Women pack a room at the McKimmon Center for the 2024 North Carolina Conference for Women. Participants hear ideas for empowering women and increasing political participation. (Photo courtesy of the NC Department of Administration)
Thirty-two years ago, ‘The Year of the Woman’ was a popular label given to the outcome of the 1992 elections when a sizeable number of women were elected to U.S. Senate and U.S. House. That description was used again following the 2018 elections. This year, as Kamala Harris tries to become the first Black woman to become president, North Carolina’s political leaders are discussing strategies for advancing gender equity in political representation.
At the 2024 North Carolina Conference for Women the message was clear: Don’t wait to be a changemaker.
Sec. of State Elaine Marshall (Screengrab from conference video stream)
“There’s no substitute for having women at the table making public policy, ” Secretary of State Elaine Marshall told attendees last Wednesday at NC State University’s McKimmon Center.
Marshall, North Carolina’s first woman elected to executive office, said there are some issues that women will understand implicitly that just won’t be apparent, much less urgent to the most well-intentioned male allies.
Studies have shown that while women make up 51 percent of North Carolina’s population they have always been underrepresented in elected offices.
The only way to change that underrepresentation is to run for office, even if the timing is not ideal.
A calling to serve
Representative Gloristine Brown (D-Pitt) (Photo: NCGA)
Representative Gloristine Brown (D-Pitt) said a natural curiosity got her interested in the decisions being made in her hometown of Bethel. But when it was suggested that she run to become a commissioner she worried that those with more money and more education were better positioned to win the election.
“When I finally made that decision, I was scared. I got out there. I really made people understand that I’m here to work, because I know my calling, which is to serve,” said Rep. Brown.
Brown not only won her seat on the Bethel Town Board, she became mayor in 2014. In 2022, she was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Even if the timing is not perfect, step up
Allison Riggs said that as a civil rights litigator she thought she might try to serve on the bench 10 or 15 years down the road.
“That’s what women do after they check some other boxes, after I’ve gotten married, after I’ve started my family,” Riggs shared.
But when every Democrat who ran for statewide judicial office lost in 2020 and 2022, Riggs knew that a different approach was needed to see a different result.
As an outspoken critic of gerrymandering and voter suppression, Riggs caught the attention of Governor Roy Cooper who appointed her to serve on the state Court of Appeals in 2023.
Riggs had her own questions about whether she could make it work.
Justice Allsion Riggs (Photo: NCCourts.gov)
“It’s lunacy. You can’t wrap up a 15-year practice in a month and go do something that you’ve never done,” said Riggs in describing her internal voice of doubt.
But that other voice also told her the timing was right for community building.
“We needed judges who were willing to engage on a more human level beyond just being a, I like to describe it as a disembodied head floating atop a black robe. And I was confident in my ability to do that,” Riggs said.
Nine months after Governor Roy Cooper appointed Riggs to serve on the Court of Appeals, Cooper turned to Riggs once again asking her to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of state Associate Supreme Court Justice Mike Morgan.
This November, Riggs is running to retain her seat on the state’s highest court.
Riggs told women in the audience that sometimes your political career begins with a leap of faith.
“It was willingness to not let myself talk myself out of helping my fellow North Carolinians,” said Justice Riggs.
From tragedy, a refusal to be silent
Nida Allam, chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners, said growing up as a Muslim woman in America in a post 9-11 world, politics never held any appeal for her.
Nida Allam, chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners (Photo: Durham Co. Gov.)
“It was just a topic that was avoided in our family and in our community, because anytime we saw Muslims talked about in the political sphere it was stigmatized, it was in a negative way,” said Allam.
Then a tragic event in 2015 claimed the lives of three close friends, making her rethink everything.
“It was labeled a parking dispute and seeing that there weren’t enough people speaking up and saying that this was a hate crime,” Allam shared. “We can’t be silent anymore.”
She began organizing, working on the campaigns of those she believed in, and was eventually appointed to a role on the Durham Mayor’s Council for Women.
When friends encouraged Allam to run for office, she worried about the things that would not get done at home.
“[I] believe the statistic is that women have to be asked seven times to run for office before they say ‘yes.’ And I always joke that men have to be asked negative times,” Allam said.
Eventually, her family and community convinced her to remove those self-imposed roadblocks.
In 2020, Allam made history as the first Muslim woman elected to any office in North Carolina.
Lean into your passion, be bullish
Adrienne Kelly, co-Executive Director of Democracy NC, said she found her political voice after owning a successful telecommunications business for two decades.
Adrienne Kelly, co-Executive Director of Democracy NC (Photo: Democracy NC)
“For 20 years I ran a business with a male partner and frequently in networking events…People would literally turn their back to me and only engage with my male partner, assuming that I was the office manager as opposed to the president, which is what I was.”
In 2008, she joined the mostly women-led grassroots organization, Great Schools in Wake.
“I started to build my chops, going to school board meetings, speaking at school board meetings, writing letters to the editor, gathering other people to come to meetings and really getting involved in advocacy and the political process, particularly at the school board level.”
Kelly said too many women hold themselves back, when they should realize all of these volunteer activities are building the skills needed in public office.
“We think we have to be perfect; we have to have it all together before we run for office or take on another leadership role,” Kelly said. “I think we have to be more bullish about ourselves and what we bring to these roles.”
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimates that it will be 2084 before women reach parity in the North Carolina state legislature.
But that should not discourage women from leaning into their village of support and finding a place to plant a flag. Consider working on the campaigns of others. Activism and advocacy can turn roadblocks into future steppingstones.
Never listen to anyone who tells you to wait your turn.
– Nida Allam
“Folks tend to focus on the federal level and like the big, shiny presidential race. Your local elected seats will have the most direct impact on your communities,” Allam stressed.
Far too many seats go unchallenged, allowing incumbents to remain in office year after year when fresh voices are needed.
Allam said the best way to reach political parity in North Carolina is to start building a pipeline of women to run for local office, who can then run for state legislative office, and then for statewide office.
“My one piece of advice would be never listen to anyone who tells you to wait your turn. What they’re really telling you is that they want to keep holding on to the power.”
Maggie Barlow moderates a conversation on civic engagement with Representative Gloristine Brown, Justice Allison Riggs, and Durham County Commissioners chair Nida Allam at the 2024 North Carolina Conference for Women. (Photo courtesy of the NC Department of Administration)
