The Barriers Black Women Face While Running for Public Office

I was elected to the Portland, Maine, City Council in November 2022, in what I call the ‘new generation’ of Black leadership in public office. After the murder of George Floyd and the racial awakening this country experienced in 2020, we saw record-breaking numbers of Black women campaigning and being elected to public office.

Despite my excitement for more of us in elected positions, we are still severely underrepresented in government—and I believe this is by design. Our current system not only enhances the barriers that stop us from accessing public office but also hinders our ability to craft equitable policies once elected.

Senate Democrats Challenge Republicans With Wednesday Vote to Protect IVF

Senate Democrats on Tuesday highlighted their plan to protect IVF, warning their Republican colleagues they will need to decide by Wednesday whether to block a bill that would preserve access to assisted reproductive technologies.

“It’s been incredible to watch Republicans now scramble over the weekend to suddenly support IVF—well, many of these same Republicans are literally right now co-sponsors of legislation that would enshrine fetal personhood, the very concept that caused all of the chaos in Alabama,” said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, an original co-sponsor of Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act.

In Congress, meanwhile, Democrats’ bill that would protect IVF access nationally has received only a single Republican co-sponsor in the House and none in the Senate. 

Are Bias and Racism Behind Attacks on Fani Willis?

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Black women are underrepresented in political spaces and prove to be the most vulnerable in our democracy; despite Donald Trump facing trials in four other cities, he has specifically chosen to contest against Fani Willis, a Black woman serving as the district attorney; a free webinar about ranked-choice voting and its implementation at the Oscars; and more.

Making the New Zealand Case for Ranked-Choice Voting in the U.S.

This year is the 30th anniversary of a remarkable electoral reform triumph in New Zealand. In 1993, a citizen-led reform coalition pulled off a heroic upset in a referendum that replaced American-style winner-take-all elections with a “mixed member proportional” (MMP) system. We had a front-row seat, as our leadership in America’s nascent proportional representation movement earned us an invitation to support the campaign with events, strategy sessions and media interviews across the nation.

We wanted to mark this milestone with our reflections about what it takes to win such a transformative national change – and how best to translate those lessons into the very different world of politics of the United States. 

Keeping Score: Trump Ordered to Pay $450 Million; OB-GYNs Avoid Abortion Ban States; Young Women Lean to Political Left, While Men Veer Right

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Trump must pay $450 million; OB-GYNs are avoiding states with abortion bans and 93 percent say they or a colleague have been unable to follow standards of care because of bans; new data on women in the workforce; harmful sex ed and anti-trans state bills introduced; postpartum Medicaid coverage; the political gender gap is growing; Missouri Republicans block amendments to add incest and rape exceptions to their abortion ban, claiming, “God does not make mistakes”; Beyoncé becomes the first Black female artist to top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart; and more.

The Pathway to Recognizing the Equal Rights Amendment

At the Radical Optimism Conference on Jan. 26, hosted by former U.S. Rep Carolyn Maloney, political activists from around the state rallied for recognition of the federal ERA, made plans for securing a New York state constitutional amendment, plotted strategies for the 2024 elections and committed themselves to showing strong support by recruiting signers for the national ERA petition, Sign4ERA.org.

“In 2024, women’s rights will be on the ballot,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority.

“If equality and the Equal Rights Amendment, in particular, weren’t so important, they wouldn’t be fighting so hard to keep it from us,” said Zakiya Thomas, president of the ERA Coalition.

(This essay is part of “The ERA Is Essential to Democracy” Women & Democracy collection.)