This week’s Weekend Reading blends heartfelt reflections on community and gratitude with key updates on women’s representation: a new Fulcrum op-ed, global efforts to combat violence against women in politics, Miami’s historic mayoral runoff, and new momentum for ranked-choice voting in 2028. Plus, a special thank-you to the partners powering this movement.

The best part of any holiday is being surrounded by my husband, Rob, our three children, Anna, Becca, and Lucas, and dear friends who feel like family. 💜 Sharing the table this year with Rosie and her wonderful parents, Jeremiah Cohen and Linda Ryden, filled the house with laughter, stories, and so much warmth. Moments like this remind me what this season is really about: love, connection, and the simple joy of gathering around a meal. 🤗

As many of us gathered with loved ones this week around full tables, crowded kitchens, or simply quiet moments with the people who anchor us, I found myself thinking about how rare and meaningful it is to have time set aside for connection. Not a holiday, necessarily, but the act of pausing. Being present and sharing space, stories, and gratitude with the people who shape our lives. 

This week always invites reflection, and my heart keeps returning to all of you — the community that shows up here every Friday to read, respond, question, share, and build alongside us. Weekend Reading has grown into far more than a weekly roundup; it’s become a gathering place of its own. A place where ideas cross-pollinate, where systems thinking meets lived experience, and where your curiosity and commitment breathe life into our work. 

I’m deeply grateful for this community we have created together. 💜

Your support, whether in the form of a thoughtful reply, a note about a story that resonated, or a shared belief that our democracy can and must better reflect the people it serves, strengthens our resolve every week. Some of you forward articles, some share personal reflections of your own communities, and some simply send a quick “thank you” that lands in my inbox at just the right moment. I read every message, and I carry them with me. 

A collage featuring members of the RepresentWomen team alongside board members Lindsey Williams Drath, Susannah Wellford, and Michelle Whittaker; FairVote CEO Meredith Sumpter; and Sarah Hague, formerly with Vote Mama.

RepresentWomen’s mission is ambitious, and rightly so. Ensuring that women can run, win, serve, and lead on equal footing requires changing the rules of the game. It requires persistence, imagination, and collective will. And it requires communities like this one, which understand that systems shape outcomes and refuse to accept the status quo as inevitable. 

As I reflect on the work that we’ve done this year, I’m also filled with deep gratitude for the extraordinary partners who walk alongside us in this movement. We do not do this work alone, and we are stronger, more innovative, and more creative because of the organizations that share our commitment to building a democracy that truly reflects its people. From women’s leadership groups to democracy reform allies, each brings a unique and necessary piece to the puzzle. Whether through research, advocacy, training, storytelling, or structural reform, their leadership reinforces what we know to be true: when we work in coalition, systems can change. I’m so thankful for their collaboration and steadfast belief in what’s possible — and over the next few weeks, we’ll express our gratitude to these partners on social media. I hope you’ll follow along and celebrate them with us.

So, as we move into the final stretch of the year, please know how deeply grateful I am for your partnership — for reading, engaging, challenging, celebrating, and staying the course with us. Weekend Reading exists because of you. The moment for women’s representation grows because of you. And I am genuinely honored to walk this path alongside you.  

And in that spirit of gratitude, we’re delighted to share a small tradition of ours once again: sending out The Visionary Women’s Planner as a gift to you. We’re preparing the 2026 edition now, and many of you have already reserved copies. Some have even submitted women and women’s organizations you’d like us to honor in next year’s birthdays and milestones section — that section has truly been a joy to read. 

If you haven’t requested your free copy, you can do so using the form below. We’re happy to send up to five planners per person (more available upon request) if you’d like to send them to other incredible women in your lives this holiday season. It’s one of our favorite ways to say thank you. 🥰

And as we all ease back into our routines after yesterday’s gatherings, I hope that today finds you with a bit of calm; perhaps enjoying leftovers, a quiet afternoon, a relaxing evening, or time with people who bring ease and joy into your life. This stretch between late November and the rush of December can feel like a deep breath before the “hustle and bustle” of the holiday season begins. My wish is that your weekend is restorative and grounding. ✨

Birthday celebrations for notable women this week include: Margaret Tolbert (biochemist and former professor at Tuskegee University; first woman and first African American to lead a Department of Energy laboratory), Barbara & Jenna Hager Bush (authors and daughters of President George W. Bush), Gail Collins (journalist and author), Marina Richie (author), Summer Lee (first Black woman elected to Congress from Pennsylvania), Shelley Moore Capito (U.S. Senator), Sonia Nicholson (author), Beth MacNairn (Disability Rights Fund board member), Alice Cook (founder of Cornell University’s Department of Women’s Studies), and Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women).

