It’s no secret that we’re far from parity at every single level of elective office, from local, state, congressional, and Federal. The current numbers of women of color and trans/non-binary elected officials are even bleaker.
So what can we do?
Support more women in running for office at every level!
Photo by Kiana Bosman https://unsplash.com/@capturedby_kiana
“What I do feel is a tremendous responsibility and it is that responsibility that keeps me putting one foot in front of the other on the days when I am tempted to feel defeated and to play it small... I am refusing to play small.”
— Congresswoman Ayana Pressley
Tahirah Amatul-Wadud is an attorney with a strong record of civil rights advocacy, civic engagement and interfaith activism. A former Commissioner for the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, she speaks about women’s rights at events throughout the country.
In the September 2018 primary, she was a Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts’ 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, challenging a 29 year incumbent. Ms. Amatul-Wadud received numerous local and national endorsements. Her challenge made national news including being featured by CNN, Huffington Post, Associated Press and the New York Times. Her candidacy inspired a higher than anticipated voter turnout.
Ms. Amatul-Wadud is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts’ federal and state courts and in the federal courts of Upstate New York. She focuses on areas of civil rights and domestic relations law. Ms. Amatul-Wadud also co-litigated a federal civil lawsuit to sanction people who threatened to attack a mosque, using the federal law, the 1994 FACE Act, which heretofore had not been applied to protecting a mosque.
Ms. Amatul-Wadud was named a Top Woman of Law by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. She is a graduate of Elms College in Chicopee and Western New England University School of Law in Springfield where she was recently awarded the dean’s distinguished alumni award. She serves on the board of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts and the Massachusetts chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations.
Chelsea (she/her pronouns) believes that access to training, networks, and funding for women considering running for political office is an often overlooked social justice issue. Traditional notions of who’s ‘qualified’ and ‘unqualified’ are often steeped in racist, classist, and sexist assumptions and overtones. Chelsea is clear that those notions are ripe for an update!
An author, certified professional coach, and small business owner, Chelsea is a graduate of both Smith College and Harvard Divinity School. Chelsea’s career is fueled by an unshakable belief in the strength of women, and utilizes compassion and humor to coach women towards being their fierce and phenomenal selves. Chelsea recognizes that many women and femme-identified people face specific challenges, including sexism, systemic racism, classism, and sizeism as they even imagine themselves running for political office or working on campaigns.
Chelsea ran a rigorous campaign in 2018 for Massachusetts State Senate as a progressive Democrat, and won nearly 41% of the vote. She contributes a monthly column on race, gender, and privilege to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, serves as a community religious advisor at Smith College and an alumnae admissions ambassador for Harvard University. Chelsea has developed curricula for women’s leadership and career development programing for non-traditional college students, served as an interim executive director for a non-profit, and was a member of the Omega Women’s Leadership Intensive cohort of 2013. Chelsea became a Certified Professional Coach in 2013, served in the Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps through the Civil Liberties and Public Policy program at Hampshire College, and was previously appointed by the State of Massachusetts as a Commissioner on the Status of Women and Girls to work to address policy to provide access, opportunity, and equality for women.
Interested in working with Chelsea? www.chelseasunday.com
