“Now there is no excuse for all-male panels.”
There are too many accomplished women in the democracy reform movement whose voices go unheard—which perpetuates misrepresentation in U.S. politics. RepresentWomen, an organization dedicated to creating gender-balanced representation in elected and appointed government positions, maintains a database that aims to change this.
Their Women Experts in Democracy Directory is meant to help organizations and media outlets connect with women in politics to ensure their meaningful representation in today’s important political conversations. It allows users to search almost 100 women by their location and area of expertise.
Democracy needs women at the table, now more than ever.
Katie Usalis
The directory was born out of RepresentWomen’s annual convening of women experts, the Democracy Solutions Summit, a three-day online conference that brings together hundreds of women experts, advocates and elected officials to share solutions to creating a stronger, more representative democracy.
“The Women Experts in Democracy Directory is a one-of-a-kind directory for finding qualified and knowledgeable women experts in the democracy reform space for various events, conferences and more,” said Victoria Pelletier, national partnerships director at RepresentWomen. “With the existence of so many manels [all-male panels], it’s an incredible resource to make sure women’s voices, experiences and expertise are part of all conversation.”
The 2024 Democracy Solutions Summit took place in February and focused on ranked-choice voting, what it will take to elect the first woman president, and how we shift power paradigms. Free to attend, the summit gathered experts in democracy reform to talk about various issues related to changing the country’s electoral systems and improving women candidates’ participation in politics.
“We saw a need, and we met it. Our ever-growing Women Experts in Democracy Directory includes over 100 women experts in democracy, ranging from academics to elected officials who, collectively, speak 11 languages. Now there is no excuse for all-male panels. Democracy needs women at the table, now more than ever,” said Katie Usalis, partnerships director at RepresentWomen.
“We want to have a majority. We want people who are in office and accountable to a majority of voters,” said Lisa Rice at the 2024 summit when talking about the importance of expanding ranked-choice voting. Rice is the chair of Make All Votes Count D.C and a member of the directory specializing in ranked-choice voting, voting rights and gerrymandering.
The directory is made up largely of U.S.-based experts, with a handful of members based abroad. As Carns shared, RepresentWomen hopes to expand these offerings to include more international voices. Collectively, the members of the directory serve as leaders in fields from candidate training to election security and more. RepresentWomen is also actively seeking more grassroots and local organizers to add to the directory.
If you would like to be featured in the directory or know someone who should be, please complete this form or contact info@representwomen.org. Access the directory here.
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