New Balance
For Marya Stark, more women in power means, above all, a change in priorities.
posted November 14, 2007 7:05PM
Even though Marya Stark claims that her “personal administration is a disaster,” her Rolodex hasn’t fallen victim to this chaos—and that’s good. In her work as executive director of Emerge America, an SF-based nonprofit that preps Democratic women to run for elected office, Stark bounces her ideas about the art of campaigning off the high-powered politicians, activists, journalists and academics she met during her days as a demographer with the CIA—where she learned “how badly behaved all countries are, not just the US”—and as a self-described policy wonk in Washington, DC, working on crises in such far-flung places as Eastern Congo and North Korea.
“The US is 85th in the world, behind all industrialized nations, in terms of women’s representation in government,” says Stark, noting that 84 percent of our representatives at the federal level are men. An Arizona native, Stark moved to the East Bay in 1981 to attend UC Berkeley (where, she admits, she first got the idea that the United States was the world’s only miscreant). Afterward, she headed to NYC to work in corporate finance, then to DC to pursue a master’s degree at Georgetown, then to Paris, where she worked as a fit model for Dutch fashion designer Rien Verhoeckx. Shortly after moving back to the Bay Area in 2001, Stark helped found Emerge with Andrea Dew Steele, a political adviser to local philanthropist/activist Susie Tompkins Buell.
“When women are in charge, different policies are proposed, language changes, processes transform,” says the 40-something Marina resident, who cites the Nordic countries as existing archetypes of this female-focused model. “Their governments average nearly 42 percent women, and they all have passed universal health care, day care and maternity leave.”
Now operating in seven states, Emerge’s training program comprises Saturday workshops held over seven months, in which participants learn public speaking, fundraising and campaign strategy. Given that the workshops are taught by such major players as Fiona Ma and Kamala Harris, and supplemented with stirring orations delivered by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom, it’s no surprise that 60 percent of Emerge graduates now hold public office. “It’s incredible to watch,” says Stark. “Correcting the government’s gender imbalance is so important for the future of this country.”
“The US is 85th in the world, behind all industrialized nations, in terms of women’s representation in government,” says Stark, noting that 84 percent of our representatives at the federal level are men. An Arizona native, Stark moved to the East Bay in 1981 to attend UC Berkeley (where, she admits, she first got the idea that the United States was the world’s only miscreant). Afterward, she headed to NYC to work in corporate finance, then to DC to pursue a master’s degree at Georgetown, then to Paris, where she worked as a fit model for Dutch fashion designer Rien Verhoeckx. Shortly after moving back to the Bay Area in 2001, Stark helped found Emerge with Andrea Dew Steele, a political adviser to local philanthropist/activist Susie Tompkins Buell.
“When women are in charge, different policies are proposed, language changes, processes transform,” says the 40-something Marina resident, who cites the Nordic countries as existing archetypes of this female-focused model. “Their governments average nearly 42 percent women, and they all have passed universal health care, day care and maternity leave.”
Now operating in seven states, Emerge’s training program comprises Saturday workshops held over seven months, in which participants learn public speaking, fundraising and campaign strategy. Given that the workshops are taught by such major players as Fiona Ma and Kamala Harris, and supplemented with stirring orations delivered by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom, it’s no surprise that 60 percent of Emerge graduates now hold public office. “It’s incredible to watch,” says Stark. “Correcting the government’s gender imbalance is so important for the future of this country.”
