November 21, 2023

The CAWP team wishes everyone a restorative Thanksgiving holiday, full of joy with loved ones and honoring those things we may take for granted that we should instead cherish deeply.

Last week, CAWP released part two of our project on the demographics of New Jersey officials, From Data to Diversity: The Demographics of New Jersey’s Appointed Officials, that collects data on people appointed to serve on the state’s powerful boards, commissions, and authorities. As with the first report in this project, which collected similar information about elected officials, this report is the product of legislation passed by the New Jersey Legislature and signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy. The report finds that white men are heavily overrepresented among all appointed officials on 57 of the state’s most prominent and powerful boards and commissions, accounting for 44.6% of appointed officials that sit on those governmental bodies despite comprising just 27% of New Jersey’s population. No other group in the state achieves appointed representation exceeding or even commensurate with their population size. Asian American/Pacific Islanders and Latino women and men in particular face the greatest disparities between representation in government and representation in the population.

The study also highlights the administrative and logistical challenges of collecting demographic data on appointed officials and makes several practical recommendations for state governments aimed at increasing accountability and transparency on state appointees, as well as expanding opportunity for New Jersey’s citizens interested in serving as appointed leaders.

Read the full report, with additional data and prescriptions to improve the data collection process for appointed officials, at the From Data to Diversity: The Demographics of New Jersey’s Appointed Officials report page.

On Wednesday, December 6th at 4pm ET, CAWP will hold the virtual conversation Rethinking Women’s Political Power. Touching on major themes illuminated in CAWP's forthcoming report of the same name, the conversation will draw on elected women leaders' experience and success navigating state political ecosystems to identify persistent barriers as well as opportunities to increasing women’s political power within and across states. Already-confirmed participants include U.S. Representative Lauren Underwood, Nevada Assemblymember Selena Torres, and Rethinking Women’s Political Power author and CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar.

CAWP Research Grant Recipient Margaret Perez Brower has written a brief on her research work, Intersectional Advocacy: Organizations Connecting Issues Together Through Policy. Through interviews and surveys, Brower analyzed organizations that take an intersectional approach to policy advocacy by connecting multiple policy or issue areas that impact intersectionally marginalized groups. Brower provides, as an example, the nexus between the Violence Against Women Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act and organizations working to create policies that provide for survivors of intimate partner violence that do not have U.S. citizenship. Her research looks at the organizations that produce this sort of intersectional advocacy and attempts to map out what characteristics give rise to this approach, including having leaders that substantially represent intersectionally marginalized groups, prioritizing these groups in their work, and collaboration with broad networks. “If we are interested in supporting more equitable policymaking processes and outcomes,” Brower writes, “understanding the practice of intersectional advocacy is essential.” Read her full brief on the CAWP Research Grants page.

Last week, the Susan N. Wilson NEW Leadership® New Jersey program hosted a resume skills-building workshop for recent alumni. Sue Pye, director of self-discovery and career exploration in the Office of Career Exploration and Success at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, led NEW Leadership® alumni through an interactive presentation to prepare them for their next career moves. Participants included current undergraduates, recent grads, and graduate students. Pye tailored the presentation to their specific needs and questions, addressed commonly held myths about resumes, helped them to create inventories of skills they have accumulated through their experiences, and then led them through the process of writing and reviewing accomplishment statements for their resumes. The workshop helped students feel more confident in writing about the experiences they already have and taught them how to describe those experiences for their resumes. This is the first in a series of annual opportunities for NEW Leadership® New Jersey alumni to reconnect to the program and their peers while continuing to receive leadership training.

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