In This Edition:
- In The Fulcrum: “Wins for Women Offer a Blueprint for the Future”
- Republican Women in the U.S. House Fight Against Increased Second-Class Status
- RCV in the 2028 Presidential Primaries? A Quiet but Significant Shift Inside the DNC
- Tennessee Special Election Underscores the Barriers of Winner-Take-All Elections
- Republican Indiana State Senator Faces Bomb Threats after Opposing Mid-Decade Gerrymandering
- Fort Collins Mayor-Elect Emily Francis Discusses Upcoming Term
- “Ole Miss” Latest of 1100+ Colleges to Adopt Ranked Choice Voting for Student Elections
- Turn to the Right and Male Leadership in Honduras
- “Rising Levels of Hate Forcing Women out of Swedish Public Life, Says Equality Agency
- A Call to End Cruelty: College Student Deported on Way Home for Thanksgiving
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!
Birthdays of notable women: Zoë Kravitz (actor and activist); Bette Midler (singer, actor and producer); Janelle Monáe (actor, singer and activist); Rebecca Carter Nicholson (Cynthia’s grandmother, 1889–1984); Deb Haaland (secretary of the Interior and former U.S. representative); Ann Patchett (author); Suzanne LaFrance (former member of the Anchorage Assembly and candidate for mayor of Anchorage); Eddie Bernice Johnson (U.S. representative); Kathy Manning (U.S. representative); Julianne Moore (actor); Lynn Schulman (NYC Council member); Nancy Mace (U.S. representative); Grace Napolitano (U.S. representative); Joan Didion (essayist); Diane Humetewa (U.S. District Court judge for Arizona and former U.S. attorney for Arizona); Patsy Mink (first woman of color and first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives); and Susan Collins (U.S. senator).
Milestones: Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955); Linda Lingle became the first female governor of Hawaii (2002); Lily Mei became mayor of Fremont, Calif. (2016); Sarah Palin became the first female governor of Alaska (2006); Mary McLeod Bethune established the National Council of Negro Women (1935) and the National Council of Negro Women was formed (1935); 1976 – Supreme Court upholds right to unemployment during the last three months of pregnancy.
The Movement Needed Them Both: Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin’s Twin Legacies of Resistance
This week marks the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest, igniting the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a moment that has been so iconic in our national memory that it’s easy to forget the fuller, more complicated story behind it, and the woman whose courage helped shape what came next.
This week, while hosting a session on women’s representation at the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers conference in Miami, this very history came up as we reflected on the moments that paved the way for the work we’re doing today. Realizing that this anniversary fell just 70 years ago this week felt like more than a coincidence; it felt like a reminder worth revisiting together.
The conversation illustrated something essential: Movements are never the work of one woman alone. Parks’ refusal to give up her seat changed the course of history, but she was part of a broader story of women who took extraordinary risks long before the world was ready to hear them.
And before Parks’ Dec. 1 arrest, there was another woman whose courage helped reshape the law. Her name was Claudette Colvin.
Nine months earlier, 15-year-old Colvin sat down on a Montgomery bus after school. When the bus became crowded and a white woman was left standing, the driver ordered Colvin and three other Black women to give up their seats. The others complied, but at that moment, a pregnant Black woman, Ruth Hamilton, boarded and sat beside Colvin.
“He asked us both to get up,” Colvin later recalled. “Mrs. Hamilton said she had paid her fare and didn’t feel like standing. So I told him I was not going to get up either.”
The driver warned them he would get a police officer, and that is precisely what he did.
The officers eventually convinced a man behind them to move so Hamilton could sit farther back, but Colvin stayed where she was. She had spent the day learning about Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and the deep injustices of segregation.
“My head was just too full of Black history,” she later told NPR. “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.”
For that act of refusal, she was handcuffed, dragged from the bus and jailed. Her schoolbooks were scattered across the floor. She was frightened, but held her ground—just as Rosa Parks would later do in December of that same year.
And yet Colvin’s courageous, history-shaping act was forgotten almost immediately. The system erased her. She was “too young,” “too vulnerable” not the “right symbol.” Her circumstances—including her later pregnancy—were used to disqualify her rather than honor her. Colvin’s story faded into the background, even as she became one of the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the federal case that ultimately struck down bus segregation in Montgomery and across Alabama.
What strikes me, year after year, is how familiar this feels. Much of women’s leadership, especially young women’s and Black women’s leadership, has been hidden in plain sight. We celebrate the victories, but not always the women who made them possible. We remember the moments, but not the systems that decided whose stories counted.
Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin were both powerful leaders. They were both catalysts for change, and the movement needed them both.
