40% can take 100%.
Under winner-take-all, a candidate with 40% of the vote can win the whole seat, leaving the other 60% of voters without a voice.
Proportional representation (PR) elects several representatives per district, so the people in office reflect how voters actually voted. It ends the "wait your turn" math of winner-take-all elections and opens the door for more women to run, win, and lead.
5-Seat DistrictSeats mirror votes
The vote
The seats
Under winner-take-all, the 40% group could take all five.
More women are running than ever before, and more money is flowing into their races. Women have gained political power over the last decade, but progress remains slow, inconsistent, and unstable.
One critical piece is often overlooked: the voting system itself. The rules that decide who wins were designed before women could vote, and they still shape who runs, who wins, and who leads.
The United States declared independence from Britain 250 years ago, but we never declared independence from its voting system. One winner per district wastes votes, locks out political minorities, and keeps government from looking like the people it serves.
Under winner-take-all, a candidate with 40% of the vote can win the whole seat, leaving the other 60% of voters without a voice.
One seat means one winner. Women are told to step aside so they don't split the vote, and fewer women run as a result.
When one winner takes each district, whoever draws the lines can decide the outcome before a single vote is cast.
When competitive races disappear, representation calcifies. This cycle, fewer than 40 of 435 House seats are competitive.
Under PR, seats are allocated in proportion to the votes candidates or parties receive. If a group earns 40% of the vote, it wins about 40% of the seats. Because each district elects several representatives, multiple points of view can be represented at the same time.
Instead of one representative per district, a multi-member district elects several. In the U.S., these range from two seats to eleven.
Seats are divided based on each group's share of the vote, so a majority wins most seats but not every seat.
Nearly every voter helps elect someone they support, and there is room for more than one woman to run and win.
Same voters, same vote
Five single-seat districts
40% of the vote wins 100% of the seats. If Group A edges out its rivals everywhere, it takes every seat and 60% of voters go unrepresented.
One five-seat district
Seats mirror the vote. Group A wins 2 seats, Group B wins 2, and Group C wins 1. Nearly every voter helps elect someone.
With several seats up for election, women are less likely to be told to step aside, so more women run.
Nearly every voter helps elect a candidate they support, so more voices are heard in government.
When seats track the vote, district lines can't lock in outcomes, and governments are more resilient to polarization.
PR makes room for proven tools like gender quotas and placement mandates that have raised women's representation worldwide.
The pattern holds in national legislatures around the world.
of national legislative seats in PR countries are held by women, compared with 21% in winner-take-all countries.
women's representation in the seven countries that use mixed-member proportional systems.
more seats in Congress women would likely win under proportional ranked choice voting.
“We see different constituencies … and bring different values to the table.”
Of the 84 countries that use PR for their national legislature, most use party lists. Each form can be designed to elect more women.
Party list · placement mandate
Voters choose a party, and each party wins seats in proportion to its share of the vote, filling them from a ranked list of candidates. It's the most common form of PR, used in countries such as Sweden and South Africa. Lists make quotas and placement mandates simple to apply.
Your ballot · two votes
Voters cast two votes: one for a local representative elected in a single-winner district, and one for a party elected through PR. MMP keeps clear geographic representation while adding the diversity PR brings, and it allows quotas and placement mandates on the party side.
Seven countries, including Germany, New Zealand, and Mexico, use MMP. Women hold 36% of seats in those legislatures.
3-seat election
Win threshold: 25% of the vote
Stacked colors show votes transferred from other candidates. Example adapted from FairVote.
Voters rank individual candidates, not parties, in a multi-member district. Candidates win when they reach a threshold that shrinks as the number of seats grows. PRCV combines the fairness of proportional outcomes with the ease of a ranked ballot.
It's the least common form of PR at the national level, used by Ireland and Malta, but it has strong American roots and is gaining ground in states and cities.
More than 40 states have used multi-member districts at some point, and several still do. American cities used PRCV to elect their first women council members, and a new generation of cities is bringing it back.
Portland is the largest U.S. city to adopt PRCV, electing 12 council members from four three-seat districts. Its first election in 2024 produced the city's first gender-balanced council: women won 6 of 12 seats, four of them women of color, alongside LGBTQ leaders. It's the most representative council in Portland's history. Analyses also found high voter engagement and more competitive races.
Cambridge has elected its City Council and School Committee with PRCV for more than 80 years, and it continues to deliver diverse representation today.
In the early 20th century, PRCV helped Cleveland, Hamilton, Ohio, and New York City elect women to their city councils for the first time. When those cities returned to winner-take-all elections, that diversity was harder to sustain.
States that elect legislators from multi-member districts consistently elect more women than states that use only single-member districts, a pattern that has held for decades. When West Virginia moved its House of Delegates to single-member districts, women's representation declined.
of 193 countries use PR
Eighty-four countries use some form of proportional representation to elect their national legislature. Across them, women hold a larger share of seats than in winner-take-all systems.
The United States still elects Congress, and most state legislatures, by winner-take-all.
countries use a form of PR for their national legislature
use List PR
use mixed-member proportional
use proportional ranked choice voting
Sources: Inter-Parliamentary Union, International IDEA. Updated April 2026.
No. More than 40 states have used multi-member districts at some point, and several still do. Cambridge, Massachusetts, has used proportional ranked choice voting since 1941, and cities like Cleveland and New York City used it in the early 20th century.
Yes. Multi-member districts are still geographic districts; they are just larger and elect several representatives instead of one. That often means you have more than one representative you can turn to, and a better chance that one of them shares your views.
No. Quotas are a separate design choice that many PR countries have adopted, and they work best alongside PR. The U.S. has never adopted gender quotas for public office, though both major parties use quota-like language in their delegate rules.
Ranked choice voting usually elects one winner, who needs majority support. Proportional RCV uses the same ranked ballot to elect several winners in one district, so each group of voters can elect representatives in proportion to its support. PRCV is one form of PR.
Yes. A 1967 federal law requires single-member districts for the U.S. House, and Congress can change that law. The Fair Representation Act would elect the House using proportional RCV in multi-member districts.
No. PR gives voters of every party, and independent voters, a fair chance at representation, including Republicans in blue cities and Democrats in red regions who are shut out under winner-take-all.
We are the bridge between two movements that need each other. We bring research on women's representation to reform campaigns and legislatures, and we bring reform to the women's organizations, leaders, and candidates who benefit most.
Our research, including the Gender Parity Index and our international analysis, shows how election rules shape who runs, who wins, and who leads.
We testify before legislatures and city councils and support campaigns for proportional representation and ranked choice voting.
We bring women's organizations and leaders into the reform movement through the Women's Power Collaborative and state partnerships.
Help us redesign democracy for women, with women.
Research, reports, and analysis from RepresentWomen and our partners.
How Portland's first PRCV election changed who serves
What PR for the U.S. House could mean for women
State-level steps toward parity