Milestone this week: Shirley Hufstedler became the first U.S. Secretary of Education in 1979.

In The Fulcrum: "Wins for Women Offer a Blueprint for the Future"

Source: RepresentWomen

This week, I was honored to share some reflections in The Fulcrum on a question that has been circulating in the wake of Hilary Clinton’s and Kamala Harris’s losses — whether political parties should think twice before nominating a woman for president again. It’s a question I’ve heard whispered in policy circles, meetings, and yes, even around holiday tables. 

But as I wrote in this piece, that narrative simply doesn’t hold up when you look at the data or the results from this past election cycle. Here is an excerpt: 

“In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s and Kamala Harris’s losses, murmurs have circulated that parties should think twice about nominating women for president. That sentiment might even surface around holiday tables this season. Overlooked is how Donald Trump was well-positioned to defeat any candidate closely connected with the establishment.

But this year’s elections provided more evidence that we should give women a fair chance. Voters across the country made it clear that they want women to lead. Women didn’t just compete — they won easily.

Women win statewide: In the only two states with gubernatorial elections this year, both women candidates prevailed handily. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger won by 15 points, outperforming Joe Biden’s 2020 margin. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill won by 14 points, besting fellow Democrat Andy Kim’s Senate win last year. In Virginia’s lieutenant-governor race, Ghazala Hashmi also won comfortably, well ahead of her ticket’s male attorney-general candidate.

Women win major mayoral elections: Detroit voters elected Mary Sheffield by a landslide, making her the city’s first woman mayor. Seattle chose Katie Wilson over a male incumbent, and in Charlotte (NC), Vi Liles won her fifth consecutive term, bringing the total number of women leading America’s 20 largest cities to eight. Boston’s Michelle Wu easily won re-election.

In St. Paul (MN), Kaohly Her defeated a male incumbent in a ranked choice voting election to become the city’s first woman mayor and will govern with an all-women city council. In Albany (NY), Dorcy Applyrs was elected as the city’s first Black mayor, and Marikay Abuzaiter will lead Greensboro (NC). Earlier in the year, Helena Moreno was easily elected mayor of New Orleans, while Gina Ortiz Jones won in San Antonio.

In New York City, women now hold a record 32 council seats, and a woman is favored to be the next city council speaker. Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced an all-women transition team.

None of this should surprise us. Women have repeatedly shown their strength in battlegrounds. Gretchen Whitmer twice won the Michigan governorship by double-digit margins. In 2022, Governor Katie Hobbs broke a 13-year Republican streak in Arizona. Governor Laura Kelly twice won in deep-red Kansas, while Janet Mills is Maine’s first woman governor.” 

What I hope readers take away from this analysis is simple: when we design systems that support fair competition, women succeed — across parties, across states, and across every level of government.

Cities like St. Paul, Salt Lake, and New York continue to show how ranked choice voting can open the door for more women to run, win, and govern. And when recruitment efforts meet system-level reforms — the Twin-Track Approach we champion at RepresentWomen — progress accelerates.

If you’re interested in a deeper dive into why these wins matter and what they signal for 2026, you can read the full op-ed here. 

Violence Against Women in Politics: A Crisis That Demands Systemic Solutions 

Photo from INTER PARES launch of Beyond Numbers report (October 2024) Source: International IDEA 

This week marks the beginning of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, a campaign we participate in every year, not just in solidarity, but out of deep urgency. Violence against women in politics is one of the most significant barriers to representation worldwide, and one we must confront with the same rigor we bring to electoral system reform. 

A powerful new piece from International IDEA captures the gravity of this crisis with a stark question: Would you take a job where abuse and violence are almost guaranteed? 

This is a reality for far too many women in public life. And the consequences reverberate far beyond individuals targeted; they reshape who feels safe entering politics at all. 

This article highlights the chilling example of Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Sigrid Kaag, who left politics after years of threats, intimidation, and even a man live-streaming himself outside her home with a burning torch. As the authors write: 

“Her decision had a chilling effect in the Netherlands, especially on young women considering a political career – forcing them to question not only whether to enter politics at all, but also how visible they dared to be.

Kaag’s story reflects a broader trend. In 2018, a survey revealed that 85% of women MPs in Europe had experienced sexist remarks, image-based abuse, intimidation, or harassment. Nearly half had received threats of death, rape, or beating. A quarter had suffered sexual violence, and 15% had been physically attacked.

