Six easy rules

When I first began to imagine writing a guide for women running for office, I went to the bookshelf above my desk for inspiration. I homed in on these titles: Unbought and Unbossed by Shirley Chisholm, a Democratic candidate for president in 1972 and the first African American woman to serve in Congress; Crusade for Justice, the autobiography of antilynching activist Ida B. Wells; and My Life, the autobiography of Golda Meir, the only woman prime minister of Israel and only the third woman ever to hold that position in any country. These memoirs are all by powerful women who were fully engaged in the world, fighting to fulfill their personal dreams.

While I was writing, I kept the following books close by: Sisterhood Is Powerful by Robin Morgan, The Prairie Girl's Guide to Life by Jennifer Worick, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel by Karen Karbo and Chesley McLaren, and Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. All the authors look straight ahead, without blinders, completely aware of what they need to accomplish. They're all suited up for battle, ready to fight for what's rightfully theirs, which is what Barbara Mikulski, the longest-serving woman in the US Senate, asked of all women after her bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, failed to pass in 2012. No wishful thinking, no believing that success comes without sweating it out, no illusions about the competition or the discipline that will be required. No matter how inspired they are by the opportunity they seek, they remain clear-eyed and practical.

In Skinny Bitch, there's a drawing of a cupcake with devil's horns and tail. The mandate is clear: if you want to be skinny, don't eat cake. While there aren't any line drawings illustrating my key premises, I think they're equally clear.

Here's number one: if you want to be a winner, you have to want it really bad.

My dear friend, neighbor, and longtime mentor Ilana Diamond Rovner, the first woman judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, has a simple answer for how she beat all the politically connected men who'd wanted the same jobs she did. Of course she had to study hard, work harder, and make friends with important people who needed her help. But above all, she says, "It comes down to one word: desire."

She goes on: "And I mean raw desire — pure, raw desire."

You gotta want it — bad.

Rule number two is echoed in an article in the October 2012 issue of Vogue entitled "The Voice." The article profiles Florida member of the US House of Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the first woman to be elected chair of the Democratic National Committee. The profile offers a lot of inspiring material: Wasserman Schultz is a breast cancer survivor who kept her illness a secret because, she says, "I just knew there would be well-meaning people who would decide not to ask me to do things because I was going through cancer. I wanted to decide what I was capable of doing." She is a mother of three children who nevertheless pays close attention to others' needs, according to NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who is Wasserman Schultz's friend and also a breast-cancer survivor. But the most telling line is at the article's end, when author Jacob Weisberg says, "It would be foolish to bet against her." That's because of Wasserman Schultz's work ethic: "I might not always convince you that I'm right, and I might not always win the day or be successful on everything I set out to accomplish, but I'm never going to lose because I got outworked." Politicians may rest a little on the seventh day, but they never really quit. That's rule number two. You've got to outwork the competition.

The third rule of Every Day Is Election Day is that you will have to win the same way men do. When voters pull the lever or when governors or mayors or school-board presidents make an appointment, they are aware of the candidate's gender. For political reasons of their own or because this woman candidate is making history (as so many do), these voters or officials may even choose to stand with the female candidate on the ticket. That kind of consideration might improve your odds, but it won't be sufficient to win. (Sarah Palin, anyone?) That's because decision makers give the greatest weight to the case you've made. Does your case statement stack up at the top of the pile when it's compared to others'?

Making great speeches isn't a substitute for knowing who your voters are and getting them to turn out on Election Day. Believing in worthy causes isn't a substitute for sensible policy solutions. Learning that "money is the mother's milk of politics" is a prerequisite. There is no "kinder and gentler" way to win in politics that women have and men don't. Campaign tactics are uniform, though the group at which they are targeted differs from one campaign to the next. This is the practical fact.

There are, however, campaign strategies you can deploy that take into account your understanding of women's lives. For instance, being a wife or...