Dear Readers,

Thursday, March 20, marked the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere! Spring is traditionally a time for new beginnings -- when the weather gets warmer and the first flowers of the year bloom. One of the first flowers to bloom are daffodils -- a sunny and bright flower symbolizing renewal, self-reflection, and hope. These daffodils in my garden are reminding me, in this uncertain time, that there will always be something blooming around the corner.

I am so excited to share that the recordings of the 2025 Democracy Solutions Summit are now available! Over three days, 43 expert speakers shared impactful solutions to strengthen democracy and increase women's representation, with over 200 attendees joining daily. The recordings from the summit are now live on our YouTube channel! Do not miss out -- they are great resources with practical steps on building a coalition, reforming our electoral systems, keeping women candidates safe when running for office, and so much more. The Democracy Solutions Summit is one of the highlights of my year, and I am feeling refreshed and energized following three days of talking about actionable solutions on creating a more representative government. 

March 22 also marks the anniversary of when Congress first ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution with bipartisan support. Earlier ERA versions were introduced in Congress as early as 1923, with little support from elected officials until the 1970s. Thirty states almost immediately ratified the Constitutional amendment, but the ratification ultimately did not meet the 38-state requirement by 1982. Beginning in 2018, state legislatures took a renewed interest in ERA -- with Virginia ratifying it in January 2020. Renewed activism like this at the state level shows that there is a crucial need for women to serve their communities at every level of government- especially in State Houses across the country. 

Former Cabinet Secretary Deb Haaland, painted by Melanie Humble

Additional women’s milestones to celebrate this week include: Deb Haaland becoming the first Native American woman to serve in a Presidential Cabinet in 2021, the Alaskan Territories passed a bill granting women suffrage in 1913, and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state laws that designated a husband as “head and master” of the household with unilateral control of property in 1981. Notable women’s birthdays include: Dr Nancy Walker; Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, Joan Blades co-founder of MoveOn, MomsRising & Livingroom Conversations; Tamaya Dennard; and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner executive director of MomsRising.

Women in India Organize to Strengthen Gender Quota Laws

Women in India face challenges in securing fair representation due in part to its U.S.-style plurality voting rules but have been successful in securing gender quotas, starting at the local level and soon to be applied nationally in a nation where women hold only 15% of parliamentary seats. This week, The New York Times has an important news story about how quotas are working - and how women are working to improve representation. Here’s an excerpt:

Since 1992, the national rules concerning panchayats, or traditional village councils, have promised that one-third and in some cases one-half of all seats will be set aside for women. The idea was to lift up a generation of female leaders and to make the councils more attuned to women’s needs. The spirit of this law, however, is often disregarded, even when the letter is obeyed. The women who are supposed to take seats in the panchayat end up serving as deputies to their own husbands, who wield power alongside the elected men. There is a well-known term in Hindi, pradhan pati, for this “boss husband” role.

India has a long way to go to empower women at the national level, too. Only about 15 percent of members of Parliament are women, and there are just two women in the 30-member cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government approved a constitutional amendment in 2023 to reserve a third of all parliamentary seats for women, though it will not go into effect for at least another four years….

The national government has recognized the problem [with boss husbands]. It commissioned a report in 2023 aimed at “eliminating efforts for proxy participation,” and last month it proposed “exemplary penalties” against husbands who usurp their wives’ roles

“Who’s Afraid of Gender?”

Judith Butler, author of Who’s Afraid of Gender (2024), takes a deep dive in the London Review of Books into the Trump administration’s Executive Order 14168, entitled ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” She discusses how attacks on our modern understanding of gender are rising as a political tool around the world. Here is an excerpt from this timely read:

“Trump’s edict aims at removing ‘gender ideology extremism’ from public discourse and all federally funded activity. The state takes it for granted that ‘gender ideology’ exists, but what if this term is actually a slur, something invented to reduce and demonise the complex, productive, often fractious, certainly indispensable work done by social movements, and by those involved in scholarship, social policy and law? We may reasonably ask if it is only the putatively ‘extremist’ forms of gender ideology that are to be opposed. If so, is there a proposed criterion by which ‘extremist’ gender ideology can be distinguished from the non-extremist kind? Since the federal government is opposing a phenomenon it takes to be real, it stands to reason that it should tell us how to recognise that phenomenon and how to tell the difference between its impermissible and potentially permissible forms. As things stand, any reference to ‘gender’ in the documentation pertaining to government-financed allocations, including university grants, healthcare and civil rights protections, puts those allocations at risk.

