Dear all,
It has been such a pleasure to be in Brussels this week to talk with women from across Europe and the United States about strategies to elect more women to government offices. We have heard from experts in many fields and young elected leaders of color who are charting new pathways to parity in their nations.
While there have been many terrific advances for women's representation worldwide we all agreed that we have a long way to go to reach parity. We must identify new collaborative strategies in order to be successful.
A couple updates from She Should Run
- The link to She Should Run's Tuesday, Dec 6 Post-Election Townhall and rsvp for our livestream: http://www.sheshouldrun.org/our_events
- Erin Loos Cutraro's post about the inspiring increase She Should Run has seen in women stepping up to say they want to run: https://medium.com/@erin_10653/4245-ways-she-should-run-is-changing-the-face-of-government-eda77cb0d6ac#.4f14ko5yv For government to be successful, it can never be about just one name, just one voice, just one woman, or just one party. With over 500,000 elected offices and increasingly complicated challenges in our country, it really can’t be.
- And a fantastic article in Forbes featuring Clare Bresnahan!
We all have worked hard but managed to make time for a few drops of wine and a crumb or two of chocolate here and there. Here are a few photos to help you feel like you were here as with us.
To paraphrase from a group member this week: we must learn to copy what has worked well for others and 'edit' and 'paste' it in our own communities.
Thanks for all you do,
Cynthia
P.S. For those of you who interested in strategies to fix the entrenched partisanship in the United States - which makes entry into the political system very difficult for women and candidates of color - here is a good read about the limits of independent redistricting commissions and FairVote's fair representation plan that replaces winner take all single winner districts with a more representative system.