Their courage reminds us why our work today matters so much. When women challenge unjust systems, they create openings for generations after them. They show us that change is possible long before it feels achievable. And they remind us that systems shape outcomes—including whose voices are lifted up, whose contributions are remembered, and whose leadership has the chance to transform institutions.
As we reflect on this anniversary, I hope we hold space for all the women who helped bend history toward justice; both the names we know and the ones we’re still recovering.
Their legacy is the throughline to our work: to build systems where women can run, win, serve and lead without needing extraordinary circumstances or extraordinary bravery just to participate. And in honoring them, we recommit ourselves to carrying that work forward.
In The Fulcrum: “Wins for Women Offer a Blueprint for the Future”
Last week, I was honored to share some reflections in The Fulcrum on a question that has been circulating in the wake of Hilary Clinton’s and Kamala Harris’ losses—whether political parties should think twice before nominating a woman for president again. It’s a question I’ve heard whispered in policy circles, meetings, and yes, even around holiday tables.
But as I wrote in this piece, that narrative simply doesn’t hold up when you look at the data or the results from this past election cycle. Here is an excerpt:
“In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s and Kamala Harris’ losses, murmurs have circulated that parties should think twice about nominating women for president. That sentiment might even surface around holiday tables this season. Overlooked is how Donald Trump was well-positioned to defeat any candidate closely connected with the establishment.
But this year’s elections provided more evidence that we should give women a fair chance. Voters across the country made it clear that they want women to lead. Women didn’t just compete—they won easily.
Women win statewide: In the only two states with gubernatorial elections this year, both women candidates prevailed handily. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won by 15 points, outperforming Joe Biden’s 2020 margin. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill won by 14 points, besting fellow Democrat Andy Kim’s Senate win last year. In Virginia’s lieutenant-governor race, Ghazala Hashmi also won comfortably, well ahead of her ticket’s male attorney-general candidate.
Women win major mayoral elections: Detroit voters elected Mary Sheffield by a landslide, making her the city’s first woman mayor. Seattle chose Katie Wilson over a male incumbent, and in Charlotte, N.C., Vi Liles won her fifth consecutive term, bringing the total number of women leading America’s 20 largest cities to eight. Boston’s Michelle Wu easily won re-election.
In St. Paul, Minn., Kaohly Her defeated a male incumbent in a ranked choice voting election to become the city’s first woman mayor and will govern with an all-women city council. In Albany, N.Y., Dorcy Applyrs was elected as the city’s first Black mayor, and Marikay Abuzaiter will lead Greensboro, N.C. Earlier in the year, Helena Moreno was easily elected mayor of New Orleans, while Gina Ortiz Jones won in San Antonio.
In New York City, women now hold a record 32 council seats, and a woman is favored to be the next city council speaker. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced an all-women transition team.
None of this should surprise us. Women have repeatedly shown their strength in battlegrounds. Gretchen Whitmer twice won the Michigan governorship by double-digit margins. In 2022, Gov. Katie Hobbs broke a 13-year Republican streak in Arizona. Governor Laura Kelly twice won in deep-red Kansas, while Janet Mills is Maine’s first woman governor.”
What I hope readers take away from this analysis is simple: When we design systems that support fair competition, women succeed—across parties, across states and across every level of government. Cities like St. Paul, Salt Lake, and New York continue to show how ranked choice voting can open the door for more women to run, win and govern. And when recruitment efforts meet system-level reforms—the Twin-Track Approach we champion at RepresentWomen—progress accelerates.
If you’re interested in a deeper dive into why these wins matter and what they signal for 2026, you can read the full op-ed here.
Republican Women in the U.S. House Fight Against Increased Second-Class Status
The New York Times this week featured a story about pushback from Republican women in Congress about their treatment under House Speaker Mike Johnson. It includes important reporting on how Republicans valued electing more women far more under previous Speakers than now. Here’s how it begins.
Representative Elise Stefanik of New York called Speaker Mike Johnson a habitual liar. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has told people she is so frustrated with the Louisiana Republican and sick of the way he has run the House—particularly how women are treated there—that she is planning to huddle with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia next week to discuss following her lead and retiring early from Congress. Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has gone around Mr. Johnson in a bid to force a vote he has declined to schedule on a bill to ban members of Congress from stock trading.
Less than a year out from midterm elections in which Republicans’ vanishingly small majority is at stake, Mr. Johnson’s grasp on his gavel appears weaker than ever, as members from all corners of his conference openly complain about his leadership. Some predict that he may not last as the speaker for the rest of this term. Republican women, in particular, have been publicly challenging Mr. Johnson and taking issue with his priorities and his style.
