine, summer or winter - I'm listening and tha their ideas matter to me."

After spending years researching how gender affects a person's decision to run for office, today she is living the decision. She says it's time for Rhode Island to send a woman to Washington - and she should be that woman.

Lawless is being aided in her campaign in the 2006 Democratic primary race for Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional district seat by Union Political Science Professor Richard Fox.

Lawless, a professor of political science and public policy at Brown University, is considered an expert on women and political ambition. She says her research, much of it conducted with Fox, inspired her to run. Lawless and Fox are co-authors of numerous papers and studies, including one highly publicized study of more than 4,000 people that concluded that fewer women run for elected office because they lack confidence, not ability. Their book, It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office, (was published in 2005).

Lawless, who is running with the slogam, "A Wave of Change for the Ocean State," is working hard to unseat the popular, three-term incumbent, Rep. Jim Langevin, a Democratic Party favorite. Her priorities are education, health care, jobs, and reproductive choice. (Her website is www.lawlessforcongress.com.)

"It's time for a new face, new ideas, and new leadership in Congress," she says, noting that her state ranks (37th) out of the 50 in legislative female representation. "We don't have a single female statewide officeholder, nor have we had a woman in our congressional delegation in 15 years."

"It's harder to get the job than do the job," observes Fox, one of the senior policy advisers for the grassroots campaign, which has attracted many Brown students and faculty members as volunteers. "Jen is taking an enormous risk, running under circumstances that are difficult to win, says Fox, who has studied political campaigns extensively. "She's thinking very big. She wants to energize the Democratic Party. If anyone can pull this off, she can."

"At Union," says Lawless, "I realized what political science is and the importance of women in politics." Her sophomore-year course with Fox on women and politics was a major career catalyst. She spent spring of junior year in Washington, D.C., interning with Barbara Kennelly, a Congresswoman from Connecticut and the first woman in American history to serve on the House Intelligence Committee. There, Lawless answered constituent mail, attended hearings, and did research on women in politics. The following fall, as a senior, Lawless researched women candidates and gender socialization on a term abroad in Kenya. After a brief stint in law school and several years helping women in the South Bronx transition from welfare to work, Lawless pursued postgraduate degrees. She did her doctoral dissertation on "Women and Elections: Do They Run? Do They Win? Does it Matter?"

"Having more diversity among candidates, whether it's women, minorities, or any other traditionally underrepresented group, opens and enhances the political process and makes it more inclusive," Lawless says. "Qualified women candidates can run, and they can win, and they should definitely enter the process."

This article appeared in the Winter 2006 issue of the Union College Alumni Magazine.