Despite historic numbers of women elected to the 117th Congress, the U.S. continues to fall far short of gender balance.
Author: Maura Reilly
Maura Reilly is a RepresentWomen Fall 2019 Research Intern from the Washington, D.C. area. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland with an honors degree in Social Anthropology. Follow Maura on Twitter, @further_maura.
Money Talks: It is Time to Pay for Parity
Financial sanctions and incentives to enforce gender quotas have been gaining popularity both in politics and business over the last decade.
But in the U.S., despite decades of demanding a seat at the table, women make up less than 30 percent of all elected officials. Political parties and our government have a role to play in improving women’s political representation up and down the ballot; and, it is time they start using their money to make it happen.
This Index Scores All 50 States on Women’s Representation. Just One State Scored an A.
RepresentWomen’s 2020 Gender Parity Index (GPI), scores and ranks all 50 states for women’s representation at the local, state and national level—giving an annual snapshot of the United States’ progress, or lack thereof, toward parity.
“Record” Numbers of Women Are Running for Office, but They Still Face Structural Barriers in Politics
The lack of women in elected office is not the result of a lack of qualified women, but our electoral system which continues to hamper women’s attempts to run, win, serve and lead at equal rates to men.
5 Women, 56 Years, 4,936 Delegates: The History of Women Winning Primaries
Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar will now join a mere handful of women who have won primary delegates in U.S. history—bringing the total up to seven.
The Equal Division Rule: Making the Case for Political Gender Quotas in the U.S.
American political parties have the legal right to include and enforce gender quotas for candidate recruitment and ballot inclusion—and they have a history and precedent of enforcing affirmative action rules when it comes to appointed and elected party positions. Yet the U.S. remains one of the few countries where some form of gender quotas do not exist.
Ranked Choice, Fair Choice: Recapping the RCVictories of the Last Decade
The political landscape over the last decade was marked by increasing polarization, partisan majorities in many states that impose policies out of step with the views of most Americans—and gerrymandering and winner-take-all electoral systems making a mockery of the prospect of political accountability. But it was also a decade in which ranked choice voting (RCV) spread across the country.
How Ranked Choice Voting Shaped the Feminist Victories of the 2019 Elections
Ranked choice voting has been shown to increase the number of women and people of color running in and winning elections—and the results of the 2019 elections prove that it works.
Switzerland’s Strategies for Political Parity Paid Off in 2019
Switzerland’s 2019 elections culminated in many historic outcomes, including women seizing 20 more seats in the House of Representatives.