Political polarisation and deepening mistrust have escalated abuse against politicians in recent years.  The impact on women, especially groups of women already most underrepresented in public life, carries stark implications for democracy itself.” 

This is not a Dutch problem, nor a European one. It is not a partisan problem either. It is a global, systemic failure. And unless we address it with systemic solutions — stronger laws, real accountability, safer institutions, and modernized election systems — we will continue to lose brilliant women before they ever have the chance to lead. 

This report makes clear that violence against women in politics is not “just part of the job.” It is a design flaw in our democracies, one that suppresses women’s voices, distorts who runs, who wins, and who stays in public life. And because violence most often targets women already underrepresented in politics — women of color, young women, LGBTQIA+ women, and women with marginalized identities — the harm compounds. 

At RepresentWomen, we study these dynamics every year, and we see the same pattern: systems shape outcomes. When political institutions fail to protect women, representation suffers. When laws lag behind technology, online abuse flourishes unchecked. When parties and parliaments ignore threats, women opt out, or are forced out. 

But there is hope and concrete solutions. As the article notes, parliaments around the world can do three things to push back, one of which is to make the issue visible. To do this, they write: 

“Violence against women in politics is often hidden. Many don’t talk about the abuse they face, fearing that they’ll be seen as weak or ‘not up to the job’, and official data collection is patchy.

Parliaments can break this silence. In Ireland, the Speaker held a special meeting with women Members, senior police officials and a psychologist, to share experiences and design solutions. This followed a series of alarming incidents that led some Members to stop running constituency surgeries. This sent a clear message that such abuse will be taken seriously, not ignored.

Parliamentary leaders can draw attention to the issue too. In Germany, the Bundestag’s President revealed that police recorded nearly 5,000 threats or attacks against politicians in 2024 – a 20% jump from the previous year – with women and minority MPs disproportionately targeted. She warned this wave of abuse is driving people out of politics and weakening democracy.

Training for MPs and staff can increase understanding, and explore the roles of bystanders, instigators, and perpetrators. For example, the European Parliament introduced mandatory training on anti-harassment for MEPs in 2023.”

Other ways to combat these issues include strengthening laws and policies and monitoring their implementation, as well as making institutions safer. 

Around the world, parliaments are beginning to respond: 

• Ireland brought together MPs, police, and psychologists to design safety protocols. 
• France and Spain established anti-harassment units and reporting systems. 
• Scotland created a social media monitoring system that has already led to prosecutions. 
• Latin American countries pioneered the world's first laws explicitly defining violence against women in politics. 

These actions matter. They demonstrate that violence is preventable, not inevitable. 

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing more research, global examples, and policy recommendations as part of the 16 Day initiative. This issue is central to our mission, and we are committed to uplifting the structural solutions needed to make political life safer and more accessible for every woman.

On The Ground in Miami: A Timely Visit Ahead of a Historic Runoff Where Woman Candidate, Elieen Higgins, Remains Frontrunner

Miami mayoral candidates Eileen Higgins (left) and Emilio Gonzalez (right) at the League of Women Voters forum on Nov. 13, 2025. (Courtesy of League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County) Source: WLRN 

Next week, several members of our team and I will be heading to Miami for the annual convening of the National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers (NANR). It feels especially meaningful to be gathered there now, just days before the city’s December 9th mayoral runoff, where Miami may be poised to join the ‘Pink Wave’ of women mayors who swept the country this month. 

According to Ballotpedia, this is Miami’s first mayoral runoff since 2001, a reminder of just how high the stakes, and costs, of our current election systems can be. And for voters, this runoff offers something else: the possibility that Miami’s next mayor could be a woman. 

The frontrunner, Eileen Higgins, finished first in the crowded 13-candidate field earlier this month with nearly 35% of the vote. A former Miami-Dade County commissioner, she’s been a vocal, data-driven advocate for affordability, transit access, and ethical governance — three issues Miami residents raised again and again at a recent League of Women Voters forum. 

One point of hers stood out to me in the WLRN piece I read covering the meeting: 

“Higgins, a Miami-Dade County commissioner until last week when her resignation went into effect, said she would tackle affordability by overhauling the city’s permitting system. She compared the city's permitting to the county’s permitting for low-income housing for seniors projects.

“I secret-shopped both systems. I put one [project] that was available for county zoning for permitting, and one in the city. The county’s project was permitted in 107 days,” said Higgins. “The same project submitted the same week to the city took over a year and a half. We’re literally keeping people out of housing.” 