If there is no such thing as ‘gender ideology’, if it is a phantasm conjured up for the purpose of opposing a raft of social policies benefiting women, children and trans, queer, nonbinary and intersexed people, then gender ideology can itself be said to be ‘constructed’. Of course it was the claim that gender is ‘socially constructed’ that enraged its opponents in the first place, especially when they misread that theory to mean that a social category somehow brings into being the thing it names. Now, in turn, they seek to produce a social consensus that ‘gender ideology’ not only exists, but that it is a dangerous, even destructive, force.”

YouGov Survey of 1000 Voters in Ballot Measure States is Promising for the Future

Last week, our good friends at FairVote released a report analyzing a YouGov survey of 1,000 voters in states who were voting on reform last year. Although reform only won in Alaska and DC, the release suggests hope for the future. Here are the key findings

A newly released YouGov poll sampling 1,000 voters provides insight on voters across these states (Colorado, South Dakota, Arizona, Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, DC). Among these states, South Dakota, Arizona, and Montana did not vote on ranked choice voting. Key findings include:

• A majority of voters with an opinion on the reforms support RCV, open primaries, and nonpartisan primaries.
• Support for RCV is highest among young voters, with 71% support among voters under 40, and majority support among voters ages 40 to 64. This aligns with previous findings showing RCV is most popular with young voters. 
• Support for RCV is higher among voters of color, with 62% support among Black voters and 61% support among Hispanic voters. 
• 58% say they would like more candidates to choose from in general elections, showing an appetite for election reform that would facilitate a wider range of choices. 

Greenland Election Shows Proportional Representation in Practice

Credit: Brukar

President Donald Trump’s recent threats to take over Greenland made its elections earlier this month all the more important to track - and see proportional representation in practice. Nearly all voters helped elect a party of choice. Here is a story from The New York Times analyzing the results:

With Greenland thrust into the spotlight by President Trump’s insistence that the United States will somehow “get” it, Greenlanders held a closely watched election on Tuesday that took on unusual importance — not just for the outside world, but for them as well.

Voter turnout hit its highest level in more than a decade, and polling stations on the remote, sparsely populated island, which is partly controlled by Denmark, stayed open late to accommodate long lines.

But with all votes counted early Wednesday morning, the results were mixed.

The winner was Demokraatit, a party that has been critical of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric. It has taken a moderate stance on the subject of independence from Denmark, which most Greenland politicians support as a long-term goal.

Greenland is part of Denmark today. Underscoring the seriousness in which Danes take gender equity, they have done an intensive review of the status of women in government and society over time, with this release in 2021 focused on Greenland, including how women in parliament had dropped in the 31-member parliament from 32% to 11%. Here is an excerpt from the report:

“This article investigates the process of ensuring gender equality in Greenland by reviewing the examination-related official documents—such as state reports and the CEDAW Committee's concluding observations—along with contributions made by human rights institutions and civil society. It will focus on areas directly related to Greenland, primarily where the Committee has mentioned Greenland directly or where the Greenlandic authorities themselves have made contributions to the reporting process. The aim is to create an overview of the official status of women's rights in Greenland, which hopefully will help further the process of ensuring equality.

The article is divided into eleven sections. First, there is a brief historical overview of the examination sessions. Second is an overview of overall initiatives. The third section covers the legislative framework ensuring women's rights. From here, the subsequent sections cover one issue each: the fourth section covers gender-based violence; the fifth covers politics and representation; the sixth covers education; the seventh covers work; and the eighth covers health. The ninth section covers several smaller neglected issues, and the tenth section covers those related to climate change, while the eleventh section is a brief conclusion.”

Women's Rights Are at Risk as Threats to Democracy Continue Globally

Credit REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

A new U.N. report highlights the global decline of women’s rights, attributing it to the rise of authoritarian regimes. The report, released ahead of the 69th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), finds that nearly a quarter of governments worldwide report backlash against women’s rights. The report links democratic erosion to resistance against gender equality, as authoritarian leaders promote traditional family roles, restricting women’s freedom.

