Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!
May Milestones: May Day, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Appreciating Teachers and Nurses
This month is busy with commemorative holidays, including Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Mental Health Awareness Month, Teacher Appreciation Week, National Nurses Week, and Public Service Recognition Week. May 1 is also International Workers Day, also known as May Day or Labor Day in some countries.
Historically, it marked a series of strikes starting on May 1, 1886, in Chicago against unfair working conditions in factories, including 16-hour workdays without breaks. These strikes turned into larger, and eventually violent, displays of civil unrest, coupled with strikes from Pullman Railroad workers, that led to concessions in the length of workdays across the United States. Now, protests are expected across the nation and internationally in opposition to concerns about the Trump administration, including the firing of thousands of federal workers and expensive tariffs.
Women are an essential component of the labor movement; according to the AFL-CIO, “40 percent of working women in the United States are the sole breadwinner for their families, so the pay gap not only affects women but their families as well.” Black and Latina women in particular are leading labor unions, increasing participation in the United States after years of decline. This May Day, take a few minutes to reflect on the crucial role of women in the labor movement.
Another milestone for women’s history this week is Jane Castor becoming the first openly lesbian mayor of Tampa, Fla., in 2019.
Notable birthdays for women this week include Elena Kagan, the fourth woman to be a Supreme Court justice; Mary Hughes, founder of Close the Gap California; Swanee Hunt, former ambassador to Austria; Lindsay Donnelly, VP at Lukens Company; and Brianna Carmen, political director at Working America.
Women Voters Power Canada Win for Prime Minister Mark Carney
Last January, the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, was running on fumes. Trudeau took office in 2021 with only 32.6 percent of the vote, trailing the Conservative Party in national polls by margins of greater than two to one in BCBC polls, including by 44 percent to 20 percent.
On April 28, the Liberals reversed their fortune to defeat the Conservatives by 44 percent to 41 percent of the vote and increase their seats to a near majority. At 69 percent, voter turnout was its highest in a quarter century.
The party can thank three things: Donald Trump inexplicably seeking to leverage American economic tools against its closest ally as part of his goal to take over Canada, the Liberals replacing Justin Trudeau with Mark Carney in a ranked-choice voting party election, and women voters overwhelmingly backing the Liberals even as men backed the Conservatives. The gender gap is remarkable.
A CTV News poll last week got the overall margin exactly right and reported this gender divide, with emphasis added:
“A gender breakdown shows women continue to be more likely to vote Liberal than men. Fifty per cent of women surveyed said they would support the Liberals, compared with 30 per cent who’d vote Conservative. Ten percent of women back the NDP. The number of men who said they would vote Liberal is at 34 percent, compared with 50 for the Conservatives. Six percent of men surveyed would vote NDP.”
The Conversation provided context to this divide in an April 28 article, Pierre Poilievre’s ‘More Boots, Less Suits’ election strategy held little appeal to women:
Poilievre, who was poised to lose his Ottawa-area seat, has spent much of his time as CPC leader courting blue-collar workers and shifting the party’s agenda to include pro-worker policies. The culmination of this was its “More Boots, Less Suits” plan, a package of promises…
These may have been good proposals, but these policies—and the rhetoric in which they were couched during the election campaign—didn’t seem to offer much opportunity for the party to close the sizeable gender gap in voter intention. The rhetoric was heavily masculine, including the “More Boots, Less Suits” tagline. The policies in the plan were aimed at workers in sectors that are heavily male-dominated. Women are estimated to represent about five percent or less of the skilled trades workers that the CPC’s 2025 platform was designed to woo.
The full results of the Canadian election can be found here. One in six seats changed political parties, and Liberal leader Mark Carney was named Prime Minister. RepresentWomen’s North American Country Brief, released earlier this year, provides more insights into Canada’s electoral systems.
Fewer Women Running for Office in Most Recent Canadian Election
Unfortunately, women’s power may not extend toward representation gains. CBC News featured analysis from Equal Voice, a Canadian nonprofit dedicated to improving gender representation in Canadian politics, on a sharp drop in women’s candidacies from 2021, when women won 30.5 percent of seats.
Three of the four major parties have seen a steep drop in the percentage of female candidates running under their banners this election. The Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois are running fewer women and gender-diverse candidates this election compared to 2021, according to data from Equal Voice—a non-partisan organization dedicated to getting more women involved in politics.
