Dearest friends,
I have been in India for a week now but it feels like much longer - each day has been packed with such interesting meetings with government officials, news executives, educators, health experts and others. We've also toured many a monument, mosque, and temple and at each I find throngs of girls who want to talk and take selfies. They are a constant reminder of the importance and urgency of the work we all are doing on behalf of women and girls - and everyone - everywhere.
We've also met with some amazing women's representation advocates including Swati Maliwal who is the head of the Delhi Commission for Women - she is an incredible young woman.
Diane Cornman-Levy of Women's Way in Philadelphia, Swati, and Allison Frank who works for an Ohio state senator.
While I wasn't able to watch the debates I gather from Twitter that Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris were thought to have done quite well on their respective nights - what a difference it makes to have multiple women on the debate stage each night.
Debbie Walsh from CAWP had an OpEd in The Washington Post about the role of women candidates in the debates:
The gender diversity in this year’s Democratic debates will be not only unprecedented but also informative — providing us with indicators of just how far the party and voters have come in disrupting the dominance of masculinity and men in presidential politics. Neither women nor men will be making a case for candidacy that is based primarily upon their gender, but ignoring the gender dynamics at play in the debate means missing out on the symbolic, strategic and substantive effects of their presence on presidential politics.
It's great to see so many women candidates among those recruited by the National Congressional Campaign Committee as reported in this story in the Washington Times:
On recruiting, there have been similar successes. In places that Republicans need to win, they have recruited top tier candidates who give them the absolute best shot to do so. Candidates like Nicole Malliotakis in the 11th District of New York, Ashley Hinson in the 1st District in Iowa, Evelyn Sanguinetti in the 6th District of Illinois, Kathy Landing in the 1st District of South Carolina and Amanda Makkei in the 13th District of Florida. The National Republican Congressional Committee has done a phenomenal job finding strong candidates willing to run in the most important districts and it is clear that it is placing a priority on increasing the number of women in the Republican caucus. This has typically been an elusive recruiting goal at the NRCC, but Mr. Emmer and his team have had unparalleled success.
According to my dear husband who tracks elections with a passion, there was big news from the NYC primary this week in the Queens DA race, where a very progressive young Latina apparently has defeated an older white women for an open seat. See this article from the Gotham Gazette or more details:
Denmark has a new young, prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, according to this story from CNN International:
Frederiksen was due to meet Queen Margrethe II of Denmark on Wednesday afternoon in order for her to be formally appointed as Prime Minister. On Thursday Frederiksen was also expected to present the monarch to her new ministers, Reuters reported.
Finally, the photos from the G20 Summit in Osaka are a reminder of the under-representation of women as leaders on the world stage - here's to all the many strategies employed in each and every nation to advance women's representation and leadership. May we all learn from one another.
Namaste,
Cynthia
