See Jane Run: How Women get Elected

This video takes the viewer inside Yale University's Women's Campaign School, a nonpartisan program started in 1994 with the goal of training women in the key elements of campaign skills. Here the women learn how to network, improve media skills, initiate fund raising, conduct polling and work with focus groups. At the end of the week long seminar, the women participate in a mock campaign. Some of the women are young, while others are older with varied backgrounds (one attendee is a former nun). Unique problems the women will face are illustrated; for example, one mentor describes how her lesbianism became a campaign issue. While the work of the seminar is quite serious, the video is leavened with a welcome and unexpected dash of humor. The school's goal is "50/50 by 2000"--an even spread of male and female representatives by that date. The women seem to know they will fall short of that goal but the point is made "when women vote, women win." This refreshing and informative video is recommended for political science collections. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)