Haley encourages women at Ashley Hall meeting to get involved in politics

Gov. Nikki Haley stood in a room full of women Thursday and told them to start counting their war stories.

"If you have three, then great," she said. "If you don't have three, then you've got some living to do."

On the eve of today's 91st anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, Haley gave her thoughts on how to succeed in the male-dominated world during a gathering of the Charleston Center for Women at Ashley Hall School.

In a nutshell, she said more women need to be involved in politics and business, and to get over the timidity that goes with taking those first steps.

"I'm a huge fan of women, but we second-guess ourselves all the time," she told the audience of 120.

Haley spoke for about a half-hour, describing her upbringing as an Indian-American in Bamberg and her decision to enter the rough-and-tumble world of South Carolina politics.

She told of handling men on the job who asked her to bring them coffee and how she made it clear to them that as an executive, it was not her role.

Mostly she was encouraging and defensive of changing attitudes in South Carolina. "This state just elected a female minority governor. That says a lot."

Some of the questions she fielded covered why South Carolina has such a small number of women in politics, falling to 50th by some counts. There are currently no female state senators in Columbia and only about 15 in the state House of Representatives.

Haley said women need to adopt the mindset that they can try anything, even if it means facing sometimes nasty campaigns. One factor that has become a holdback, she said, is nervousness and "the fact they don't think they could do it all."

For those who want to try to run for office she said "call me. Because I can save you two steps if you want to do that."

Earlier in her tenure, Haley took some hits for opting to remove women from state boards and commissions, including at the Medical University of South Carolina and USC.

She defended her philosophy on appointments to the group Thursday. "You don't look man or woman, black or white. You look at the best person you can put in there."

She did seem to take a jab at the male-dominated Statehouse when she responded to a question about the threat of budget woes potentially shutting down the judiciary.

"There are not 'rocket scientists' in government," she said.

After the session, some of the attendees spoke positively about what they heard and Haley's call to get involved.

"I do think women do feel intimidated, unfortunately," said Jan Hussey of Mount Pleasant.

Currie McCullough, of Charleston, said she appreciated that Haley's words seemed to stress personal responsibility and to let your performance speak for you.

"Expect to get respect through the work you do," she said.