About The Women's Campaign School

Graduates talk about their WCS experience:

New York: "I expected the best and I was not disappointed. "

Washington: "Thank you for facilitating another great WCSY summer session...cannot stop raving about our experience."

Massachusetts: "WCS is incredibly demanding, but now I feel ready to run for anything!"

Australia: "Thank you all for the generosity with which you shared your experiences and friendship last week...I had a fantastic time."

And our faculty comments:

"In our line of work it's common to get caught up in partisan activity. Working with WCSYale has been a breath of fresh air for me because it reminds me of why I'm involved in politics...to see community activism surpass partisan bickering."

"To come here and see these women living and working together is just beyond belief. No one would ever believe you could get these women into a room together."

The Women's Campaign School at Yale is a nonpartisan, issue-neutral political campaign training program.

Our mission is to provide the very best training in the world for women who want to run for office or who want to move up the ladder to higher elective office. We train women to run political campaigns and to advance their careers in public service. We value leaders who are capable of building relationships regardless of political point-of-view. And we will consider, on a case-by-case basis, men who are committed to helping women achieve success in public service.

Our primary program is the annual Summer Session

Every summer we bring women (and a few men too!) together from around the United States and other parts of the world to learn the skills and strategies to run successful political campaigns. For five days our participants are put through an intense political immersion program designed to teach campaign skills, strategic assessment, and improvisation. We bring experienced campaign operatives in to teach and to share their perspectives in a reflective manner.

What makes our training stand out from other educational opportunities?

Our unique curriculum is designed by -- and for -- women to address the particular cultural challenges faced by women in politics.

We recruit the top consultants from both political parties to teach at our program. We focus on our common needs and experiences as political women, not our differences as political partisans.

The class is small but the vision is large

Some of our participants already sit across the aisle from one another in state legislatures around the country, while others are taking their experience to capitals around the world. They all leave WCS Yale with an unmatched experience in collaborative learning about the democratic political process and how to advance their careers in political life.

Due to the rigorous nature of the program and the schedule, participants are advised to apply after they have already had some political campaign experience. The schedule reflects the demands of the final weeks of a general election campaign.

WCS takes place in a small-group setting designed to increase opportunities for networking among students. All classes are held at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Women's Campaign School at Yale University was founded in 1993 by author and scholar Andrée Aelion Brooks.

WCS Yale is a 501.c.3 non-profit sponsored at Yale by the Yale Law School.