Wow.

Only a few days to go in an election that has torn the scabs off the wound that is our electoral system. Regardless of the results up and down the ballot on Tuesday the Pandora's Box of electoral dysfunction is now wide open and the moment is ours to fix systems - be they cultural, political, professional, or electoral - that disadvantage women candidates.

The complexity of the problem must inform our collective work - there is no one reason that the United States ranks behind 95 nations in the representation of women. Nor is there one solution.

The joy in accepting this reality is that we have an imperative to work together - a categorical one if you will (my father was a philosopher) - that can ground our enthusiasm for forging a collaborative, measurable, strategic, and bold campaign for parity. We simply can't succeed if we don't embrace this imperative.

Several pieces caught my eye this week:

• Susan Page wrote in USA Today this week - How Women Have Defined the 2016 Elections.

• Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez reported on Refinery29 about 35 Women Running for Office You Should Know About

• Cindy Nava writes a thoughtful blog on the election on Young People For.

• Emily Tate writes in Huffington Post on new players on the ballot next week: These Candidates are Challenging the Status Quo in Their States This Election.

• German Lopez writes on Vox In US History - There Have Been 1,917 Male Senators - and Just 46 Female Senators

• Governing Magazine writes about races for lieutenant governor

Some of you may have read about the elections in Iceland this week? This headline from Fortune captures the election results pretty well The Tiny Nation of Iceland is Crushing the U.S. in Electing Female Politicians.

Here I am in Iceland earlier this year at the site of the first parliament in the world with my daughters Anna and Becca:


​Meanwhile, our friends to the north who always seem to be a step ahead of us are hosting a series of summits to address gender disparity in politics. And there is a growing movement in Malta to elect more women reports Miriam Dalli in Malta Today.There was an interesting piece on the Seven Companies Committed to Having Women at the Top - Representation plans to push PACs, parties and donors to all set public targets for the number or percentage of women candidates they plan to recruit/support. Stay tuned for more on that but in the meantime we can strategize about how to build partnerships with the private sector.

The Center for American Women and Politics has several terrific Fact Sheets for tracking what to look for and how to understand the results on Tuesday:

• Women candidates for the U.S Senate
• Women candidates for the U.S. House
• Women candidates for state legislative seats

If you are following results in California Close the Gap CA will be tracking their candidates - sign up to get updates on election night.

Our fabulous allies at Open Secrets/Center for Responsive Politicsissued the latest tally on election spending which is incredible - in an ordinary election season this would be the lead story.

FairVote & Representation2020 were very glad to be featured partners on the It's Time Network site - Betsy McKinney and the team there are great partners indeed. Thank you.

Here's to the last weekend of the 2016 campaign - may the candidates and ballot measures you support win!

Cynthia

P.S. Representation2020 released its report on the State of Women's Representation on the Eve of the Election: https://fairvote.box.com/v/GPI-2016 check to see how your state ranks and share on social media if you feel so led.