Who We Are
About Us
RepresentWomen is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization advancing women's political representation at every level of government. Through original research and data-backed policy solutions, we work to dismantle the structural barriers that keep women out of elected office.
Our Mission
RepresentWomen is redesigning our democracy to build women’s political power at every level of government.
Through researching, understanding, and championing evidence-based policy solutions, RepresentWomen addresses the barriers women face as candidates and elected officials to elect more women and sustain women’s political leadership.
The viable, scalable, and transformative policies RepresentWomen supports include:
RepresentWomen partners with elected officials, democracy reform coalitions, and women’s representation groups to educate and equip these leaders with our data-backed resources.
RepresentWomen also supports local, state, and federal efforts to engage voters, elected officials, and candidate training organizations with expert testimony, presentations, and events.
Our Vision
At RepresentWomen, we imagine a healthy 21st-century democracy with gender-balanced representation in elected and appointed positions at every level of government. When we build women’s political power, we will:
- Create a strong, representative democracy
- Revive bipartisanship and collaboration
- Improve the deliberative process
- Encourage a new style of leadership
- Build greater trust in our elected bodies
- Pass policy beneficial to women and all Americans
Our Story
Women are half the population, yet remain dramatically underrepresented in government. That gap is not incidental; it reflects how our political systems are designed.
When women are absent from those decisions, the policies that shape health, safety, and economic opportunity reflect that absence.
Founder and Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell spent her early career working on campaigns at the presidential, congressional, and state levels, which gave her a practical understanding of how political power actually operates. She saw firsthand how consistently the rules disadvantaged women before they ever appeared on the ballot.
Rather than accept those outcomes as inevitable, she focused her work on changing the conditions that produce them.
One truth became clear over Cynthia’s years of experience working on campaigns and democracy reform: women’s underrepresentation is not a pipeline problem, but a structural one, shaped by the rules, incentives, and institutions that determine who runs and wins.
At RepresentWomen, we ask a different question: what if the issue was not the candidates, but the system itself?
Recognizing that this work needed a more rigorous, strategic home, Cynthia founded RepresentWomen in 2018, ensuring that structural solutions could be translated into practice and taken seriously by the people with the power to enact them.
Our Impact
Core to our organization is our ongoing research focused on solutions to break down the barriers that hinder women’s full representation in government. We’ve published over 50 research reports, which can be found in our Research Library.
We’ve convened thousands of women leaders with our key programs designed to educate and empower change-makers. We host an annual virtual Democracy Solutions Summit, connect the women’s representation and democracy reform movements with our Women’s Power Collaborative, and uplift women leading in these movements with our Women Experts in Democracy Directory.
RepresentWomen leverages strategic communications to educate voters and leaders around the world. Our work is frequently featured in Ms. Magazine, including our weekly column on the latest news for women’s representation called the Weekend Reading.
Annual Report
Read our 2025 Annual Report below to see our impact on educating, equipping, and energizing changemakers to build women's political power through policies and reforms!
Download or share the report here.
Click on the side of the page to flip through the annual report!