The Simmons Voice

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Amanda Gross Professor Gary Bailey and Provost Charlena Seymour came to the meeting to meet Pressley, left.

Media Credit: Amanda Gross Ayanna Pressley adresses the MWPC Board of Directors and guests at their annual meeting in the Linda K. Peresky Center Monday.

Media Credit: Amanda Gross Misty Myers, Simmons senior introduces Ayanna Pressley to the MWPC.

Women need to support each other, stressed recently-elected Boston City Councillor At Large, Ayanna Pressley to an audience of more than forty in the Linda K. Paresky Center Monday during the 20th annual meeting of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (MWPC).

Pressley-the first woman of color in the council's 100-year history-won the seat after running her first-ever campaign that she described as, "a huge leap of faith."

She stressed that as a single woman, "you have to ask yourself, 'how will you support yourself?'" during that period of no work while campaigning.

Pressley, a former board member of the MWPC with more than 16 years of political experience at the federal level, has worked as an aide to Congressman Joseph Kennedy II and U.S. Senator John Kerry. Before she ran for city council, she worked as Senator Kerry's political director, managing his relationships with various elected officials and community leaders.

Pressley, 35, said that her decision to run for city council was difficult because as a woman, she feels like she is "never really ready, never really qualified," a difficulty she said many women have.

"We don't operate with a sense of entitlement," she said, stating that women's biggest obstacle is themselves. "Women, get out of your damn way!" she said.

Pressley's final epiphany, she said, was "a need to put the gifts I was blessed with to work."

She said that most often, women's main reason for running for political seats is a sense of duty. "Although I have broken a barrier, I did not do it to make history," she said. "I did it to do the work."

Although she believed she needed to do it, her campaign was not always easy, she said. Besides the economic readiness to run, she said, "you have to be personally ready to run."

Critics pointed out her status as a young, single woman, who, as such, would not be able to sympathize with voters over family-rooted issues such as public schooling.

However, Pressley said although she expected it to be difficult to introduce herself to those who did not know her, she found it was most difficult to introduce herself to those who already did know her. The reason for this, she said, was that she had to establish her own values system to stand behind, instead of working for other peoples' missions as she had done for so long as an aide.

Since her inauguration, she has chaired the Women and Healthy Communities Committee, a group focused on issues that "uniquely impact our girls and women" and thus affect the entire community. Through this committee, she hopes to address issues such as domestic violence, rape, and teen pregnancy, among others, she said.

"Politics is my passion, but women and girls are my mission," she said, expressing her belief that "strong women do make strong girls."

Pressley emphasized that families are the stabilizing force in times of need and said, "I want to make sure we are supporting you, because that is the community we're supporting."

"Support is a verb," she said. "It's an action."

Her message of women's support reached several undergraduate students who attended the event,

including sophomore Sai Joseph.

"She seems like such a genuine voice for the community," Joseph said. "I think that she will do a lot for women."

Joseph attended the event out of an interest in Pressley's path to politics and an interest in pursuing an internship at MWPC.

"We have a great need for women in politics," she said. Mentioning how much the organization had done for Pressley and other women candidates such as Attorney General Martha Coakley, Joseph says she wants "to continue that."

"It seems like good, meaningful work," she said.

The meeting was hosted by the Simmons Institute for Leadership and Change, a group that "builds bridges between community organizations that mirror the visions and values of Simmons College," according to Diane Hammer, the director of the group.

This is the 12th year the Institute has hosted the meeting for the MWPC, a nonpartisan organization founded in 1971 that promotes the involvement of women in politics and strives to increase the number of women in elected or appointed office in Massachusetts.

Hammer said the Institute "hosts these events so that these organizations not only have a cache of a college, but our students have a chance to attend events in their own backyard."

The collaboration, she said, is an effort to connect qualified, interested students to organizations that could use their passions and talents.

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