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Pages tagged "Topic:Gender balanced funding & recruitment targets"

Policy Solutions for Gender Balanced Representation

Electing more women to government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, improving policy outcomes, encouraging a new style of leadership, and cultivating trust in our elected bodies. 

To advance women's representation and leadership in the United States, we must adopt proven policy solutions that address the structural barriers women face as candidates & as elected officials. These institutional strategies are a natural complement to individual candidate training programs.

 

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Gender balanced funding and recruitment targets so more women RUN

Establish or join a Women’s Caucus that oversees the following:

  • Developing targets for the recruitment of women candidates.
  • Evaluating the best practices to encourage more women to run.
  • Preparing an annual report on the status of women's representation in: party leadership, elected offices, and appointed positions.

Support legislation that allows candidates to use campaign funds to pay for childcare expenses.


Ranked choice voting so more women WIN

Upgrade the voting system to use ranked choice voting (also known as instant run-off voting) for both single and multi-winner elections. Maine and Alaska are the only US states who have used RCV in statewide elections - Alaska's first use being in 2022. Maine is ranked second in RepresentWomen’s 2022 Gender Parity Index.

Policy language examples:

Example: FairVote's Model Statute 

Example: Statewide Maine


Legislative rules changes so more women can SERVE

Modernize the governmental workplace so that all legislators can serve effectively once elected with the following rules changes:

  • On-site childcare
  • Paid leave for legislators
  • Telecommuting Proxy voting
  • Family-friendly schedules
  • Living wages for legislators

Policy language examples:

Example: Santa Fe Living Wage Ordinance 

Example: Family Friendly Workplace Ordinance, San Francisco 

Example of On-site Childcare in Practice 


Gender balanced appointment targets so more women LEAD

Recruitment for top staff and leadership positions must engage diverse slates of candidates to ensure gender balanced representation.

Adopt rules for gender balanced appointments. Commit to diverse appointments to cabinets, commissions and vacancies, establishing or maintaining gender balance as the norm.

Policy language examples:

Example: 2009 Iowa Gender Balanced Boards and Commissions 

Example: Illinois Gender Balanced Appointments Act 

Example: North Dakota Century Code


What Moms in Politics Really Want This Mother’s Day: Campaign-Funded Childcare

Mom Is Running for Office - The New York Times                                                                          Image source: New York Times

By Katie Usalis

This piece was originally published in Ms. Magazine, 5/6/2022

U.S. women are more likely to become moms now than they were a decade ago, Pew Research shows—which means we are seeing an increase of moms running for office. Just last week, Minnesota state Senate candidate Erin Maye Quade actually gave a campaign speech while in labor, where we can see her literally breathing through contractions at the podium. She eventually had to withdraw from the debate and her opponent won the party’s endorsement. What is it like to be a mother running for office?

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Women RUN Video

RepresentWomen's mission is to reform the institutions and structures that hold women back from running for office rather than forcing women to change. Increasing the recruitment, training, and funding of women candidates will be more effective in getting women elected at every level of government. It's time we dismantle these barriers for women who want to run for office.


Recruitment Targets Slidedeck

Teach others about recruitment targets!

Use our presentation on gender balance rules in the US and around the world to teach your community about the benefits of recruitment targets.

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State Party Gender Rules Map

infogram_0_255989ed-b862-453a-a431-2aad87961edc2021 - State Party Rules Mapshttps://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed.js?xcTtext/javascript


Pantsuit Politics Podcast

7.2020 Pantsuit Politics "How To Be A Citizen: What's Next?"

In the final installment of the "How To Be A Citizen" series the Pantsuit Politics hosts look at the importance of structural reforms to address structural issues facing the United States. In this episode, they interview RepresentWomen Founder and Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell on the history of structural reforms in the U.S. and what we should do going forward. 

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The Alliance Party After Dark Podcast

7.2020 The Alliance Party After Dark 

This podcast from The Alliance Party discusses the work of RepresentWomen with Founder and Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell and the impact more women in political office could have.  

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Women in Political Innovation Podcast

5.2020 WIPI Conversation with Katherine Gehl and Cynthia Richie Terrell

Women in Political Innovation was founded by Katherine Gehl in May 2019 with the goal of bringing together women working on politics at a systems and structural level. This podcast recorded during May 2020, is a conversation between WIPI Founder Katherine Gehl and RepresentWomen Founder and Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell. 

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PACs and Donors: Agents of Change for Women's Representation

PACs should set funding targets for cis-women, transgender folk, and nonbinary candidates as well as increase those targets every election cycle until our elected bodies reflect the gender diversity of the population. With public pressure, equal funding for male, female, and genderqueer candidates may become a value proposition for PACs. The PAC environment is highly competitive and they are always looking for new ways to look different from other PACs to appeal to donors.

Read more about the breakdown of PAC giving in 2018 and our recommendations for PACs and donors in our 2020 PACs and Donors report.

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2020 Party Rules Brief


Since women earned the right to vote 100 years ago, political parties have been looking for ways to engage women in the political process. Both the Democratic and Republican national parties have enacted gender balance rules to attempt to achieve gender parity amongst their state delegates to national conventions. Following these national policies, some state parties have established guidelines for choosing who to send to their state conventions, requiring gender balance at local levels. The team at RepresentWomen has worked with the pro-bono team at Hogan Lovells to research each state party’s rules. The visuals are based on that research. This brief explores the history and the constitutionality of these rules.

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