The article includes revealing changes since Kevin McCarthy was the speaker.
“Ms. Stefanik is not alone among Republican women in feeling aggrieved by Mr. Johnson. Some of them said privately that the speaker had failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues, suggesting that doing so was a cultural challenge for Mr. Johnson—an evangelical Christian who has often voiced firm views about the distinct roles men and women should play in society.
In a recent podcast interview, for instance, he said that women were not able to compartmentalize their thoughts, and that the member whom he would trust most to cook him Thanksgiving dinner was Representative Lisa McClain of Michigan…
In a party that has lagged in female representation and had problems appealing to women, Republican speakers before him had made it a priority to promote women through fundraising and recruiting, and by elevating them to leadership roles. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that recruiting women had been key to his success in gaining seats through two cycles.
“My formula for success was simple: recruit and add more women, minorities and veterans to the House Republican conference, so that our conference would look more like America,” he said.
Mr. Johnson, his critics said, has done less of that than his predecessors. This year, there were only three women in the incoming Republican freshman class: Julie Fedorchak of North Dakota, Sheri Biggs of South Carolina and Kimberlyn King-Hinds of the Northern Mariana Islands. By comparison, there were seven Republican women in the incoming freshman class of the previous Congress.
There is currently just one woman chairing a House committee: Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who leads the Rules Committee. She said that the insinuation that there was mounting ire from women directed at Mr. Johnson was “brainless as it is ignorant.”
In the last Congress, three women chaired committees. Before that, there were eight.”
RCV in the 2028 Presidential Primaries? A Quiet but Significant Shift Inside the DNC
This week, Axios broke a story that may prove far more consequential than it first appears: Democratic leaders are actively exploring the adoption of ranked-choice voting (RCV) for the 2028 presidential primaries.
Behind closed doors, party officials and reform advocates—including my friend’s Rep. Jamie Raskin and longtime Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, and our partners at FairVote Action—have begun making the case for the shift to DNC chair Ken Martin and members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee.
As written in Axios:
“Supporters of the change—which would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference — told those at a DNC breakfast gathering in D.C. that it would strengthen and unite the party.
They said it would prevent people’s votes from being “wasted” after presidential candidates drop out, and encourage coalition-building among contenders—an attention-grabbing pitch in light of the party’s divisive primaries in 2016 and 2020.”
Rep. Raskin expressed his support, stating:
“It favors positive politics rather than negative politics, and that’s a great thing for the Democratic Party primaries,” Raskin told Axios. “Oftentimes there’s a sense of acrimony and bitterness that can last decades. Think about the race between Hillary and Bernie Sanders.”
And Celinda Lake echoed that sentiment:
“It gives a better chance to new faces, outsider candidates, people with grassroots movements, people who run positive campaigns, people who have something new to offer. It really meets the moment.”
While reactions at the DNC are mixed, the fact that RCV is being discussed seriously at this level marks a meaningful shift, and one with profound implications for women candidates.
At RepresentWomen, we’ve long championed RCV as one of the most powerful structural reforms to advance women’s political representation. The evidence is strong and consistent:
- Women run and win in greater numbers in RCV jurisdictions.
- Campaigns become more civil and issue-focused, reducing gender-based attacks.
- Voters are freed from “electability” anxieties, which disproportionately harm women and candidates of color.
- More candidates can run without fear of splitting the vote, making room for new voices, younger leaders and diverse identities.
RCV doesn’t guarantee that a woman will win, but it creates the conditions for women to compete on equal footing. And what we have found is that when women have a fair opportunity to run, and voters have the chance to vote their true preferences, voters more often elect women.
If the Democratic Party adopted RCV for its presidential primaries, it would reshape the landscape for women seeking the highest office in the country, offering an antidote to the “electability” anxiety that continually sidelines women contenders (the same anxiety I wrote about in my opinion piece in The Fulcrum this week).
Later in December, RepresentWomen will be joining with our partners at FairVote in Los Angeles at an upcoming DNC gathering to learn more about this proposal and other priorities of the DNC Women’s Caucus.
It is far too early to say whether RCV will be approved for 2028. The path is complex, and there is a long way to go. But the fact that the discussion is happening, at this moment, is promising. And we’re honored to be part of the conversation from the beginning, ensuring that the needs and voices of women are not sidelined in this process. We’ll be tracking this closely and sharing more as these conversations continue to unfold.
Finally, I wanted to highlight this creative new educational video on RCV by stalwart democracy champion on the Washington, D.C. city council, Christina Henderson. Check it out!
Tennessee Special Election Underscores the Barriers of Winner-Take-All Elections
This week, Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn surpassed electoral expectations for her congressional district in a special election in Tennessee. Donald Trump carried the district by 22 percent points in 2024, while Behn lost to Republican Matt Van Epps by 9 percent. Poll showing Behn ahead triggered millions of dollars of spending to boost Van Epps, but realistically, the 7th district’s “partisan voting index” of +10 for Republicans puts it well out of reach.
That reality underscores the chilling effect on our ability to hold Members of Congress accountable. Well over half of U.S. House Members represent districts with a partisan index of at least +10, including 138 Republican-majority districts and 134 Democratic majority districts. That’s 272 out of 425 districts where it is inconceivable in today’s partisan voting climate for the minority party to win, let alone the 72 additional districts (20 Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning) where the lean is at least +5, where today the majority party holds every seat.
If we want to create space for voters to hold power accountable—and space to elect more women—we have to take on winner-take-all elections. RepresentWomen continues to applaud the congressional backers of the Fair Representation Act, which offers a comprehensive solution to that problem by requiring all states with more than one seat to elect leaders using proportional ranked choice voting.
Republican Indiana State Senator Faces Bomb Threats after Opposing Mid-Decade Gerrymandering
The nation is in an appalling race to the bottom triggered by Donald Trump and national Republicans pressuring Texas to redraw its congressional districts to favor Republicans. Both parties are now pushing through plans to help their side. Indiana is the latest target. Republican state senator Jean Leising has opposed action, and last weekend, Leising faced a pipe bomb threat.
Despite hearing testimony like that described here, the legislature is continuing to advance the bill:
Local election officials typically have a year before an election to make redistricting-related adjustments, Marion County Clerk Kate Sweeney Bell told the committee. If approved next week as planned, clerks would have just four months before early voting starts April 7, ahead of the May 5 primary elections.
She detailed the complex updates required to reassign the likely hundreds of thousands of impacted Indianapolis voters, retrain thousands of poll workers, update public communications and more—all on a smaller budget amid cuts to local revenue. “If any of this is done incorrectly, voters are going to feel the impact when they come to vote,” the clerk said.
She urged lawmakers to reject the proposal, adding, “If it passes, there will be chaos. Chaos in clerk’s offices around the state. Chaos when candidates file at the election board. … That’s exactly what election administrators want to avoid.”
Fort Collins Mayor-Elect Emily Francis Discusses Upcoming Term
Fort Collins, Colo., in its first use of ranked-choice voting, elected Emily Francis as mayor, succeeding Jeni Arndt, who was a leader on innovative civic deliberation tools during her tenure. The Rocky Mountain Collegian this week reported on its interview with the new mayor:
“Mayor Pro Tem and District 6 City Council Rep. Emily Francis is set to become the next Fort Collins mayor following her decisive victory in the city’s 2025 ranked choice election. Francis will begin her first two-year term Jan. 13, 2026. She is set to take the seat of Fort Collins’ current mayor, Jeni Arndt, who declined to run for reelection after serving two terms. Housing affordability was a top priority for voters in the 2025 election, an issue that Francis campaigned on addressing. In a weak-mayor system like that of Fort Collins, she will need to work closely with city council to get approval for any initiatives she hopes to pass throughout her term…
Some of Francis’ other big concerns aren’t policy-based but cultural. She said Fort Collins is dealing with the loss of community connection and that the city needs to reinvest in third spaces, or spaces that aren’t home or work, to help rebuild social cohesion.“If you’re not in college and you don’t have kids, there’s not a lot to do,” Francis said. “We need to build something to help people interact in ways that aren’t just drinking or kids activities.”
“Ole Miss” Latest of 1100+ Colleges to Adopt Ranked-Choice Voting for Student Elections
In a clear sign of where democracy is headed in the United States, students at more than 100 American colleges and universities have changed their rules for student government to elect leaders using ranked choice voting, as reported by FairVote and detailed in a long article this year by Expand Democracy’s Juniper Shelley. The latest adoption is by Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi. Here’s coverage from The Daily Mississippian.
The bill’s authors wrote that ranked-choice voting “promotes a more fair and democratic election process,” adding that the system “encourages senators to vote honestly and true to ideals of an ASB senator.”..
“The biggest hold-up with this bill is trying to figure out the logistics of how we would even go about ranked-choice voting,” Kingery said. “So we talked with Auburn, we talked with LSU about how they did it and we finally found a way.”
Members of the Auburn and Louisiana State University student governments recommended the software OpenVote, due to its ease of use and the ability to automatically tally votes. “Once we figured that out, we were like, ‘Okay, let’s bring it before the senate,’” Kingery said. “My big thing tonight was trying to make sure everyone really fully understands ranked-choice voting, because it’s not as simple as a plurality vote.”
