TECHNICAL VERSUS ADAPTIVE TRAINING: MOBILIZING WOMEN POLITICAL CANDIDATES TO THRIVE ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Abstract

Although women make up more than 50% of the current U.S. population, they hold less than 25% of elected offices nationwide (Dittmar, 2017). To address this issue, the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) established Ready to Run, “a national network of non-partisan campaign training programs committed to electing more women to public office” (CAWP, 2016), which leads the field in providing campaign training to women. Despite the availability of Ready to Run and similar training programs, the number of women who hold elected office has remained stagnant for more than two decades. Using Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky’s (2009) theory of adaptive leadership, this mixed-methods study evaluates the content and delivery of the Ready to Run program. Based on a thematic analysis (Owens, 1984), I conclude that Ready to Run relies on technical methods to the adaptive challenge of recruiting and training women to run for elected office. Ready to Run should, instead, incorporate more adaptive methods to better mobilize women to run for office and help them thrive on the campaign trail.