'We need women to ... advocate for the issues they care about,' Wasserman Schultz writes. | AP Photo Women need to engage in politics

During the 2012 election, we heard Republican politicians make some outrageous and offensive comments about women and women’s health. There was Todd Akin’s claim that not all rape is “legitimate,” Republican Governor Tom Corbett’s suggestion that if women didn’t want to see their state-mandated ultrasounds they could just close their eyes, or Mitt Romney’s description of his “binders full of women.” Not surprisingly, this rhetoric, as well as Republican support for intrusive laws restricting women’s rights and reproductive choices including mandating invasive and medically unnecessary procedures, angered and energized women across the country to speak out and get involved in the political process. And on Election Day, we saw the largest gender gap recorded in U.S. history — which no doubt helped President Obama win 51.1 percent of the popular vote.

But the truth is that activism and engagement among women at times of crisis or during the height of a presidential election is not enough. We need women to get involved, make their voices heard, and advocate for the issues they care about year-round, in election years and not, and at all levels of political involvement, from those who want to make educated decisions at the ballot box to women who decide to run for office.


That’s why I was thrilled to announce last week the launch of the Democratic Women’s Alliance (DWA) — a permanent and institutionalized program at the DNC to engage, mobilize and train women in politics.

( POLITICO's Women Rule series)

The alliance will partner with the DNC’s Women’s Leadership Forum, the national and state Democratic Women’s Caucuses, the Federation of Democratic Women’s Clubs and many other organizations that share our goal of mobilizing, engaging and turning out women at every level of the political process. With the state and local infrastructures we’ve established through our state parties and previous campaigns, the DNC is uniquely positioned and qualified to coordinate outreach efforts to women. Working through our networks and institutional resources that exist in all 50 states, we will engage state leaders and those at the grassroots level, steering them toward the same goal of engaging women and enhancing their political activity.

We will mobilize the support we have from women by reaching out to them through targeted, data-driven initiatives. The alliance will invest in research, polling and analysis with the object of identifying and prioritizing exactly which issues women care about most. We will enhance our voter file to locate women who are new to the Democratic Party and bring them into the political process. Then we will make sure these new supporters are armed with the information they need to fight successfully for the causes they care about. We will establish neighborhood teams and organize town-hall meetings and roundtables across the country. And we will encourage more women to become active leaders in the party, as organizers, as party delegates, as leaders of our state parties, and if they choose, as candidates for elected office.

It’s clear that we stand on the shoulders of so many incredible women who have made our party what it is today, and as chair of the DNC I am immensely grateful to them. Election after election, women have chosen the Democratic Party as their natural political home. Through the work of the Democratic Women’s Alliance, I can’t wait to bring even more women into the fold and watch them become the future of the Democratic Party.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is chair of the Democratic National Committee.

This article tagged under: Opinion

Debbie Wasserman Schultz