When Tasia Stevenson first saw the logo for South Carolina Women in Leadership’s 2023 spring training workshop series, she knew it was a sign to pursue her dream of giving back to her community. The purple and white image of a woman swinging a baseball bat brought back memories of her years playing softball in middle school in the same colors. But now she wouldn’t be standing on a plate; she would be batting for a leadership position.
Stevenson is a representative on the Charleston Community Development Advisory Board and parliamentarian for the Rosemont Neighborhood Association. Before she joined the workshop, she'd been waiting to run for office until she was further along in her career, she said.
SC Women in Leadership is a multi-partisan nonprofit organization that helps women like Stevenson take on leadership roles.
“When I saw that, I was like, ‘You know what, why wait for everything to be in alignment?’” Stevenson said. “Why not just go for it? Why not try to be a voice or at least learn or put my foot in?”
SC Women In Leadership empowers women to get appointed to a public board or elected into office, said Executive Director and USC alumna Sara Ballard.
“(Women) have unique experiences that are different from that of men,” Ballard said. “And that's important that that's considered when we're making the laws that govern our land.”
When women run for office, they win at the same rates as their male counterparts, Ballard said.However, many don’t believe they are qualified to run, she said.
“Women have to sort of check every single box before they feel like they can step up, which is typically not the case with men,” Ballard said.
Second-year international business student Larissa Carrilho, who helps research bills for the South Carolina Legislative Council, said it’s important for women to run for office so their voices are heard.
“I think it's hard to gain insight about all the different things that people are going through,” Carrilho said. “Having men, having women, all races, ethnicities, are really important to make sure everyone is well represented.”
In order to maximize the diversity and accessibility of SC Women in Leadership, the organization is multi-partisan, Ballard said, meaning it supports all women interested in running for leadership positions, no matter their partisanship.
“Although we may be very polarized in our politics in the United States right now, we recognize that in order to get things done, we need to be civil,” Ballard said. “We need to talk to each other. We need to work across the aisle to accomplish things in South Carolina.”
If a woman wants to run for elected office, the organization provides self-paced training modules, covering topics that range from “I want to run for office,” to “I want to volunteer, President Barbara Rackes said.
If a woman chooses to pursue an appointed position, the organization helps them through the process of applying and lobbying for themselves, Ballard said.
SC Women in Leadership has an app called MatchBoard, which shows all county board leadership opportunities, according to the app. This is where Stevenson learned about the Charleston Community Development Advisory Board. She quickly applied, she said.
“What I learned from the women's leadership series is put yourself out there,” Stevenson said. “You don't have to wait for people to come to you.”
The organization also has comprehensive databases for statewide board opportunities.
The tools the organization provides in 2025 found their origin almost a decade ago when Rackes got the idea for the organization in 2016. Rackes had been chatting with a diverse group of people about the lack of women representing South Carolina in elected office, she said.
“We'd all been talking about how inappropriate we thought that was,” Rackes said. “And how maybe if we came up with an organization that could help to recruit and train women, that we might be able to help change some of that.”
Due to the charged political atmosphere following the 2016 election, they waited to launch the organization until 2018, Rackes said.
The organization’s original funding was provided by 100 women and men. Each one gave $1,000 per year to the organization, and most still do, Rackes said.
“We consider them the foundation of the organization,” she said. “It's wonderful to be able to say that all these women and men stood behind us in our mission when we began.”
Seven years later, SC Women in Leadership has six team members, including an executive director, appointed office director, digital coordinator, organizational learning consultant, chief executive assistant and communications consultant.
Founding Member Francie Kleckley ran for South Carolina Senate in 2024 and said SC Women in Leadership created "a great support system." Although she said it is unlikely that she would run again, Kleckley said her focus is on helping younger women get into office.
Ballard said there are many barriers for women running for office, including caregiving responsibilities, limited access to money and traditional stereotypes about women.
“There are so many articles about women who are doing perfectly mundane things, and they are called out about the color of their dress or their suit,” Rackes said. “People don't do that to men.”
Ballard said in her generation, women were taught that in order to be in positions of power, they had to present and dress themselves in a more masculine fashion. The organization's motto this year, "Lead like a woman" is a meaningful message, she said.
“Look at all the problems that we have in our world,” Ballard said. “Maybe we need to worry less about being like men.”executive director Sara Ballard: "Maybe we need to worry less about being like men.”