This election, women and gender-diverse candidates make up 35 percent of the Liberal slate, 22 percent of the Conservative team and 39 per cent of the Bloc’s candidates. That’s a steep drop from 2021, where 43 per cent of Liberal candidates were women or gender-diverse. For the Conservatives, the number was 33 per cent Conservatives and 47 percent for the Bloc.
In this story, Liberal Leader Mark Carney is quoted as being committed to gender parity in his Cabinet.
Canada’s Oldest Member of Parliament Wins Reelection in Vancouver
At 83, Hedy Madeleine Fry is Canada’s oldest MP—and just handily won reelection. She was first elected in 1993, when she defeated then-prime minister Kim Campbell, who remains Canada’s only woman prime minister.
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Fry had a distinguished career in medicine, including being president of the British Columbia Federation of Medical Women, before entering politics.
Here’s a story on her latest victory.
New FairVote Report Finds 84 Percent of House Races Noncompetitive
Our friends at FairVote have been busy with a string of reports and blogs of great interest. On April 28, they issued two reports about historic levels of non-competition in U.S. House races, with “Dubious Democracy” looking back at 2024 and “Monopoly Politics” looking ahead to 2026. My husband, Rob Richie, and I launched the “Dubious Democracy” series after the 1994 elections, and Rob introduced the first “Monopoly Politics” and the concept of the partisan voting index in 1997.
The report’s implications are intense for political equality and incentives for good governance. They are also critical for understanding the fundamental barriers for American women seeking to rise to international norms in congressional representation—too many seats are locked up to avoid being locked out. Reforms like ranked-choice voting and multi-member districts will increase competition and create open seats that women can win.
Here’s the lead to FairVote’s news release:
New reports from FairVote capture the complete lack of competition in our congressional elections: 84 percent of House seats in 2024 were decided by 10+ points or completely uncontested, meaning that just 16 percent of House seats were even somewhat competitive.We’re bound to repeat the cycle in 2026 – the outcome for 81 percent of House elections has effectively been decided, 18 months before election day. Only 9 percent of seats will be true tossups. Competition has steadily declined since FairVote began tracking this data in 1996
“It makes sense that over 80 percent of Americans don’t feel like elected officials care what they think. Over 80 percent of Congress is effectively guaranteed re-election,” said Meredith Sumpter, President and CEO of FairVote, a nonpartisan organization seeking better elections. “Uncompetitive elections lead to unrepresentative outcomes, and to a Congress that is polarized and unproductive instead of one that accomplishes the people’s work. The solution is in election reforms like the Fair Representation Act – which would stop gerrymandering and bring real competition to every district with multi-member districts and ranked choice voting.”
Shawn Griffiths writes about the findings in Independent Voter News:
Key Findings from 2024 Elections—Margin of Victory: 367 out of 435 House races (84 percent) were decided by 10 points or more. An astounding 256 races (59 percent) were decided by more than 20 points, and 29 seats (7 percent) had no major party challenger at all.
Average Margin: The average margin of victory stood at 27 points, highlighting the lack of close contests across the country.
States With No Competitive Races: In 12 states—including Kentucky, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia—not a single House race was decided by 20 points or fewer.
Voter Representation: Despite a full House election, just 36 percent of voting-age Americans were responsible for electing the House of Representatives.
Shrinking Opportunities: How Federal Job Cuts Threaten the Black Middle Class
An NPR article by Marisa Peñaloza and Hansi Lo Wang highlights the vital role that federal employment has historically played in building careers and economic stability for Black Americans, particularly in the Washington, D.C., area.
Recent actions by the current administration, such as federal job cuts, hiring freezes, and the dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, are threatening this long-standing avenue of upward mobility. These changes disproportionately impact Black federal workers, who represent a higher share of the federal workforce than of the general population. Experts warn that this could shrink the Black middle class and limit future pathways to both public and private sector employment for Black Americans.
“It’s very difficult to tell the story of the Black middle class without the federal government’s role in employing Black individuals,” Gooding explains. A major turning point was World War II, when Gooding says “Black Americans for the first time had doors open to them that really weren’t open before” under Jim Crow segregation.
