My dear friends,
Great news for women's representation fans! Eighteen states now have ranked choice voting legislation pending and just today the Utah state house passed RCV with support from 75% of the republican members and all of the democrats - illustrating that rules changes that benefit everyone are winnable & have bipartisan support!
The Asahi Shimbun had a very interesting editorial about women's representation in Asia - a subject I am embarrassed to say I know little about - reading it reminded me of the commonalities of the challenges that are true in every country. I thought this quote was an interesting application of the use of targets - or voluntary quotas:
The Abe administration has pledged to promote the role of women in Japan’s male-dominated society and set a target of raising the ratio of women in leading positions to 30 percent by 2020. But there has been no significant progress in this regard...More than 100 countries operate some form of legal or voluntary electoral gender quotas. Typical systems involve reserved seats and candidate quotas for women.
This
article on gender diversity in the boardroom caught my eye - I think we need to strategize with allies in the private sector about setting and enforcing gender targets for leadership positions - some on this list like newly elected interim chair of the MD democratic party,
Kathleen Matthews, can be a resource on this as she has had experience with just this process as an executive at the Marriott. Congratulations Kathleen!
Fortune Magazine had
an interesting piece that reflects optimism about the task of reaching gender parity among female executives.
In a blog on Romper, Lindsay Mack answers the perennial question - Why is Women's History month in March?
This week democratic women members of Congress wore white to the president's address to a joint session of Congress. While it was an
impressive display of unity it was also a reminder of the hyper partisanship that our winner takes all voting system has fueled - especially poignant given that nearly all the suffragists were themselves republicans. If we do our work together well we can provide them the incentives and rewards to find more commonality than acrimony.
There are just 28 days until the centennial of women's representation in Congress! Check out Representation2020's
countdown clock and help build interest in this important milestone!
Rushing from one thing to another so I will sign off here - have a lovely weekend, onward!
Cynthia
![women's_hist!!!!!!.jpg]()