In a healthy democracy, women and girls should be able to vote, run, win, serve, and lead without hindrance. Removing barriers to women's free participation in politics is essential to ensuring the protection of their rights. 

Emma Cordover writes for Politico:

The March 6 report from U.N. Women released ahead of the conference found that progress on women’s rights is on a downward trend around the world. In 2024, nearly a quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash on women’s rights.

“We are witnessing the mainstreaming of chauvinism and misogyny,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement. “As we see in every corner of the world, from pushback to rollback, women’s rights are under attack.”

The report tracked data from member countries’ five-year national-level reviews of progress and challenges, and 30-year reviews of reports from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and Western Asia. It found that around the world, there was a “disturbing 50 percent increase in the number of women and girls living in conflict, and women’s rights defenders confront daily harassment, personal attacks and even death.”

History-Making Skier Elevate Show Women Coaches Bring a Different Approach 

Mikaela Shiffrin, a 29-year-old woman skier, has soared far past previous leaders in career wins on the World Cup alpine circuit. An injury took her off the slopes for two months this winter, but she came storming back in a slalom race to earn her 100th win, 14 more than the previous leader. The New York Times lifted up an important part of the Shiffrin legacy: women in leadership as coaches.

But on the long road to her 100th win, Shiffrin may have accomplished something even more groundbreaking — in her sport and plenty of others. Over the last year and a half, Shiffrin, at the very top of the game, has built a support team dominated by women. This could have an even bigger impact on her sport than another trip down the ski hill that ends on the top step of the podium…. [T]here is no doubt that Shiffrin has been very intentional about populating her inner circle with women in a way that most top athletes, male or female, have rarely done…[Shiffrin’s mother] Eileen Shiffrin said in a series of text messages that female coaches can bring a different sensibility to sports, but she has seen female coaches be too tough on their athletes as they try to prove themselves in a predominantly male-centric world. “In doing that, they can lose that sensibility,” Eileen Shiffrin wrote. “But I do think that female athletes, or a lot of female athletes relate well to, or better to, strong female coaches.”... “The female coaches I have seen or worked with are incredibly tough and hard workers with a ton of grit but also a gentler side which athletes, whether male or female, can benefit from,” Eileen Shiffrin said. She has come to gauge her daughter’s state of mind by how much she sees her laughing with her team. “There has been a lot of that lately,” she said before the season in November. “That’s always a great sign that we are in a good place.”

Boston, Massachusetts, is Considering Adopting Ranked Choice Voting

Testimony in support of RCV from October 2024 taken by National Partnerships Manager Victoria Pelletier

Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune is moving forward with her proposal to use RCV in municipal elections five years after an RCV proposal failed statewide. She cited issues with our current plurality-voting systems leading to candidates being elected with only 30% of the vote as part of the reason for the proposal. The switch to RCV would need to be approved by the Boston City Council, Mayor Michelle Wu, the Legislature, and Governor Maura Healey before going to Boston voters. Back in 2020, RCV garnered over 60% of support from Bostonians. 

Saraya Wintersmith of GBH writes:

To solve that, Louijeune is preparing a proposal that would shift Boston to a system that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. In this system, each voter’s top pick is counted, and the candidate with the smallest share of those first-preference votes is eliminated. Voters whose first choice is eliminated will then have their votes tallied for their second choice, and the process continues for subsequent preference choices until a candidate reaches 51% of the vote.

Under her still-developing proposal, Boston preliminary elections would remain in place. The preliminary contests for mayor and district city councilor would advance four candidates instead of just two to the general election. The contest for at-large city councilor would remain largely the same, with eight candidates advancing from the preliminary. Voters in the general election would then rank their preferences and candidates who reach the threshold of 20% win.

That's all for this week! Have a great weekend.

Cynthia Richie Terrell

P.S 

Next week is a follow-up conservation on the 2025 Democracy Solutions Summit. Join the Women's Power Collaborative for our DSS After Hours Event! Connect with other attendees of the Democracy Solutions Summit, ask questions, and continue the conversation on March 25 from 4 to 5 EST.