Sex and politics get people's attention.
Maybe that's why Eileen Kotecki, the first female financial director for a major U.S. presidential campaign, began her address to Tufts students by sharing a story about her first encounter with sex and politics.
Due to a crisis in the Gore-Lieberman 2000 presidential campaign, Kotecki had to raise a lot of money in New Hampshire, and fast. She asked supporters such as Martha Stewart and John Tisch to get on the phone and talk to voters.
Upon arriving in her room late one night, she was surprised to find a 70-year-old real estate man - he was lying naked on her bed.
Torn between standing up for herself and preserving the man's contribution to the campaign, Kotecki had to politely pretend she had entered the wrong room.
"Did male finance directors ever find 70-year-old women lying naked on their beds? I doubt it. It's the reality of the job," Kotecki said.
Kotecki, along with Massachusetts State Senator Pat Jehlen, came to speak at Tufts as a feature of Women's Week. The Women's Center and the Tufts Feminist Alliance were among the campus women's organizations that hosted the event, which was created to discuss what they called a "crisis in female leadership."
When Kotecki started college, she planned on majoring in internationals relations.
During her college years, there was not a single woman in the Senate, and every woman in the House of Representatives was there because her husband had died and she had taken his place.
"I realized there were plenty of things for me to work on here in the United States," Kotecki said.
Kotecki then did something she never thought she would do: signed up to help fundraise a campaign.
"Go try something that you would have never imagined that you were going to do, because you might actually really like it," she said.
Kotecki said that in 1990 she decided that in ten years she was going to be the first woman financial director of a national campaign. She made a plan, deciding that she was going to get the job, no matter who the other candidate was. With the help of her mentors, she was able to achieve her goal.
Kotecki has worked with every woman U.S. senator, and in the Gore campaign, she oversaw the raising of more funds than in any other democratic campaign in U.S. history.
"I'm the person who [was] literally responsible to see that the money is in the bank to make sure the campaign is going to run," she said of her experience as Al Gore's national finance director.
Kotecki recommends fundraising as a role for women in politics. "Money is the milk of politics and it's just here to stay," she said, encouraging the female audience to use money to their advantage. "Money is good. Learn to like it. Learn to love it. Roll around in it," she said.
Kotecki said that men and women use money very differently. She believes that men use money as a tool, and will donate or spend it as a way of setting up a network for themselves. Women, on the other hand, feel like they have to have a real reason to ask for money.
Every woman that Kotecki has worked with feels uncomfortable asking for money. "Getting comfortable with 'the ask' is so important," she said.
Kotecki said that women have to depend on each other to get ahead in politics, and much of this depends on financial backing.
"Out of the women who have successfully been elected on the democratic side, 40 percent or more of their money came from women," she said. "If you want more women to be elected, you have to give money, because the men aren't doing it."
Kotecki said that giving money to politics is just as important to implementing change as philanthropic giving.
In addition to financial support from other women, Kotecki spoke of the importance of mentors throughout the process. She attributed her own personal success to the help and advice of her mentors.
"You can't get there without other people helping you. Being the smartest chick in the room isn't enough," she said.
Kotecki concluded by advising the Tufts students to do something they never thought they would do.
"Someone once told me that the only thing that holds you back is your imagination," she said. "I would have never imagined that I would raise 4 billion dollars in my lifetime, but I have."
Senator Pat Jehlen then took over the discussion on the female leadership crisis. Jehlen said that she is not sure whether or not there actually is a crisis, but she is certain that there is a problem and that it's not getting any better.
"There are fewer women in state legislative positions than there were 13 years ago," she said.
However, Jehlen wanted to make it clear that she does not feel men and women are completely different. "There's a lot of overlap," she said.
Jehlen agreed with Kotecki that she never thought she would be involved in politics.
Jehlen married, had children, and worked as a teacher and a community activist. "Then one year there was an open spot for school committee, and I looked at the candidates and realized that none of them were going to listen to me," she said.
Jehlen was an underdog in the election but she campaigned and worked hard, and served on the school committee for 15 years.
Her rise to the Massachusetts House of Representatives was quite similar. When she realized there was a vacancy, she ran as an underdog, was elected, and served for three years before taking over for the Senator Charles Shannon when he died last year.
"The point I'm trying to take here is that women are very slow to enter politics and they are very slow to rise," she said.
Jehlen said she thinks that women's slow rise in politics is due to their lack of self-confidence. "It seems to me sometimes that men wake up one day after law school, look in the mirror, and think 'Oh, that looks like a candidate for governor,'" she said. Women, she said, are often a lot more uncertain, and don't think they know enough.
"Part of my job as a role model is to make it look like normal women can do it," she said.
According to Jehlen, many studies have shown that the presence of one female candidate can pave the way for others.
Jehlen has seen the same in her experience. When she began on the school committee, she was the only woman, and now the committee is made up entirely of women.
Referring to Kotecki's discussion of money, she added, "It's not just that women don't give money. It's that women don't vote. They don't think they know enough to vote. Many women don't believe that politics make a difference, or that they make a difference."
Kotecki said, "Take some risks. Dream big. And find a mentor."
