Project hopes to get young women involved in politics
With Election Day drawing closer, talk of politics and voter registration drives are becoming more and more common on campus.
While organizations such as the College Democrats, College Republicans and Student Government are established on campus, none, fourth-year public relations student Lindsay Church realized, specifically seek to increase women’s participation in the process.
Church hopes to change that with “Heels on the Hill,” a project that began as her thesis for the Honors College.
“I started it over the summer, so I had the plans last semester, and I got the blog up and writing,” she said. “The past month or so, it’s been really going well as far as writing for the blog and social media.”
The program stems from the Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, a group that works to bridge the gender gap in politics.
Now, Church hopes to bring that cause to USC, in a state with a gap in representation.
“South Carolina ranks last in the country when it comes to women representation,” Church said. “There is quite a disparity between women and men that needs to be fixed.”
Church hopes to do so by setting up voter registration booths and spreading information on how to vote absentee or register online, with a blog and a Twitter account. There, Church thinks she can reach the most people.
“I’ve been completing some primary and secondary research on how people want to get information, and about 80 percent said they’d want to read a blog, so that’s my main focus,” Church said.
And she’s focusing on students, a group that has shown relatively low participation historically.
“There is a significantly lower turnout from students from ages 18 to 22 because of the inconvenience factor,” Church said. “We are not at home so it’s harder to vote.”
She said she also hopes to get students involved by going to Student Government events and recruiting writers for the blog to grow the project’s influence and its ranks.
“I am always looking for more people to get involved if they are looking to write about political issues that affect college women and women in general,” Church said. “It’s important to be involved.
“These are issues that affect us, and we should want to be involved, especially in South Carolina where that gender disparity does exist.”