NEW Leadership is designed to address the historical and contemporary underrepresentation of women in politics. While women have always been politically active, their numbers in elective and appointed office are surprisingly low. Women hold only a small number of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and less than a quarter of the seats in our state legislatures.

NEW Leadership works to educate and empower college women to take on public leadership roles. A recent UCLA study showed that only 13.9 percent of first year women college students see influencing political affairs as a priority, and only 23.3 percent of those students consider it important to keep up to date with political affairs. NEW Leadership is an effort to build a new generation of women in politics and policymaking. NEW Leadership educates participants about the political process and awareness of women’s historical and contemporary participation in that process.

NEW Leadership Ohio has been developed in partnership with the NEW Leadership Development Network established by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The John Glenn School of Public Affairs works with the Department of Women’s Studies to present the program each summer.

Since 2002, NEW Leadership has been funded with gifts from Barbara Fergus, the Ohio Telecom Association, American Electric Power, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and three grants from the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. These contributions allow the program to remain free of charge for the participants.

 Applications are due in March for the summer program. For more information, contact Cindy Holodnak at [email protected].