90: The Politics of Elections - Ruth McGowan

The Politics of Everything

Ruth McGowan OAM is an authority on political campaigning and gender equality. She is the author of Get Elected , the Australian campaign guide to winning political office at local, state, or federal level.

Starting her career as an agricultural scientist, Ruth worked for two decades across the public sector managing various STEM projects before standing for her local council and serving as Mayor. Her experience in public office in Local Government inspired Ruth to change her career focus and six years ago she trained as a Councillor Coach and accredited trainer in Political Intelligence.

Through her own consultancy business, Ruth now combines her two passions: advancing gender equality and politics. Ruth delivers Get Elected workshops throughout Australia for women interested in getting into ‘big P, Politics’ on how to successfully plan a winning political campaign. Through her Political Intelligence training, she supports women leaders to master the skills of political savvy and understand the art and science of positive politics.

We discuss on this podcast:

1. Why do we need to push harder to get more women into Australian politics?
2. Once elected what is the key to staying elected in office?
3. What did you learn from your own election experience that led you to write your book?
4. Are election cycles of 3-4 years helpful in getting stuff done or is there a sense of spending too much time staying elected then campaigning for another election?
5. Take away: What your final takeaway message on The Politics of Elections?