Do-Gooder

SHE SHOULD RUN

Erin Loos Cutraro persuades women to run for public office, then supports them when they do

BY JENNIFER ANDERSON PHOTO BY PATRICK MANNING

Erin Loos Cutraro has a simple exercise she likes to ask people to do: She tells them to think about a woman they know who gets things done — one who is “a changemaker and a problem solver.”

Then she asks them to text that woman, “I think you should run for office one day.”

It’s just one way that Loos Cutraro — who founded and leads She Should Run, the leading non-partisan organization working to increase the number of women running for office — hopes to change the way women feel about becoming political candidates.

“Research shows that starting at a very young age, girls are less likely to see themselves as elected officials,” Loos Cutraro says. “And as they mature, they’re more likely to question their qualifications.”

Loos Cutraro’s own political experience began with helping to elect the first female secretary of state in Missouri. She later became the managing vice president for the

Women’s Campaign Fund, the first national women’s political action committee.

Frustrated at the lack of women in political power at all levels of government, Loos

Cutraro founded She Should Run in Washington, D.C., in 2011. She now runs the organization from Shorewood, where she moved with her husband and two daughters in 2020.

“In order for our country to thrive, we have to tap the full talent pool it has to offer, and women are over half of our increasingly diverse talent pool,” Loos Cutraro says. “Yet,

“In the over 500,000 elected offices nationwide, women represent just a fraction,” says Erin Loos Cutraro. “We have far-from-equal representation.”

For more information, visit sheshouldrun.org. in the over 500,000 elected offices nationwide, women represent just a fraction of those offices. We have farfrom-equal representation.”

To date, She Should Run has encouraged over 30,000 women to consider a run for office and provided them with help in the form of leadership programs, digital educational content and a supportive community. One of the organization’s signature offerings for politically curious women is the Starter Kit. It’s jam-packed with fun, helpful tools, including a quiz on which public offices women might seek, as well as an arsenal of suggested responses to sexist comments like, “There’s something about her voice I don’t like,” or “Who’s at home with the children?”

She Should Run’s most recent impact report notes that the country needs “a tidal wave of women” in office to achieve equal representation. Loos Cutraro’s view is that as the nation faces increasingly daunting challenges, it needs diverse voices to help tackle them.

“We aren’t going to find the smartest solutions,” she says, “if women aren’t in the room.” n