RepresentWomen undertakes all of our research projects to further understand the current landscape of women's political and judicial representation across demographic and social divides. We use our research to ground and develop our advocacy strategies to build a culture of change and progress for women's representation throughout the country. 

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Caucuses are composed of people who are united to promote an agreed upon cause. Women’s Caucuses specifically exist to advance women’s issues. Often bipartisan in nature, these caucuses exist on a state by state basis because there is no national women’s commission. 

A growing number of studies confirm that women are disadvantaged by electoral rules, norms, and systems. Therefore, having women’s caucuses that would focus on recruitment targets for women candidates, mentoring programs to track potential candidates for office at the local and state level, and ways to increase funding of women candidates who run for office would ensure that women all over the country have the chance to run, win, serve and lead. 

To take a look at further research regarding the states and territories that currently have Women’s caucuses: National Conference of State Legislatures

Want to help more women run, win, serve, and lead? Take Action 

Once in elected office, women’s representation must move beyond tokenism To achieve this, legislatures must adopt modern workplace rules and legislative practices so women can serve safely and effectively and rise through the ranks into leadership positions.

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To learn more, look through our "Women Serving" page.

Other supporters of these reforms include: The House Select Committee on Modernization

• Legislative reforms we support
• Share with my community
• Contact my local officials

RepresentWomen regularly works with allies and partners outside of politics to discuss the best practices for gender-balanced leadership in their own fields. We can learn so much from one another. Let's bring thought leaders together from politics, the corporate sector, athletics, and the entertainment industry and set the conversation early for 2020. 

To honor the women who came before us, let us ensure that their legacies are upheld by convening a group of women who can discuss best practices and launch additional campaigns, determine the practical implementation of such campaigns moving forward, and decide on pragmatic strategies for their enforcement. 

In order for women to serve effectively once in elected office, gender balanced representation is not enough on its own. Workplace culture and norms must evolve past the 'old boys clubs' that continue to dominate many fields as our elected officials become more diverse in terms of gender, race, ideology and age. 

Below are suggestions on how to dismantle the barriers which prevent women from serving safely and effectively.

Take Action 

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• Legislative Rules Changes
• Fairer Legislative Practices
• Women’s Caucuses

RepresentWomen’s mission is to strengthen our democracy by advancing reforms that break down barriers to ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead. Even following several "record"-breaking election cycles for women candidates, women continue to be underrepresented at every level of elected office. 

More women in elected and appointed positions at every level of government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, reviving bi-partisanship and collaboration, improving the deliberative process, encouraging a new style of leadership, and building greater trust in our elected bodies.

RepresentWomen accomplishes its mission in these 4 ways:

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RepresentWomen started as Representation2020, a program of the non-partisan reform group FairVote, that worked to build a solid intellectual foundation from which future work could grow. The team engages in research to track the status of women’s representation in the US and abroad, understand the underlying reasons women are underrepresented, and find evidence-based solutions to mitigate the problem. This inquiry resulted in a suite of reports, studies, and tracking tools that follow trends in women’s representation in the US and internationally.

This slideshow gives some additional background information on who we are, our research, and our ongoing projects.

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• Our Work
• Why Women?
• What Do We Mean By Gender Balance?
• Moving Beyond the Gender Binary