What is Vote With Your Purse? 
 
 Vote With Your Purse is a nationally acclaimed research study that examines trends in women’s political giving and financial power, women’s political fundraising results in election years, as well as provides concrete ideas on how to tap the “power of the purse” for the 2012 elections and beyond. She Should Run has identified a historic opportunity to fundamentally change women’s approach to political giving. 
 
 Lesson Learned: Women, Money, and Politics in the 2010 Election Cycle. 
 
 While women’s votes have been critical in deciding federal elections since the 1980’s, women still face significant barriers towards realizing equality in politics and public life. In 2010, our nation experienced the first backslide in electing more women to office in over 30 years. In the same year, it also experienced a decrease in women’s political giving, after securing very marginal increases in past elections. 
 
 
 
 She Should Run, working with the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), found that women still lag drastically behind men in political giving. In 2010, women made up just 26% of recorded federal political contributions to candidates, political action committees (PACs), and party committees. More importantly, this is down from 31% in the 2008 cycle and down from 30% in the 2006 cycle. 
 
 
 
 This report reveals a probable correlation between women’s political giving and their representation in Congress. It is telling that women’s political giving went down during the same cycle that women’s representation in Congress decreased. Our nation cannot afford these declines, given that women make up approximately 17% of Congress, yet represent over 50% of the population. 
 
 
 
 The time is ripe for women to increase their political giving to match their economic and voting power. 
 
 Key Findings 
 
 Only 27% of total contributions to individual candidates were made by women, representing a 6.3% decrease from 2008 
 
 If women voters across parties give as little as $5 to one female candidate, it would be enough to run a female candidate in every House race with a budget of over $1 million each. 
 
 In 2010, women made 30% of the total individual contributions to Democrats and just 25% of the total contributions to Republican candidates 
 
 Women made just 21% of the total contributions to PACs in 2010, down 1.8 percentage points from 2008 
 
 Women made 38% of the 2010 individual contributions to the Democratic National Committee, while women made 24% of contributions to the Republican National Committee 
 
 Despite the gender gap in political giving, female candidates are good fundraisers. In 2010, female House incumbents raised approximately $100,000 more than their male peers and female challengers raised over $74,000 more than male peers 
 
 Why Don't Women Give? 
 
 Data from past Vote with Your Purse reports explains women invest in political campaigns at lower rates because they do not think their money matters in showing support for a candidate and the issues they champion. Furthermore, women do not connect political leadership with positive, productive social change or view political giving as a civic responsibility. 
 
 Based on these findings, She Should Run has developed the following suggestions for candidates working to increase contributions from women donors: 
 
 Emphasize the impact they will have on specific issues 
 
 Better inspire women by describing political giving as a civic or social responsibility, like voting or volunteering 
 
 Provide multiple sources of independent information about their platform 
 
 Include women in the process by making more transparent how the money will be used 
 
 Provide opportunities for women donors to interact with campaign supporters and staff, and, of course, the candidate 
 
 Download the Reports: 
 
 Vote With Your Purse: Lesson Learned: Women, Money, and Politics in the 2010 Election Cycle 
 
 
 
 Released: April 2012 Vote with Your Purse: Harnessing the Power of Women's Political Giving (Update) 
 
 
 
 Released: June 2009 Vote With Your Purse: 
 
 Harnessing the Power of Women's Political Giving for the 2008 Election and Beyond 
 
 
 
 Released: June 2007 
 
 Special Thanks 
 
 Vote With Your Purse would not have been possible without our donors, including among others: ||||| Apparently it is still a man’s world when it comes to donating to political campaigns. 
 
 A new report on political donation reveal that women lag significantly behind their male counterparts when it comes to opening their wallets for politicians and political causes. 
 
 The report, released Tuesday by She Should Run (SSR) and the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), found that women represented just 26 percent of the total given to candidates, political action committees (PACs) and party committees in 2010, down from 31 percent in 2008 and 27 percent in 2006. 
 
 Indeed, while the last three decade have seen women’s income rise more than 60 percent, women are consistently comprising less than one-third of all political donations. 
 
 According to Sam Bennett, president and CEO of SSR, women do not see the correlation between politics and their own desired social change in the same way men do, and they are turned off by the dirty nature of the political game. 
 
 “Women are far more motivated to want to see changes in their neighborhood and city on a social level than men are, but they have not yet made that connection [with politics],” Bennett told The Daily Caller. “In fact, women, far more than men, see the hard, sausage-making dimension of politics as something they are not willing to be engaged in. They find it distasteful.” 
 
 Ironically, while women are less likely to donate, female candidates are better fundraisers than their male counterparts. 
 
 The report reveals that in 2010, on average, female House incumbents raised about $100,000 more than their male colleagues, and female challengers raised over $74,000 more than male peers. 
 
 Bennett pointed to a 2011 study published in the American Journal of Political Science — “Jackie (and Jill) Robinson Effect: Why Do Congresswomen Outperform Congressmen?” — to explain the discrepancy between the fundraising numbers of male and female politicians. 
 
 “The truth of the matter is it is so rare to have a female in elected office in this country that she by definition — she by nature — is going to be a rock star. She is going to work harder by definition. She is going to be better at what she does,” Bennett said. “For her to have succeeded in the Wild Wild West of American politics, as a woman, she is a better performer, she works harder. And that is what you see in fundraising. Fundraising, counter to public belief, is not so much a reflection of talent, but of sheer hard work.” 
 
 While women are good fundraisers, they are not raising their money from other women. 
 
 According to the report, just four of the 2,215 candidates that ran in 2010 relied on donations from women for more than 50 percent of their campaign contributions. 
 
 Further, when women do donate they are slightly more likely to give to more Democratic candidates or endeavors. 
 
 Last cycle, women made up 34 percent of the contributions to Democratic committees, 23 percent of those to Republican committees and 18 percent to third party committees. 
 
 The mission of SSR is to encourage more women to get involved and run for office. According to Bennett, the hesitation of women to get involved in politics is detrimental to their issues receiving attention. 
 
 “When women run they win at equal rates as men, and when they run they now raise more money than men. What’s the problem? They are not running. What’s the problem? They aren’t giving politically.” 
 
 The report explains that the best way to get women involved is to make the connection between women’s political dollars and the issues about which they are concerned. 
 
 Bennett predicted, however, that more women will likely get involved this cycle due to the large number of pro-life bills that passed in 2011 and 2012 by state legislators, seeing the issue as motivation to get involved. 
 
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– Less than a third of political donations come from women, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed the money given to candidates, political action committees, and party committees in 2010 and discovered that only 26% of federal contributions came from female donors, a dip from 31% in 2008, and 27% in 2006, reports the Daily Caller. “Women are far more motivated to want to see changes in their neighborhood and city on a social level than men are, but they have not yet made that connection [with politics],” says the president of the group She Should Run, which co-released the study. “In fact, women, far more than men, see the hard, sausage-making dimension of politics as something they are not willing to be engaged in. They find it distasteful.”