Each week we’ll be sharing some wisdom and stories from Alice Cohan, the Political Director at the Feminist Majority Foundation. This is our first installment, sit back and enjoy some summer reading!
First up, tell us a little about what you do at the Feminist Majority Foundation.
I’m the Political Director at the Feminist Majority, which is the C4 arm of Feminist Majority Foundation. I always say that my title covers a multitude of sins because there are so many different things that I end up doing.
During an election year, most of my time is spent working to get pro-choice feminists elected to office. That includes meeting with and reviewing candidate bios and making recommendations for endorsements by our Feminist Majority PAC board. I also chair an informal network of PACS that focus on women candidates. If a specific candidate comes into town, we’ll organize a larger meeting of Women’s PACS so that the candidate can speak to a number of folks at the same time, rather than having to go around to each individual to make their case. It’s definitely more effective, but it also gives us an opportunity to share information and resources among the coalition.
Once we’ve endorsed a candidate, we do everything we can to help get them elected. We’ll rent out our lists so they can reach more feminists, make financial contributions to their campaigns and Ellie will often get out on the campaign trail to stump for them.
I do a good bit of coalition work, representing the Feminist Majority at various meetings. I also work on the ERA and reactivating that campaign. My background at FMF though – is I’m the person that has directed most of the major marches and rallies over the years. The largest one was the March for Women’s Lives in 2004 and we brought over a million people to that March. I was the Director.
Thanks Alice! Stay tuned for next week’s All About Alice where we’ll discuss how she got into the Feminist Movement.
