The Solutions Summit culminated in the creation of a resource guide of take-action items that were identified throughout the course of the Summit. The guide includes suggestions of practical ways to help combat systemic representation inequalities in politics, links to sign up for volunteering and advocacy efforts, and a variety of further readings and resources to take the next step in learning about the various issues discussed at the summit. Additionally, it highlights the female changemakers who spoke about each issue at the summit and provides links to further background about each speaker.

This past March, RepresentWomen hosted their inaugural democracy Solutions Summit, which gathered dozens of female leaders in election administration, voting rights, and democracy reform who are working on innovative solutions that upgrade and strengthen our democracy. The event featured experts like Danielle Allen, Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, political strategist and analyst Donna Brazile, President & CEO of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Nicole Austin-Hillery, USPS Board of Governors member Amber McReynolds, five Secretaries of State, and many more! Experts and participants discussed a range of critical issues related to fair access, fair elections, and fair representation with a special focus on viable, scalable, and transformative solutions to build a 21st century democracy that reflects today’s needs and values.

"After 10 years, since the European Commission proposed this directive, it is high time we break the glass ceiling," said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a statement. [European Union, 2022]

EU lawmakers on Tuesday (7 June) agreed on a continental target to establish better gender balance on the boards of companies in Europe.

Negotiators from the EU member states and European Parliament said they found common ground on a proposal that was first made by the European Commission, the EU’s executive, in 2012.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) is having and holding onto its moment in the US, displaying benefits ranging from extending the timeline of citizens' votes to cutting high election costs and yielding more diverse outcomes. These advantages have not gone unnoticed and garnered support for the system, building a robust movement for better elections. The costly midterm election season in Texas' 28th District is just one illustration of an unfortunate missed opportunity where RCV could have a huge positive impact.

This landscape leaves a question for RCV proponents: What is the best way to implement RCV across the country? Should the strategy focus on local adoption, or will it take a federal mandate?

The historical impact of Title IX extends far beyond the reaches of sports. The landmark legislation, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and education programs, was passed 50 years ago this month. It coincided with enormous growth in educational attainment for American women1 and has been applied toward reducing sexual violence on campus and promoting transgender rights in recent years. But athletics have been at the center of Title IX from the very beginning. (Even the fight around it used sports as a battleground: Witness the early attempt by Sen. John Tower of Texas to exempt high-profile men’s sports from counting toward Title IX compliance.)2 Title IX challenged the long-standing notion that sports belonged to men — and men only. And its effects were felt both in the short term and over the half-century that has followed.

The task of the NRA, then—to target their resources to the battleground states and districts like squares on a checkerboard, and try to alarm just enough swing voters there -- is rendered much easier by the geographic-based political map of our winner-take-all system. And it is not too hard to figure out where to target: a 2020 Rand Corporation study found that the 20 states with the highest rates of gun ownership elected almost two-thirds of the Senate’s Republican lawmakers and comprised about two-thirds of the states that President Donald Trump carried in the 2020 election. The 20 states with the lowest rates of gun ownership have more than two and a half times as many residents (about 192 million) as the 20 states with the highest gun-ownership rates (about 69 million).

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, on boards, in sports and entertainment, in judicial offices and in the private sector in the U.S. and around the world—with a little gardening and goodwill mixed in for refreshment!

From teammate to teammate, the staff at RepresentWomen will give you our must-reads for women’s representation from this week.

Howdy from the RepresentWomen Team! Our fearless leader Cynthia Richie Terrell is making great connections to build out our research and partnerships this week at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research #PowerPlus2022 summit in San Francisco. (Cynthia thanks Nicole Mason for her leadership in pulling together an incredible summit!)