“With World War II breaking out and there simply being a supply need for more bodies, many Black Americans took advantage of the meritorious avenues for employment, Gooding says. “The federal government in many ways became a leader modeling for the private sector what a true, equitable environment would look like. It didn’t matter what you looked like. It mattered how fast you could type, then you would get the job…”
Until recently, the instability of many federal jobs today would have been unthinkable for Kevin Abernathy, a nephew of Hopkins, the retired NIH staffer, who was pushed by his aunt to apply for his first summer job with the federal government as a teenager.
Latinas Set New Record in State Legislatures as Women of Color Gain Ground Nationwide
In 2025, women’s representation in state legislatures increased, particularly among women of color, according to the Center for American Women in Politics (CAWP). A record 214 Latinas now serve in state legislatures, up from 192 in 2024. Gains were also seen among Black, Asian American, and Pacific Islander (AAPI), and Native women. Overall, these changes indicate growing racial and ethnic diversity in state-level politics, though women of color remain underrepresented compared to their share of the U.S. population.
Jennifer Gerson writes for The 19th:
Only White women hold fewer legislative seats this year in 2025 than they did in 2024.
The rise in the number of Latinas serving in state houses, in particular, follows an important political trend in the United States: Latinx voters accounted for nearly half of newly eligible voters in 2024, and Latinas vote at higher rates than Latinx voters overall.
Dittmar noted that early data on the 2024 electorate indicates that the Latinx voting population went up 12 percent last year, mirroring the rate of gains Latinas made in state legislatures.
“The more Latinos we have who are politically both eligible and engaged, the more likely it is that we’re going to see greater representation,” Dittmar said.
Of the 214 Latinas serving in a state house, 182 are Democrats, 31 are Republicans and one identifies as nonpartisan. Latinas now hold 2.9 percent of state legislative seats nationwide and make up 9.6 percent of the population.
The gains by Black and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women in state legislatures this year were largely for Democratic women legislators. Latinas, on the other hand, saw gains among Democrats and Republicans.
Will the Supreme Court Further Gut the Voting Rights Act?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its subsequent amendments have had a deep and widespread impact on inclusive participation and representation, with its “Section 2” provision having particular power to ensure electoral structures weren’t combining with racial discrimination to deny representation to people of color. But the Supreme Court is entertaining arguments in a case that could end Section 2 as we know it.
Here’s Jamaal Lockings in a post for the Alliance for Justice entitled Supreme Court Ready to Gut Last Vestige of Voting Rights Act
In Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court is considering whether Louisiana’s effort to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), a law that bans racial discrimination in voting, is itself unconstitutional. After a federal court ruled that the state’s original congressional map illegally diluted Black voting power, lawmakers created a second majority-Black district to fix it. Now, opponents argue that even considering race to correct that injustice amounts to an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. If the Court agrees, the implications couldn’t be more dangerous.
To be clear, if the court strikes down Louisiana’s congressional maps, it would have devastating consequences:
- It would make compliance with the VRA nearly impossible, opening the door to widespread disenfranchisement of voters of color.
- It would give states a green light to divide and dilute minority voting power, stripping communities of their ability to elect candidates who represent them.
- It would gut Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, effectively dismantling one of the last remaining tools to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment’s promise of racial equality at the ballot box.
The Court will rule on this case before the close of its current term in June.
Australia’s May 3 Elections: Ranked-Choice Voting and Impressive Women’s Leadership
On May 3, Australia will hold its elections for all seats in its lower house and half of its Senate. We will see if they will build on women, as reported by the Inter-parliamentary Union, holding 39 percent of seats in the house and a whopping 57 percent of seats in the Senate. Australia uses ranked-choice voting for all elections, with its proportional form in multi-member districts in the Senate.
FairVote provides a helpful explainer on the upcoming Australian elections:
Australia uses single-winner RCV to elect its House, and the proportional form of RCV to elect its Senate. Voters can rank startup or longshot candidates first, and then rank a major party candidate as a backup choice. This allows minor-party and independent candidates to run without being dismissed as “spoilers,” as they often are in the United States. In fact, the last Australian federal election saw a wave of success for centrist, climate-focused “teal independents,” a result made possible by this dynamic.
Instead of seeing minor parties as spoilers, major parties have an incentive to reach out to their voters and ask to be their second or third choice. This has encouraged electoral and legislative coalitions between parties. For example, there is a long-running coalition between the conservative Liberal and National parties, and a more recent coalition between the progressive Labor and Green parties.
