An Open Letter to our Community

Dear She Should Run Community, allies, and friends,

Recent weeks have brought the searing in our minds of horrifying images capturing tragic death fueled by racism and abuse of privilege that has long been present and is now on film. And as if that reality isn’t painful enough, this week marks the sobering milestone of 100,000 deaths in the United States due to coronavirus, a pandemic that has affected us all but has disproportionately affected black and brown communities in this country.

She Should Run’s mission is to help women, from all walks of life, see elected leadership as a possibility.

By calling out “all walks of life”, we name a fact that while we are all at sea together as women, we are in different boats, facing different waves. And without intention and action, our impact around bench-building could become part of the problem.

Black, Latina, Asian Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Native women, LGBTQ+ women, women with disabilities, republican women, low-income women, women of all different faiths–these communities of women face differing and unique barriers in a rise to elected leadership.

Our country is deeply rooted in a racial hierarchy. And black and brown communities feel the systemic consequences of that every day. With all the power and privilege afforded to me as a white woman, I cannot sit silently by and hope these women know we care.

To all those living this painful reality–we see you. We hear you. And we need you in elected office. We believe that the representation of your experiences and voices will lead to better policies and government. Our work is not successful if that goes unrealized.

And in that vein, I wanted to share a few of the ways She Should Run is committed to ensuring you see a place for yourself in public leadership.  From internal KPIs that track to our diversity and inclusion efforts across all work to our richly diverse and talented team’s commitment to ongoing internal anti-racism dialogue to outputs like speakers who name the barriers, special attention the experiences of underrepresented voices, to amplifying the work of allied organizations providing spaces solely focused on communities of color, to nuanced and always a work-in-progress curriculum on the barriers minority women face, we believe in this work.

And at the same time and especially now, it feels like we must do more.

The reality is we are continuing to learn every day how to bring women with so many differing and rich experiences together to achieve the change our country needs. And while there are no quick and easy answers, we believe what is most important is to stand up in painful times like these and be a part of a solution–even if it’s a constant work-in-progress.

We believe all women should have equal opportunity to lead in office.

We stand committed to this work because we know that having diverse voices and perspectives in elected office will lead to a better world.

If you have ideas of how we can be of greater service to this mission, I want to hear them personally. Email me at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Erin Loos Cutraro
CEO and Founder, She Should Run