Dear readers,

Happy Friday! This edition is brought to you by the RepresentWomen team, here to give you all the latest in women’s representation.

Most U.S. States Get a "D" for Women's Representation

Dear fans of gender balance in politics,

Many thanks to RepresentWomen research director Courtney Lamendola who worked with her terrific team to release the 2022 Gender Parity Index this week.

174 Years of Work for Women's Equality in the United States

Best Practices for Promoting Gender Balanced Cabinets

Dear fans of gender balance in politics, in anticipation of the 36 states and 3 U.S. territories that are holding gubernatorial elections this year, RepresentWomen released a report: Gender Balanced Cabinets: Where We Stand & Why It Matters and a brief on the Best Practices for Promoting Gender Balanced Appointments.

Ketanji Brown Jackson took the judicial oath just after noon on Thursday, becoming the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Justice Jackson, 51, was confirmed in April, when the Senate voted 53 to 47 on her nomination. She is replacing Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 83, who stepped down with the conclusion of the court’s current term.

While Cynthia is away representing us at the League of Women Voters National Convention in Denver, the RepresentWomen Staff have got you covered!

From teammate to teammate, we'll give you our must-reads for women’s representation from this week.

The Solutions Summit culminated in the creation of a resource guide of take-action items that were identified throughout the course of the Summit. The guide includes suggestions of practical ways to help combat systemic representation inequalities in politics, links to sign up for volunteering and advocacy efforts, and a variety of further readings and resources to take the next step in learning about the various issues discussed at the summit. Additionally, it highlights the female changemakers who spoke about each issue at the summit and provides links to further background about each speaker.

"After 10 years, since the European Commission proposed this directive, it is high time we break the glass ceiling," said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a statement. [European Union, 2022]

EU lawmakers on Tuesday (7 June) agreed on a continental target to establish better gender balance on the boards of companies in Europe.

Negotiators from the EU member states and European Parliament said they found common ground on a proposal that was first made by the European Commission, the EU’s executive, in 2012.

The historical impact of Title IX extends far beyond the reaches of sports. The landmark legislation, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and education programs, was passed 50 years ago this month. It coincided with enormous growth in educational attainment for American women1 and has been applied toward reducing sexual violence on campus and promoting transgender rights in recent years. But athletics have been at the center of Title IX from the very beginning. (Even the fight around it used sports as a battleground: Witness the early attempt by Sen. John Tower of Texas to exempt high-profile men’s sports from counting toward Title IX compliance.)2 Title IX challenged the long-standing notion that sports belonged to men — and men only. And its effects were felt both in the short term and over the half-century that has followed.