The result is that instead of polarizing against each other, parties have reason to find common ground. According to political scientists, RCV is one reason that polarization is much lower in Australia than in the United States, despite the two countries being similar in many ways.
Women are Leaders: New Washington Post Series “The ‘Ship”
“The ‘Ship” is Washington Post Live’s new series exploring leadership. What impressed me in this edition is that women are featured as leaders because they have something important to say: Christine Lagarde (president, European Central Bank), Dina Powell McCormick (co-author, Who Believed in You), Mary Barra (chair and CEO, General Motors) and Tara VanDerveer (Hall of Fame women’s basketball coach).
The Post introduces the series with “Hear from influential policymakers, pioneering trailblazers and industry titans about their journeys, principles of leadership and the big questions shaping the future.” Among excerpted highlights:
“I just think it’s really caring about the people that you work with, that they know that you really care about them and that you’re about them. There’s a lot of different quotes, but I think that one that stands out to me is, “You don’t have to be a leader to serve, but you have to serve to be a leader.”
—Tara VanDerveer
“What has been helpful to me and what I think I have regarded highly in my leadership position is, number one, you need a team….Number two, the energy. Number three, confidence. If you have–if you can cultivate these three ingredients, make sure that you have a team with you and that you encourage them, you push them forward. It’s not about you; it’s about the team. Number two, just cultivate the energy that is going to be needed in any leadership position, whether in sports or whether in business or whether in institutional capacity, and the confidence that you need to have in yourself and that, more importantly, you need to inspire in others who work with you. Bring these three together, you can thrive and steer the ship.”
—Christine Lagarde
Women in the U.S. Senate: Leadership Opening and 2026 Elections
Last week I reported on Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin announcing he would not run for reelection. It’s early, but already Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton has secured the endorsements of Governor JB Pritzker and Illinois’ other Sen. Tammy Duckworth. A Democrat, Stratton, was first elected as a state representative in 2016, then elected in 2018 and 2022 as Pritzker’s running mate. Other women who may run include Congresswomen Lauren Underwood and Robin Kelly.
Durbin’s retirement also means his position as the second ranking Democrat in leadership as whip will be open. It’s a chance for women’s leadership in the Senate, where leaders are heavily male. The leadership vote is over 18 months away, but Hawaii’s Brian Schaatz is already picking up support, although Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Patty Murray (Wash.) are contenders.
Meanwhile, three women are the first out of the gate in Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate race in 2026, where Tina Smith is stepping down. From DownBallot:
Rep. Angie Craig announced this morning that she would run to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith, a fellow Minnesota Democrat. Craig became the first gay person to represent the North Star State in Congress following her 2018 victory in a competitive House seat, and she’d renew that distinction as the state’s first LGBTQ senator if she wins her campaign for the upper chamber…
Craig’s entry into the Democratic primary follows earlier campaign launches from both Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and former state Sen. Melisa Lopez Franzen, but she nonetheless starts with a sizable fundraising advantage. Craig finished March with $1.1 million in her House account that she can immediately transfer to her new effort; Flanagan and Lopez Franzen were well behind with $370,000 and $250,000 available, respectively. Republicans, meanwhile, talked about targeting this seat after Smith unexpectedly announced her retirement in February, but they have yet to land any big names.
American Democracy: Summit May 14-16 in Phoenix, Ariz.
The American Democracy Summit, which brings together democracy advocates & champions from across the country to build relationships & discuss strategy, will be held in Phoenix, Ariz., from May 14-16. Please use this link to register for the conference. The RepresentWomen team has organized a panel at 4 p.m. on May 14, along with allies Vote Mama and Vote Run Lead, to discuss strategies for building women’s power!
We are also hosting a happy hour that same day—May 14 from 5:30 to 7 pm. Please use this link to register for the reception—we would love to have you join us!
Several RepresentWomen team members were glad to attend the Ms. Foundation’s annual Women of Vision Awards in New York City. This year, the theme was “Celebrating Our Collective P.O.W.E.R.,” uplifting our work to Provide Opportunities, Wins, Equity, and Relationships that strengthen feminist movements.
This year’s honorees include: singer, actor and and philanthropist Lynda Carter, grantee partners Jeannette Pai-Espinosa, president of Justice + Joy National Collaborative, and Jenice Fountain, executive director of Yellowhammer Fund, leadership collective #WinWithBlackWomen, and actor and advocate Alaqua Cox.
