In California and Elsewhere, Too Few Women in Office Re "In Los Angeles, Women Hold Few Elected Posts, Reflecting Wider Trend" (news article, Aug. 5): Female politicians are indeed scarce in Los Angeles. They're also scarce in the California Legislature. In Sacramento, it's 26 percent women, down from 30 percent a decade ago. The good news is that women know how to organize and raise money for talented candidates. We need to work together in a targeted collaborative effort and focus on where the best opportunities are. The writer is director of Close the Gap CA, a campaign to recruit women to the California State Legislature. Polling shows that voters believe that the record-setting number of women elected to Congress in 2012 will have a positive effect on the future. Eighty-six percent of voters believe that America is ready for a woman as president. And yet if our country's leadership in both politics and the private sector reflected our population, only 1 in 10 people in the United States would be women. This is unacceptable. Since the majority of women in office first ran only after someone suggested it to them, let us all start seriously suggesting it. Look to the woman sitting next to you at work, or leading the P.T.A. meeting, or organizing the car-pool schedule, or driving the bus we board every day, and say to her: You're smart enough, you're good enough, and people will vote for you. The writer is executive director of Eleanor's Legacy, a progressive women's political organization in New York State.