Dear friends,
This week marked the birthday of Alice Paul, born in 1885 she was a suffragist, Quaker, author of the ERA, New Jersey born and bred, who said this about equality “when the Quakers were founded, one of their principles was and is equality of the sexes. So I never had any other idea, the principle was always there” and this about the the Woman's Party "it's made up of women of all races, creeds and nationalities who are united on the one program of working to raise the status of women." Google celebrated with the image above and Heavy.com published Alice Paul: 5 Facts You Need to Know.
Kelly Dittmar and Christine Jahnke had a terrific piece on Medium entitled Third Woman in a Row to Deliver State of the Union Response. Does it Matter? on Gov Nikki Haley's response to the SOTU.
Another great read is Sarah Lenti's interview with Lt Governor Jenean Hampton, the first African American to ever hold statewide office in KY.
The Washington Post had a very interesting piece on the growing power of African American women voters.
I have attached a paper written by Shauna Shames on Barriers and Solutions to Increasing Women's Political Power from last winter that provides a great overview of the barriers to representation and a set of action steps that I think we should review and discuss. I think it will be terrific to have a plan for winning parity - much like Shauna's - that weaves together the many different areas of work needed for success. More on that soon!
For more scholarly work on women's representation check out the Center for American Women and Politics Research Inventory on Political Parity's website - quite a useful collection.
VoteRunLead is hiring so please visit their website if you are interested.
Ignite is planning conferences in 2016 in California and in Texas - they both look great.
Buy your tickets now for the Ms Foundation's 20th Comedy Night at Caroline's in New York City.
There was an article in The New York Times on Samantha Bee's plan to break up the all-male late-night-show-host-club!
If you are interested in ranked choice voting - a system which favors women candidates - please read this excellent piece in Forbes from this week and watch this video that explains RCV.
And finally, this week marked an anniversary for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority that was founded at Howard University. The first public act of Delta Sigma Theta was the Women's Suffrage March in Washington D.C., March 3, 1913. It is the largest African American Greek lettered organization in the world. Famous members include: Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Mary Church Terrell. Some of the early members are pictured below.
Thanks again for reading - please send along anything you would like to share with the group that now numbers over 150 strong!
All the best for this weekend when we are reminded of the hard work and sacrifice that justice and equality require of us.
Cynthia