It’s this kind of clear-eyed systems thinking — naming the ways institutions either support or fail communities — that mirrors so much of what we champion at RepresentWomen. And it underscores why having women in executive offices matters: they often bring lived experience, collaborative instincts, and a practical orientation to solving problems that affect everyday families. 

Her opponent, Emilio Gonzalez, brings a sharply different vision, reflecting the deep political divisions shaping Miami’s future. Voters will ultimately decide whose approach they trust, but they’ll have to do so by returning to the polls again, just weeks after the first round. 

And that brings me to a point Miami — and every runoff city in America — must confront: costly runoffs are not inevitable; ranked choice voting is a proven alternative. 

Miami’s December 9th election will require: 

• Additional staffing 
• Additional polling places 
• Additional taxpayer dollars 
• Additional time for candidates and voters alike
  

And as we’ve seen in states like Georgia, these costs add up fast. In 2021 alone, Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff cost taxpayers more than $75 million, and a second round in 2022 brought the combined total to nearly $150 million. That’s money that could go toward childcare, transit, housing, or local infrastructure, not repeating the same election twice. The solution is not hypothetical; it already exists. 

Ranked choice voting, also called an “instant runoff,” allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority outright, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and votes are redistributed according to voters’ second choices until someone earns 50 percent. All in a single, efficient, representative election. The outcomes are the same as what Miami is striving for in this runoff — a guaranteed majority winner, but the costs are lower, there is higher participation, and greater equality for women candidates who can run without fear of “splitting the vote.” 

Miami’s upcoming runoff is a powerful reminder that while systems shape outcomes, better systems are possible. Next week, as we gather with reformers across the country, these are the conversations we’ll be having, and I look forward to sharing more updates from Miami in next week’s edition. 

RCV in the 2028 Presidential Primaries? A Quiet but Significant Shift Inside the DNC

Women wearing white during the Pledge of Allegiance during the DNC in August 2024. Source: AP News

This week, Axios broke a story that may prove far more consequential than it first appears: Democratic leaders are actively exploring the adoption of ranked choice voting (RCV) for the 2028 presidential primaries. 

Behind closed doors, party officials and reform advocates — including my friend’s Rep. Jamie Raskin and longtime Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, and our partners at FairVote Action — have begun making the case for the shift to DNC chair Ken Martin and members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee. 

As written in Axios: 

“Supporters of the change — which would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference — told those at a DNC breakfast gathering in D.C. that it would strengthen and unite the party.

They said it would prevent people's votes from being "wasted" after presidential candidates drop out, and encourage coalition-building among contenders — an attention-grabbing pitch in light of the party's divisive primaries in 2016 and 2020.” 

Rep. Raskin expressed his support, stating: 

"It favors positive politics rather than negative politics, and that's a great thing for the Democratic Party primaries," Raskin told Axios. "Oftentimes there's a sense of acrimony and bitterness that can last decades. Think about the race between Hillary and Bernie Sanders."

A photo of me standing next to my dear friend, Rep. Jamie Raskin, at RepresentWomen’s Toast to Women Leaders in Washington, D.C., in 2023. Also pictured are democracy champions (pictured L-R)  Don Beyer, Jocelyn Benson, and Maggie Toulouse Oliver. 

And Celinda Lake echoed that sentiment: 

"It gives a better chance to new faces, outsider candidates, people with grassroots movements, people who run positive campaigns, people who have something new to offer. It really meets the moment."

While reactions at the DNC are mixed, the fact that RCV is being discussed seriously at this level marks a meaningful shift, and one with profound implications for women candidates. 

At RepresentWomen, we’ve long championed RCV as one of the most powerful structural reforms to advance women’s political representation. The evidence is strong and consistent: 

• Women run and win in greater numbers in RCV jurisdictions. 
• Campaigns become more civil and issue-focused, reducing gender-based attacks. 
• Voters are freed from “electability” anxieties, which disproportionately harm women and candidates of color. 
• More candidates can run without fear of splitting the vote, making room for new voices, younger leaders, and diverse identities. 

RCV doesn’t guarantee that a woman will win, but it creates the conditions for women to compete on equal footing. And what we have found is that when women have a fair opportunity to run, and voters have the chance to vote their true preferences, voters more often elect women. 

If the Democratic Party adopted RCV for its presidential primaries, it would reshape the landscape for women seeking the highest office in the country, offering an antidote to the “electability” anxiety that continually sidelines women contenders (the same anxiety I wrote about in my opinion piece in The Fulcrum this week). 

Later in December, RepresentWomen will be joining with our partners at FairVote in Los Angeles at an upcoming DNC gathering to learn more about this proposal and other priorities of the DNC Women’s Caucus. 

