RepresentWomen’s mission is to strengthen our democracy by advancing reforms that break down barriers to ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead.
More women in elected and appointed positions at every level of government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, reviving bi-partisanship and collaboration, improving the deliberative process, encouraging a new style of leadership, and building greater trust in our elected bodies.
RepresentWomen accomplishes its mission in these 4 ways:
- Conducts research to track representation and assess best practices
- Educates PACs, donors, party leaders & elected officials about reforms to advance women’s representation & leadership
- Advocates at the local, state and federal levels to adopt institutional reforms
- Forges strategic collaborative partnerships to build a lasting & successful movement for gender parity
RepresentWomen started as Representation2020, a program of the non-partisan reform group FairVote, that worked to build a solid intellectual foundation from which future work could grow. The team engaged in research to track the status of women’s representation in the US and abroad, understand the underlying reasons women are underrepresented, and find evidence-based solutions to mitigate the problem. This inquiry resulted in a suite of reports, studies, and tracking tools that follow trends in women’s representation in the US and internationally.
Our Challenge
The United States is founded on the ideal of representative democracy - of the people, by the people, and for the people - yet the overwhelming majority of elected and appointed positions in government, in the US, are held by men.
Women make up half the population, but only 20 percent of Congress, 25 percent of state legislative and statewide executive positions, and just under 20 percent of city and county officials. Currently more than 100 countries in the world rank above the United States in women’s political representation. Even with gains for women at the federal and state level in 2018 we are centuries away from winning gender parity for women across the ideological, geographic, and racial spectrum in the United States.
Women in the nations ranked above the United States in women’s representation are no more ambitious or skilled or ‘trained’ to run than American women but those nations have employed a variety of institutional reforms to level the playing field for women to advance in representation and leadership. Here in the United States, current strategies focus on preparing the individual woman to run, rather than change the systems that unfairly hold her back.
Research and experience confirms that female candidates face institutional barriers including recruitment practices that perpetuate status quo candidates, voting systems that protect incumbents and limit competition, and legislative norms that make it difficult for women to serve and lead effectively once elected.
Our Solution
The solution is clear: We must advance institutional reforms to win parity in our lifetimes. It’s time to move from short-term strategies focused solely on preparing individual women to navigate a system that holds them back, toward complementary medium-term strategies that dismantle the unfair barriers of that system. The United States has a rich history of mitigating unfair advantage through institutional reforms. Suffrage, Title IX, the Voting Rights Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act are all examples of successful civil rights advances that have changed institutions - not the individuals marginalized by those institutions.
Our Programs
RepresentWomen’s programs are focused on addressing the root of the problem and breaking down the barriers that hinder women’s full participation at every stage of their political career cycle. Our programs employ innovative strategies designed for maximum impact and sustained progress toward parity for all women.
- Run: Political parties, PACS, and donors play a decisive role in recruiting, endorsing and funding candidates. Many of these “gatekeepers” support male candidates in far greater numbers than they do their female counterparts. To reach gender parity, RepresentWomen will work with gatekeepers to commit to intentional actions that ensure more women candidates are recruited and supported.
- Win: The winner take all voting system in single member districts used for most elections in the US yields split votes in large candidate fields, protects incumbents, limits competition, fuels polarization, and fortifies the male-dominated status quo. Represent Women works with voting reform advocates to strengthen their efforts and engages with the women’s representation community on the impact of voting system reform.
- Serve: Erratic work schedules, low pay rates, and geographic distance make serving a challenge for many women - especially those caring for children and managing households. RepresentWomen is working with a consortium of legislators called the Modern Workplace Alliance to champion rules reforms that include onsite childcare, paid leave, telecommuting, proxy voting, and well-timed work sessions.
- Lead: In today’s legislative bodies women are underrepresented in key leadership positions and the impact is two-fold; women’s voices are underrepresented in key jobs and fewer female politicians are in the positions of leadership that equip them to run for higher office. RepresentWomen works with gatekeepers to address this disparity by setting targets for the number of women in staff, committee & party leadership.
- The Research Hub: gathers and analyzes data to understand the representation landscape and evaluate best practices to advance women’s representation and leadership. RepresentWomen uses this research to ground our advocacy strategies, develop materials and tools for advocates and elected officials, elevate the dialogue around institutional strategies, and build an effective movement to win parity.
