Her: A simple pronoun and basic linguistic tool in the everyday English vernacular.

But, in the context of women in politics, “her” is more than a grammatical component. It is a symbol of slowly rising equality in representation — too slowly, in both the national and student government political arenas.

In student governments across the country, the ratio of male to female representatives is unbalanced. Though this gender gap does not reflect the federal level’s severity, and though women serving in executive capacities exist, men still disproportionately dominate member percentages.

In the 57 years of the Student Association’s existence at Syracuse University, only a handful of females have led the organization.

This is an unfortunate reality that SA President Allie Curtis has witnessed throughout more than three years as a member of the organization.

Now, the second semester president has moved beyond an observer. She accomplished the most beneficial goal of her SA career this month by successfully applying to bring the Elect Her initiative to the SU campus.

This spring, SU will be one of only a handful of institutions to host the daylong program, which aims to grow “the pipeline of women running for elected office,” according to the program’s website. Up to 50 SU female students will have the opportunity to participate.

The training program encourages college women to run for student government and addresses the disparity between the high percentage of women enrolled in college and the low percentage of those who seek out political offices.

“Research has shown that women who run for student body elections in college are more likely to run for office as adults,” according to the site.

Opportunities like this for SU women, supported by Chancellor Nancy Cantor and the Women’s Leadership Initiative, are imperative in changing the long-term landscape of American politics.

In the U.S. Congress, despite women comprising half of the nation’s population, “her” is only used to refer to 18.3 percent of the entire representative body, according to the Center for American Women in Politics.

At the college level, most women are not seeking leadership positions in student government because it is still “a pretty rough field,” Curtis said. Instead, women look to traditionally female focused groups such as dance troupes, sororities and service organizations.

In both national and student government campaigns, women continue to face high levels of sexism, the challenge of breaking into the “good ‘ole boys club” and are not being taken seriously. Curtis said she was confronted with plenty of inappropriate commentary while running for SA president last fall.

Following her win, peers often tried to wrongly quantify her success in ways other than her credentials, Curtis said. These excuses mainly included the pure novelty of a female candidate and Curtis’ appearance.

Though it is positive to see three women running for vice president this SA election season alongside male presidential candidates, Curtis said a completely female ticket is still unfortunately out of the question.

The key to eliminating stigmas that stifle the presence of women in politics is to confront harsh realities that continue into the 21st century. Most importantly, we need to encourage more women to run for office.

Curtis believes bringing Elect Her to campus is a feminist action that will aid this situation. “Setting aside the bra-burning stereotype, [feminism] is really about getting both sexes on the same level,” she said.

In today’s world, male federal representatives are still making decisions for women on issues like abortion and sexual assault in the military. Just this week, MSNBC reported Representative Paul Ryan’s goals for restrictive birth control policy.

These decisions affect women’s bodies, futures and well-being, which is why Curtis and I are ready to elect her. How about you?

Rachael Barillari is a senior political science and Middle Eastern studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at rebarill@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @R_Barillari.

Published on October 17, 2013 at 2:15 am