On October 15th, the fourth Democratic debate will be held in Westerville, Ohio. This time 12 Democrats will take the stage in what is being referred to as the “biggest debate ever.”

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"Working for RepresentWomen is important to me because their mission is concrete: increase the representation of women in politics while focusing on systems of reform; because no one can say, even though some may, that the underrepresentation of women in politics does not exist."

What can Rwanda’s experiment with gender quotas teach the United States? It’s clear that quotas, if enforced, increase women’s political power at least to some degree, and the symbolic value of women in power can have trickle-down effects. While Americans might bristle at a constitutional mandate, political parties could adopt voluntary quotas, pledging that a certain percentage of the candidates they run will be women. That would be easier for Democrats than Republicans: There are twice as many female Democratic senators as Republican, and nearly seven times as many Democratic congresswomen as Republican. Still, neither party is at parity, let alone even approaching Rwanda’s numbers.

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat”  -Rebecca West, author