|
|
Tips
on Lobbying
Annual
Conference, Southern Women in Public Service, May 2001
|
Tips
on Lobbying
Learn the culture – staff vs. member
Learn the procedural rules (formal and informal)
Be fearless
Recognize your limits
Find your allies
Identify your opposition
Look for win/win or acceptable compromise (use radicals to make you
look moderate)
Educate yourself about the double binds* faced by women:
| • |
Women
can exercise their brains or their wombs, but not both.
|
| • |
Women
who speak out are immodest and will be shamed, while women who are
silent will be ignored or dismissed.
|
| • |
Women
are subordinate whether they claim to be different or the same.
|
| • |
Women
who are considered feminine will be judged incompetent, and women who
are competent, unfeminine. |
| • |
As
men age, they gain wisdom and power; as women age, they wrinkle and
become superfluous.
|
Pay attention to how
you are marketing yourself. Like it or not, how you dress, wear your
hair, talk, all affect how you are perceived.
Prepare, prepare,
prepare. You are presenting a “case” to a difficult jury. If you don’t
know your stuff, no one will pay any attention to what you say. Guys
can lie and get away with it, women can’t. A woman who loses trust can
never regain it.
Don’t take yourself
too seriously. Use humor to defuse “difficult” situations.
Keep things
professional. Develop relationships by providing information and
opportunities and making yourself indispensable.
| References: |
www.political1.com, www.politicsonline.com, www.pollingreport.com
|
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*Beyond
the Double Bind: Women and Leadership, Kathleen Hall Jamieson
|
|
Leading
Out Loud, Terry Pearce |
|
Talking
9 to 5, Deborah Tannen |
|
Women
for a Change: A Grassroots Guide to Activism and Politics, Thalia
Zepatos & Elizabeth Kaufman |
|