Concerns were raised about the “learning curve,” as the bill’s presenters put it. Questions were also raised about the need for a change in the voting method. Ultimately, by a vote of 36-6 with one abstention, the bill was adopted by the senate, renumbered as Senate Bill 25-29.
“I think we did a really good job tonight. Everyone was very passionate. I love to hear good debate on bills, so I loved hearing everyone’s opinions and support. I’m really glad we did this,” Kingery said. “I do think this will make a more fair and equitable process and better represent our student body.”
Turn to the Right and Male Leadership in Honduras
Xiomara Castro, Honduras’ first woman president, was barred by the constitution from standing for a second term. Castro, whose actions in office included ending the country’s ban on the morning-after pill, backed Rixi Moncada, another woman, in this fall’s election, but two candidates toward her political right are well ahead as ballot-counting continues. The BBC reports:
The two leading candidates to be president of Honduras were locked in a “technical tie” on Monday, with a razor-thin margin separating them. As of Monday afternoon, there were just 515 votes separating right-wing candidate Nasry Asfura from his nearest challenger, Salvador Nasralla, a former TV host standing for the country’s centrist party…
For many, the person who represents a new start is Nasralla of the Liberal Party, who has portrayed himself as the man who will put an end to corruption in Honduras if he is elected. Although he was the vice-president for a time alongside incumbent Xiomara Castro, the two fell out and he resigned. Most know him best from his work as a television sports presenter.
The other option in front of those who wanted a break with the governing Libre party was Asfura, the candidate favoured by Trump. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday that the US would be “very supportive” if centre-right candidate Asfura won the presidential election. “If he doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad, because a wrong Leader can only bring catastrophic results to a country, no matter which country it is,” Trump added.
Rising Levels of Hate Forcing Women out of Swedish Public Life, Says Equality Agency
This concerning story from Sweden in The Guardian caught my eye. See this excerpt:
Increasing hate, threats and harassment against female politicians are scaring women away from public life and forcing them to censor themselves, the Swedish government’s equality agency has said, warning that this poses a “big threat to democracy.”
Women’s safety in politics has come under heightened scrutiny in the Scandinavian country since October, when Anna-Karin Hatt resigned as leader of the Centre party after only five months in office, citing hate and threats.
“To constantly feel like you need to look over your shoulder and [to] not feel completely safe, not even at home … I am affected by it much more deeply than I thought I would [be],” she said at the time.
Hatt’s departure came three years after a man was found guilty of murdering Ing-Marie Wieselgren, the psychiatry coordinator for Sweden’s municipalities and regions, and of plotting to kill the then Centre party leader, Annie Lööf, at a democracy festival on the island of Gotland.
Lööf said she respected Hatt’s decision to resign, adding: “I also understand the reality she describes … I know how it feels.”
A Call to End Cruelty: College Student Deported on Way Home for Thanksgiving
I am well aware that women in office can act with cruelty—starting right now, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Russell seeking to reduce SNAP food benefits to Democratic-run states, and Homeland Security Secretary Krist Noem in charge of deporting immigrants, but I believe that if we can build and sustain women’s leadership, cruelty will decline. After a lovely Thanksgiving where two of my children traveled home from out of town, I found this story unbearably sad. We all must call out this kind of brutal, cruel governance. The New York Times reports:
A 19-year-old college student was about to board a flight to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained at Boston Logan International Airport and deported to Honduras two days later, her father and lawyer said on Sunday. The student, Any Lucía López Belloza, was brought by her parents from Honduras to the United States when she was 7. Her father, Francis López, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that neither Ms. López nor her parents knew there was an order for her deportation.
“When they arrested Any, that’s when they told her,” said Mr. López, a tailor. He said his employer had arranged and paid for his daughter’s travel to Austin, Texas, to surprise him at work…
[Her lawyer] said she had been deported in violation of a court order that a federal judge signed on Nov. 21 that said Ms. López could not be removed from the United States while her case was pending. Ms. López, a freshman studying business at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., was about to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Texas early on Nov. 20. She was told there was a problem with her ticket, so she went to customer service and was surrounded by immigration agents….
On Nov. 22, after she spent a night detained in Texas, she was put on a bus with shackles on her wrists, waist and ankles before being put on a flight to Honduras. … Ms. López lived in Texas with her parents and two younger siblings, who are 2 and 5, before going to college.
P.S. —
A wonderful moment with members of the RepresentWomen team in Miami after our panel on advancing women’s representation. Grateful for this group and for the partners across the reform movement working to build systems that strengthen our democracy.
