Photo: Congresswoman Matsui – one of two Asian-American women in Congress.
As I have often commented on 8Asians, Asian-Americans in general do not appear to be all that involved or active in politics, even in California. In Googling for Asian-American news, I came across this interesting article and statistics on “Asian-American Women Dip Their Toes into U.S. Politics:”
“According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) [at Rutgers University of New Jersey], of the 86 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress, only two are Asian Americans; only 30 of the 1,741 women state legislators serving nationwide are Asian-American women…To help Asian-American women learn about the basics of U.S. governments and politics, CAWP launched in 2007 a one-day program called Rising Stars (.pdf). Aimed primarily at women living in New Jersey, the program is an adjunct to Ready to Run: Campaign Training for Women, a nonpartisan program offered each of the last 10 years by CAWP, a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers.”
Last June, I did attend a one day “workshop” in San Francisco – Asian Pacific American Leadership Project Northern California Political Summit – which had a lot of interesting and useful information in regards to those interested in running for public office. The Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership is an organization you might want to also look into.
