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Thank You
Thank you so much for your donation to RepresentWomen.
Your contribution will be used to support RepresentWomen's work to advance gender balance in elected office through systems reforms that enable more women to run, win, serve, and lead.
Follow our work on social media via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Medium and keep an eye out for RepresentWomen data and analysis on traditional news media sources as well.
Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about our work.
Many thanks,
Cynthia
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on November 19, 2021
Dear fans of women's representation and gender balance in politics,
This week has been a busy one in Washington, DC with important discussions about redistricting on Capitol Hill, in-person fundraising events with democracy advocates, and the launch of
More Voice DC in support of ranked choice voting for the District of Columbia. This morning I spoke at a press conference in support of the RCV measure introduced by council member
Christina Henderson and joined dozens of other supporters in testifying before the DC Council in support of the
VOICE Act:
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on November 12, 2021
Jeannette Rankin painted by Melanie Humble
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
On November 10, 1916
Jeannette Rankin, a Republican from Montana, became the first woman elected to the United States Congress. Rankin was elected from a multi-seat district but served just one term because Democrats switched to single winner districts while she was in office making it all but impossible for her to win re-election in 1918. Rankin, a devoted suffragist and pacifist, ran again and served a second term from 1941-1943:
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on November 05, 2021
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
Nearly a century after
the first woman was elected to the NYC council, women now hold 61% of the seats and the majority of those women are young women of color. Ranked choice voting was a key ingredient to women's electoral success in 1937 and in 2021.
As my colleague
Courtney Lamendola puts it "
one of the most promising aspects of ranked-choice voting comes down to how it redefines "electability" for women candidates. While voters and party leaders might otherwise worry about multiple women candidates running against one another in a winner-take-all election, in RCV elections, multiple women can run without splitting the vote, which has had a positive effect on the number of women running and winning in ranked-choice voting elections."
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on October 29, 2021
Greta Thunberg, painted by Melanie Humble
Dear friends,
Over the coming weeks advocates, experts, and elected officials will gather in Glasgow, Scotland for
COP26, an annual United Nations summit on climate change. My daughter
Becca Richie will be there with her colleagues from
Climate Clock to help pressure nations to commit to immediate and impactful measures to address the existential threats to our climate and planet.
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on October 22, 2021
Dear friends,
The
Ascend Fund announced
grants this week to groups in Washington Michigan, and Mississippi to advance women's representation in state legislatures. This is a terrific example of investing in strategies to better understand the best practices to get to gender balance in politics in our lifetimes.
Barbara Rodriguez, wrote
this article in
The 19th* about the grants that features comments from Ascend Fund director
Abbie Hodgson:
A Seattle-based fund is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into recruiting women to run for statehouse seats in three states, part of its effort to close the gender gap in American politics.
The group, called the Ascend Fund, announced Tuesday that it has awarded $600,000 to 13 nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations that will work to recruit and train statehouse candidates from across the political spectrum in Michigan, Mississippi and Washington. The groups will receive grant funding of $15,000 to $100,000, with an average award of $50,000.
Read more
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on October 15, 2021
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
Each week brings a new reminder that when there is not an intentional effort to ensure that women are nominated for positions & awards the male status quo fills the void. According to
this article on
Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's National Public Service Media platform, just one woman has been granted a Nobel prize in 2021 and
scientists are concerned that women were passed over despite their many contributions:
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on October 08, 2021
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
Women face steep barriers when running for executive offices in the United States so it is no surprise that of the 2,573 people who have served as governor in U.S. history only 45 have been women and only 9 women are currently in office.
Liz Crampton wrote
an interesting piece this week in
Politico about efforts by both major parties to increase the number of women in statewide executive office:
The struggle across parties for women to rise to the top within states speaks to the inherent bias against women that persists in politics. Research shows that women have to be more likeable, raise more money and generally work harder than their male counterparts in order to win. That’s why both the Democratic and Republican parties have vowed to invest more money and resources into supporting women gunning for governor in 2022.
Read more
By RepresentWomen
on October 02, 2021
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
We are excited to share that RepresentWomen is growing! As Cynthia is away this week, this Weekend Reading is brought to you by our team.
First up, we have a piece from Katie Usalis, our Outreach Coordinator:
I recently asked a friend of mine why she thought there were so few women in politics. Her response was that it’s probably because politics just isn’t the place for women, that it’s more of a “man thing.” Recent research in the American Political Science Review reveals that these beliefs don’t exist by accident, but that girls are socialized to lose political ambition from a very young age. The 19th*’s Barbara Rodriguez met with one of the authors to talk about how deep gender bias runs in American politics:
Read more
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on September 24, 2021
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
Paid leave is established law in all other developed countries but families in the United States continue to struggle to care for children, parents, and loved ones without jeopardizing their employment. While paid leave is essential across all sectors, RepresentWomen promotes its adoption for elected officials to ensure that caregivers can
serve effectively once elected to office.
Melinda French Gates brings renewed focus to the imperative of passing paid leave legislation in Congress with a
compelling piece in TIME Magazine:
By Cynthia Richie Terrell
on September 17, 2021
Candidates for Boston mayor Annissa Essaibi George & Michelle Wu, Boston Globe
Dear fans of gender balance in politics,
The results are in from the Boston mayoral primary and two women, Annissa Essabi George and Michelle Wu will advance to the general election ensuring that Boston will have a woman mayor come November no matter who wins. E.J. Dionne
wrote this commentary about the milestone election results, and the likely split vote between the two Black women candidates, in
The Washington Post:
