Weekend Reading on Women's Representation September 21, 2018
By Nate Victor on September 21, 2018
Dear women's representation enthusiasts,
There was a very interesting story in ISS Today about women's representation in Somalia which has been increasing since the introduction and reintroduction of quotas - while compliance and implementation have been a challenge, women are 'claiming their place in Somalia politics":
Women's participation in Somali politics has traditionally been low, and a controversial topic in the country. Somali society typically ascribes to more conservative notions of a woman's role in family and community life, rarely envisioning a position of political leadership in a male-dominated system. This has been changing, but there's a long road ahead.
According to this piece on Broadly:
White men form the minority of House Democratic nominees this cycle, giving way to a wave of women and people of color who outnumber them.
An analysis from Politico found that women in the Democratic Party have clinched 180 House nominations this cycle; at least 133 Democratic House nominees are people of color, and 158 are first-time candidates, there being some overlap among the three categories.
Weekend Reading on Women's Representation September 7, 2018
Dear women's representation allies,
The primaries are nearly over save for remaining contests in New Hampshire (September 11), Rhode Island (September 12), & New York (September 13) according to the National Conference of State Legislatures while "Louisiana's Nov. 6, 2018, election is an all-comers primary, where candidates of all parties are listed on one ballot together. If no candidate for a race receives a majority of the votes, the winner will be determined in a runoff on December 8." As a reminder, the runoff elections that are triggered in Louisiana & elsewhere, if no candidate wins a majority, are costly and fewer voters participate in them making ranked choice voting a sensible solution.
Weekend Reading on Women's Representation August 31, 2018
This fall RepresentWomen will become fiscally independent from FairVote and we are planning a celebration! Please buy your ticket for the event & share the invite with others to help us fill the room with women's representation allies! Do let me know if you have any questions or would like to be on the host committee!
Thursday, October 11 (Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday)
Succotash Restaurant
Meet the Team: Baktybek Kainazarov
Coming from a patriarchal society in Central Asia, it is a great challenge to advocate for women's political participation and gender advancement. When I meet colleagues from governmental institutions and even from civil society organizations, they ask two questions: "Why does the political participation of women matter for our country and is it difficult to advocate for gender advancement while being male?" My simple answer is that I think about the future of my daughter and little sisters who are potentially vulnerable to issues such as underage marriage, bride kidnapping, gender based violence, and girls education.
My interests in gender advancement increased during my PhD research on Central Asian civil society, whereby I investigated the role of women in our society. Five years of research on the civil society sector of the post-Soviet region totally changed my view on gender issues and it gave me a great opportunity to explore cultural and traditional barriers faced by women and adolescent girls across the region. Hence, after my PhD research I committed myself to work in the area of gender equality at the academic and professional level.
If we can achieve gender parity in our student government associations, why haven't we reached the same in Congress?
By RepresentWomen by on August 25, 2018
In high schools around the country, the number of men and women that are interested in politics, and that run for student government are about equal. In college, about 52.93% of student government positions are held by women, which is representative of undergraduate students demographics. But that parity is not maintained after college. Despite making up 51% of the population, women only make up 20% of congress, and the problem isn't just getting elected – only 22% of this year's senatorial candidates are women, which is the highest it's ever been, but it still shows how few women are running. So why aren't women running for office nearly as much as they do in a scholastic environment?
(NY state assembly women Nathalia Fernandez & Patricia Fahy with Manhattan Borough president Gale Brewer at the Susan B Anthony Park in Rochester, NY)
Happy Women's Equality Weekend!
In 1971 Representative Bella Abzug (D NY) called for a women's equality day on August 26th of each year to commemorate ratification of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution that granted women the right to vote, according to the National Women's History Project:
At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), in 1971 and passed in 1973, the U.S. Congress designated August 26 as "Women's Equality Day."
The date was selected to commemorate the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world's first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York.
RepresentWomen and Nepali Elected Officials Discuss the Future of Women's Political Representation
From the hills of the Himalayas to our nation's capital, the fight for female representation in politics shares many of the same successes and setbacks.
Commonalities emerged during a robust and rewarding discussion between RepresentWomen staffers and eight Nepali women leaders. The women, a mix of federal, state and local government officials, visited FairVote's Takoma Park office on Tuesday as part of an visit coordinated by the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program and hosted by FHI 360.
The meeting also gave participants an opportunity to better understand how their respective country's electoral and gender parity policies differed.
#Women to Watch on September 4th
Ayanna Pressley's campaign message is simple: "Change Can't Wait." Pressley, a 44-year old African American woman, was the first black female Boston City Council member. She is running in the Massachusetts Democratic primaries on September 4th to represent the state's 7th Congressional District. She will be up against incumbent Representative Mike Capuano, who has held the seat for the past 20 years.
Once again I am racing out the door - this time to a Rank Your Favorite Beer event nearby which should be fun! Ranked choice voting advocates have been introducing voters to ranked ballots with events like this across the country! Pie tastings work nicely too! The Boston Globe wrote a terrific editorial in favor of ranked choice voting this week - fueling even greater momentum for this reform that elects more women to office and is far more democratic than limiting all races to two candidates - which seems to be the other option if we care about majority rule, and I believe we are a group who cares about majority rule in all senses of the phrase!