The 2019 elections heralded many local victories for women across the country—including the decision by voters in New York City to adopt ranked choice voting. Eleven jurisdictions used RCV on November 5, including five that used it for the first time—and women were big winners. Among the nine jurisdictions using RCV to elect their city councils, three are now majority women, and a fourth has a majority of women on its combined city council and school board elected by RCV. In the five cities electing mayors with RCV at the ballot box, women won three races, including two challengers who defeated incumbents in multi-candidate races.

Last month’s elections in Switzerland culminated in many historic outcomes, including the highest turnover of seats (58)—with the People’s Party losing 12, the Green Party adding 17 and women seizing 20 more in the House of Representatives. Prior to the election, the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s global ranking of women’s representation in national parliaments had Switzerland in 38th place, with the percentage of women in the House at 32.5 percent. Although their updated rankings have not yet been released, it seems likely that Switzerland will now rise to the top 20 ranked countries.

New Yorkers today will vote on Measure 1—and with a population of 8.6 million, the city has the chance to double the number of Americans who currently use ranked-choice voting (RCV) by voting yes. In a ranked-choice vote election, voters rank as many or as few candidates as they like in order of choice; first, second, third and so on. When a candidate has a majority of first-choice rankings, they win—just like in any election. But if no candidate has a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and voters whose first choice lost have their votes instantly go to their next choice. The process repeats until two candidates remain, and the candidate with the majority wins.  Eighteen cities already use RCV. And for women candidates, it’s a major boon.

Representative Don Beyer of Virginia has proposed a plan for ranked-choice voting that would make the U.S. House less partisan and more representative for all. Imagine being a Democrat this November, the morning after this year’s midterm elections. And imagine your heart sinking: Republican gerrymanders held well in key states, and despite making more than a dozen gains, Democrats have failed to take the House.

By Kate Elizabeth Queram, Staff Correspondent  Despite gains in the 2018 midterm election, women remain a minority across all levels of government, according to data released this week. The 2019 Gender Parity Index, released annually by Maryland-based nonprofit RepresentWomen, found that “women are underrepresented at the national, state, and local level, and that parity for men and women in elected office is unlikely to occur without structural changes in recruitment, electoral, and legislative rules.”

By Susan J. Demas In 2018, Michigan racked up national headlines for electing three women to top statewide offices: Gretchen Whitmer as governor, Dana Nessel as attorney general and Jocelyn Benson as secretary of state. That’s one reason why the Mitten State is now the sixth-best state in the nation for women in office, according to the 2019 Gender Parity Index from the Takoma Park, Md.-based group RepresentWomen.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, few states elected more women to public office than Wyoming did. While women still made up a significant minority of the state’s male-dominated state Legislature, Wyoming ranked among the top 10 states in the nation for the proportion of women it elected to serve in the capital each year. At the same time, 1995 saw Wyoming elect its first female congresswoman – Barbara Cubin – following up with two additional women in longtime state lawmaker Cynthia Lummis and the Equality State’s current Congresswoman, Liz Cheney.

Ella T. Grasso made history in 1974 as the first woman elected governor in her own right but Connecticut now lags behind other states when it comes to gender parity in elective office. A non-partisan group that tracks female representation in government gives the state a D for the number of women serving in local, state and federal positions.

Women's lives improve when government is more inclusive. So let's do this already.  Rep. Cheri Bustos, the Illinois lawmaker who is charged with ensuring House Democrats hold on to their majority, had some brutally honest words for a 20-something woman asking when Congress might see gender parity. “Probably in your lifetime, not mine,” Bustos, a 57-year-old Congress member in her fourth term, said during a March event. At the gathering, hosted by the Wing in Washington, DC, Bustos spoke at length about the need to recruit more women to the Democratic Party (she’d like to get to set a new record in the House, building on the 89 who are currently serving) while recognizing just how many challenges remain.

By Lindsey Ellefson The electoral system is rigged against women in the U.S., Cynthia Terrell, founder and executive director of RepresentWomen, said Thursday at TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast in Washington, D.C. While noting that the U.S. continues to lag far behind other countries worldwide in female representation in elected office, Terrell said that there are concrete steps that can be taken to correct the situation.