From the nation's leading source on all things women and politics.
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When you work in this field there’s always something to be thankful for. We here at CAWP are thankful to be living in a time when the second most powerful leader in the country is, at long last, a woman. We’re thankful that Virginia elected its first woman of color in a statewide race. We’re thankful that, here in New Jersey, voters sent three Asian American or Pacific Islander women to the legislature for the first time in history. We’re thankful for all the historic firsts that women continue to achieve in American politics…and we’re thankful that we’re on the path to a day when there will be no more firsts to achieve, no more barriers to break.
We are proud of our part in this forward progress. We continue to expand our research offerings in order to describe and provide analysis of American women’s political engagement as candidates, officeholders, voters, and donors, and our growing programmatic initiatives continue to show women and young people new visions for leadership and give them the tools to make that vision real. In all of this, we are grateful to you – our supporters, colleagues, collaborators, and friends – for being partners in our ongoing and ever-growing mission. Thank you and wishing you and yours a peaceful and restful Thanksgiving.
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“That’s what women of color generally have to do. We have been very much a part of the political landscape behind the scenes. And as we start to take our places as either candidates or as fundraisers or operatives, we can decide in those moments that we can also be donors…That is equally as important as our time, as our energy, as the letters that we write and the doors that we knock.” – Ohio House of Representatives Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes.
Last week, CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu moderated a panel discussion examining our Women, Money, and Politics report series featuring Leader Sykes alongside Kimberly Peeler-Allen (Higher Heights, CAWP) and Stacy Schuster (Women for a Stronger New Jersey). The conversation touched on all three reports in the series – The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor, Money Matters in the Fifty States, and The Money Race for the State Legislature – and focused on both fundraising challenges for women as candidates and as donors. All three reports in the series confirm that women continue to lag men as political donors, meaning that are not fully represented in this key area of political engagement. Peeler-Allen, Schuster, and Sykes also, however, noted that there is a great deal of opportunity for candidates and political parties to grow their support by engaging with women from across the political spectrum as donors. Watch the full video on CAWP’s YouTube page.
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A Great Way to “Listen to Black Women” is to Elect Them
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CAWP’s Kelly Dittmar and Higher Heights President Glynda Carr recently wrote a piece for the CAWP blog analyzing our recent update on Black women in American politics, Reaching Higher: Black Women in American Politics 2021. In their piece, A Great Way to “Listen to Black Women” is to Elect Them, Dittmar and Carr write about the achievements Black women have made in recent years, the progress yet undone, and the ways in which Black women elected officials help both their communities specifically and the American public more broadly. They close by calling on all of us to do the work of helping make our politics more representative: “You can support Black women on the campaign trail with your time and your money, and you can support Black women at the ballot box with your vote,” they write. “You can listen to Black women by ensuring they have seats at policymaking tables where their voices, expertise, and perspectives can inform substantive change. It’s time to translate words into actions.” Read the full piece on the CAWP blog.
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CAWP is hiring! We’re looking for a research project coordinator to assist scholars and staff on major research projects, including engagement with scholarly literature, data collection, qualitative and quantitative analyses (including analysis of large datasets), research project planning and data visualization. They will also have the opportunity to contribute to our reports, research memos, and blogs. This role offers great potential to expand our data collections, find new areas of research to explore, and assist experienced scholars in producing reports that illuminate areas of women’s representation that are little-understood. Do you have an advanced degree with a focus in political science, public policy, or women and gender studies and a desire to work with the leading source for data and research on women’s political engagement in America? Find more information and apply on the Rutgers University employment site.
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Debbie Walsh and Jennifer Rubin in Conversation
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Last week, CAWP Director Debbie Walsh moderated a BigTentUSA event featuring Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, “ Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump.” The conversation touched on women’s reaction to the Trump era, the record-breaking elections of 2018 and 2020, women in executive offices, the current partisan environment, and how women can reach voters in modern political communication. Watch the full video.
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has produced a short documentary chronicling a major turning point in their century-long history: as a result of the election of CAWP’s longtime friend, Holly J. Mitchell in 2020, all five of the board seats are currently held by women. The five current board members, as well as previous members like Yvonne Braithwaite Burke and Gloria Molina, tell personal stories about their political careers and discuss how their unique experiences are brought to bear in working for their constituents. The Board’s executive officer, Celia Zavala, says of the documentary, “Our current Board has not only shattered the glass ceiling in Los Angeles County, but it continues to inspire women all over the country to live out their dreams and consider public service as a career goal. Producing a documentary was the best way to be able to capture the spirit of resilience, ambition and public service we all admire in the strong and intelligent women who now make up this Board.” Watch the full documentary on YouTube.
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