It is far too early to say whether RCV will be approved for 2028. The path is complex, and there is a long way to go. But the fact that the discussion is happening, at this moment, is promising. And we’re honored to be part of the conversation from the beginning, ensuring that the needs and voices of women are not sidelined in this process. We’ll be tracking this closely and sharing more as these conversations continue to unfold. 

When Women Lead, Peace Follows

Far be it from me to overstate the impact of women’s leadership — or to suggest all women will govern in similar ways, but as we have entered into the time of gratitude this holiday season, I wanted to uplift a thoughtful recent post on the League of Women Voters US blog by Connie Sensor of the LWV UN Observer Group — one that touches me in part as I think of my late mother Carolyn Nicholson Terrell’s activism on the United Nations with the League of Women Voters decades ago in Hamilton, New York.

Here, Connie summarizes the long path still needed to bring half the world’s population to equality, but also what it might mean: 

"In January 2025, the United Nations released a report highlighting the underrepresentation of women in political power. According to their research: 

• Only 25 countries were led by a female head of state or government.
• Only 22.9% of cabinet ministers worldwide were female, with underrepresentation in foreign affairs and defense. 
• As of 2024, 113 countries worldwide had never had a woman serve as Head of State or Government. 
• As of 2024, women made up a mere 21% of UN permanent representatives. Since 1947, just 7% of all ambassadors have been women, and 73 countries have never had a female representative. 

As we celebrate UN Day and the 80th Anniversary of the United Nations, we must note that there is still the huge issue of gender inequality within an institution designed to defend human rights and promote peace, security, and sustainable development around the world. 

Increasing gender equity and representation isn’t just a symbolic gesture. Studies suggest it’s also directly connected to international well-being. Women’s empowerment and gender equality are notably linked to “more peaceful and stable outcomes” internationally. Larger gender gaps tend to correlate with higher involvement in inter- and intrastate conflict. Further, “the severity of violence used in international conflict decreases with higher gender equality.” Likewise, evidence suggests that peace processes that engage more women tend to last longer.  

Women’s Leadership in the UN: In the 80 years since the founding of the United Nations, eight Secretaries-General have led the institution, all of whom have been men. This year, the United Nations begins its search for a new Secretary-General to succeed Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term is set to conclude in 2026. There is a large effort from many groups to elect a female Secretary-General, whose term would begin in January 2027. 

At the recent UN General Assembly, Gabriel Boric Font, President of Chile, noted that it was “time to remedy” the UN’s historic lack of a female Secretary-General. Pointing out that it was Latin America’s turn to fill the post, he nominated Michelle Bachelet, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and two-time President of Chile.  Meeting coverage noted that “having a woman at the helm of the UN would send a clear signal that nowhere is closed off to women.

What is the UN’s Role in Women’s Leadership? The UN is well-positioned to promote and analyze women’s advancement at the local, regional, and national levels, and to identify strategies that can be implemented by national governments.

Per UN Women, “achieving gender parity is an urgent priority, not only as a basic human right, but also as it is essential” to the UN’s efficacy and credibility. In 2017, the UN launched a “system-wide strategy on gender parity,” with commitments aimed at achieving parity by 2028. It addresses issues like unconscious bias in recruitment and aims to create a more inclusive workplace by transforming institutional culture.

Female representation in the ranks of the UN is essential given its role as an international leader in human rights. According to a statement from Bahá’í International Community, “The UN’s role will continue to be critical in raising awareness of, and advocating for, the principle of gender equality as a fundamental prerequisite for peace on the international stage, as well as in shaping relevant international policy frameworks. The UN is also uniquely positioned to model, within its own internal structures and operations, a culture that dismantles patriarchal norms and centers approaches that are inclusive and collaborative.”

At this critical time when women’s rights are backsliding globally, we need to think not only about what is broken, but also about what is possible. Sima Bahous, UN Under Secretary General and UN Women Executive Director, recently stated, "When women lead, peace follows."

We couldn’t agree more. 

That's all for this week, my friends, 

Cynthia 

Executive Director, RepresentWomen

P.S. — 

A plate full of comfort and tradition. Cooking this meal each year is one of my happiest rituals — a reminder that nourishment is as much about togetherness as it is about food. 🦃🥰

There’s something so grounding about setting a table with care. These familiar plates, passed down and pulled out each year, remind me how much joy I find in preparing a space for the people I love. 🍽️🫶

Baking is one of my love languages, and these little blueberry pies with heart-shaped crusts are my way of saying, "I’m grateful for you" to the people around my table. 🥧🫐💙