In the News
March 8, 2022
This article, published in the Fulcrum, marks women's milestones in government but notes that parity is still far off, citing RepresentWomen's work and quoting Cynthia.Read an excerpt below:
Last year, Kamala Harris became the first female vice president in U.S. history, and President Biden received significant praise for achieving gender balance in his Cabinet. And if the Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, four of the nine justices will be women for the first time. But elsewhere — in Congress, statewide offices, legislatures and local governments — women hold a far smaller share of elected positions. There are 26 women serving as elected head of state or head of government around the world (out of 181 countries surveyed), according to UN Women, a United Nations organization focused on gender equity. While the United States is not on that list, it is among the 14 countries that have gender-balanced cabinets.
While 51 percent of the Americans are women, the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University found that just 27 percent of members of Congress are women, including 106 Democrats and 39 Republicans, slightly outpacing the rest of the world, according to UN Women. But the United States is far from a leader.
"In fact, 20 years ago the U.S. ranked 46th among nations for women's representation but in 2022 the U.S. is tied for 72nd place with Egypt and the Philippines," said Cynthia Richie Terrell, executive director of the advocacy organization RepresentWomen. "Countries ranked above the U.S. don't have better qualified women, rather, they have electoral systems that create more opportunities for women to run and win."
Read the full article here.
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