The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio recently commissioned original research to uncover the barriers and accelerators women experience in building wealth in our region. We worked with The Center for Community Solutions to survey over 3,000 women from across Central Ohio and conduct focus groups with 126 women of varying identities, backgrounds, and life experiences.

The research, published in “Making Women Wealthy and Free” demonstrates that building financial stability and wealth has many outcomes, including increasing women’s representation in decision-making spaces. This in turn creates systemic changes that benefit women, families and communities.

Michele Swers, a political scientist at Georgetown University, has conducted research that shows that when women are elected to Congress, they tend to focus more on issues that impact women, like paid leave and intimate partner violence, than men do. The problem is women are still vastly underrepresented in political office. Currently, only 28.2% of Congressional members are women. What will it take for more women to run for office and win?

Our research shows that women candidates in Central Ohio experience challenges running for office for the following reasons:

• They don’t feel like standard campaigns are structured or designed for them or their families.
• They are expected to oversell themselves and their qualifications, something they don’t feel men are asked to do.
• Women candidates feel they have to be assertive, especially when asking for campaign funds, but not too assertive, or they could end up being viewed negatively, which doesn’t help them.
• The common stereotype that women are bad at fundraising makes it harder to raise money as a candidate and can be a barrier to running for office in the first place.

We found that women need access to more affordable childcare, paid leave, and more flexible work schedules to find a balance that works for themselves and their families. To accomplish these policy victories, public and private stakeholders and advocates have to work together.

When women build wealth for themselves, our entire economy is better off. Women need policies that will help them do that, and we know that women elected officials are more likely to make those policies a priority. Electing more women is good for families, our communities, and our country. Working to remove the barriers women face in running for office and winning is essential to fighting for the policies benefit all of us.