In this op-ed, former campaign manager Erica Sagrans explains why we need more women to run political campaigns, especially if running for office isn't in the cards for them.

My first week as the campaign manager for a state representative election in Chicago, I was mistaken for the candidate's girlfriend and his secretary.

Both instances were infuriating, and — shocker — not the only times I experienced sexism during campaigns I’ve worked on. But months later, we went on to win the election, and my candidate is now my state representative — an awesome, young, progressive guy named Will Guzzardi, who led the successful effort to end the Illinois tampon tax, and has been fighting for free college and a $15 minimum wage.

Since Trump's election, we’ve heard a lot about how women should run for for office, and I am so in for this. Amanda Litman, who I worked with on the Obama campaign, even released a book about how to do it. Yet despite all the encouragement and direction that's now available, I don’t see myself running for office anytime soon, and I’m probably not the only one who feels that way. I want to suggest another idea for those of you who want to take a bigger step into politics than you may have done before: Be a campaign manager.

Though I had worked in politics for years — in online communications for Nancy Pelosi on Capitol Hill, at the Democratic National Convention, and on the Obama 2012 campaign — taking a job as a campaign manager wasn’t quite a planned career move. At the launch party for Will Guzzardi's campaign, I talked to my friend Dan, who had done polling for Will’s first campaign. Thinking I was in no way qualified for the role, I mentioned that I wanted to be more involved with Will’s campaign this time than I had been when he first ran in 2012. Did he have a campaign manager? Dan lit up. “You need to do this,” he said. “You’re way more qualified than you think.”

Will called me the next day, and soon I quit my job at a progressive organization, taking on a tiny salary and giving up the benefits of a stable job. But seven months later we won the election by 20 points. It was hard, it was stressful, but it was one of the best jobs I've ever had, and four years later, Will is still my state representative. Being a campaign manager is tough. Jumping from campaign to campaign isn’t easy. But here’s why you should do it anyway if running for office yourself isn’t in the cards right now:

Women (especially women of color) are the backbone of every Democratic campaign — and should be setting the strategy, too. On every campaign I’ve seen, women are the ones who make it run. We are the phone callers and the door-knockers, the coffee-hosters and the friend-bringers. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake called older African-American women “the strongest part of our base.” Yet women and people of color are rarely setting the strategy and running things at the top, and we need to change that.

Women are more likely to get into politics because they want to get things done, rather than seeking status. In a study by Rutgers political scientist Kelly Ditmar, female legislators decided to run because of “the ability to effect change in society. The number one reason for men? They always wanted to be a politician.” We need more people in office who are there because they want to make things better and represent their communities, not because they always saw themselves in an “important” job when they grew up.