Tag: Elections

Free and fair elections are an essential pillar of democracy around the world. However, the validity of elections are often threatened by the state or individuals introducing barriers to voting, including violence, and political or financial corruption.

What Would Alito’s Draft Opinion Mean for Women’s Rights?

The Alito opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson fails to mention how lack of access to abortion might disrupt education, employment or other aspects of women’s lives—giving America a glimpse into a dystopian future where the Constitution would offer no protection for women’s rights because they are not “deeply rooted in the country’s history and traditions.”

If Alito has his way, the police and politicians could very likely once again be searching our bedrooms for those telltale signs of illegal sexual behavior.

SCOTUS Wants Reproductive Rights Left Up to the States—Whose Representatives Are Still Overwhelmingly White and Male

The Supreme Court says it is time to “return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” But state legislatures are overwhelmingly white and male: Women hold just 31 percent of statehouse seats, and only 9 percent are women of color. Rates of women’s representation are much lower in states that will ban abortion if and when Roe is overturned.

Luckily, we know how to transform the demographics of U.S. law-making bodies. We just need the political will.

Women Have Always Been the Heart of the Climate Change Movement: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation

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

This week: Women have always been at the heart of the climate change movement; best practices to increase women’s representation on public and private sector boards; Kyra Wilson is the second woman elected chief of the Long Plain First Nation; majority of Americans support ranked-choice voting; and more.

A Firsthand View of the Crisis Ahead for Abortion Rights—and What We Should Do About It

As a nation, we are at a fork in the road and we will have to decide if we will allow our reproductive freedom to be determined by others, or if we are going to demand that these freedoms be protected where they still exist and restored where they have been compromised.

Since it seems we can no longer rely on the courts to protect these rights, our only solution is to pass a new federal law that will protect abortion rights in all 50 states. The Senate’s recent failure to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act makes it clear that we will need a greater pro-choice majority than we have today to pass this new legislation.

Death of Build Back Better Will Hurt Women and Kids the Most

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It’s been just over a year since the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was passed, through which the federal government invested in people by giving them stimulus checks, enhanced unemployment benefits and an expanded child tax credit that benefited nearly every parent in the country. While there was no shortage of energy from House Democrats and many of their Senate colleagues to pass Build Back Better—ARPA’s successor—the bill stalled in the Senate.

Policies that help women aren’t just the right thing to do—they’re the smart thing to do. Now is not the time to shrink behind austerity politics that prevent our government from meeting the needs of its people, especially those who have always been marginalized.

Women’s Rights and Democracy Are Inextricably Linked

Last fall, America was featured for the first time on a list of backsliding democracies. With inadequate progress in women’s participation in government, reproductive rights, and maternal mortality, this title may reflect recent attacks on gender equality. Amer­ica’s long­stand­ing and abysmal record on myriad gender equity mark­ers has been the true harbinger for our down­graded democracy status.

Post-Soviet States: Learning from Women Amid a Battle for Democracy and Gender Equality

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We must address this moment and reflect on our democracy by examining post-Soviet state’s numerous battles for free and equal democracy. While recognizing post-Soviet culture often limits women and their agency, efforts have been made to increase female representation through the introduction of gender quotas and the adoption of international gender equality strategies on national levels. Similar initiatives have long been quickly rejected by the U.S., but with their success in challenging these nations’ dominant patriarchal motifs we should reconsider adopting similar policies in our own government.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Attacks on Women in Elected Office Ramp Up; Why’d Equal Pay Day Come a Week Early This Year?

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

This week: the growing pro-woman movement in South Korea; read a full transcript and listen to the recordings from the inaugural Democracy Solutions Summit hosted by RepresentWomen last week; women’s rights and a healthy democracy are linked; attacks on women in elected office are becoming all too frequent; why Equal Pay Day for women fell more than a week earlier than last year; and more.