Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Women make strides in government, but still far from parity

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; International Women's Day

Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer is one of nine women currently serving as governor in the United States.

Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, women remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of U.S. government and around the world.

Last year, Kamala Harris became the first female vice president in U.S. history, and President Biden received significant praise for achieving gender balance in his Cabinet. And if the Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, four of the nine justices will be women for the first time.

But elsewhere — in Congress, statewide offices, legislatures and local governments — women hold a far smaller share of elected positions.


There are 26 women serving as elected head of state or head of government around the world (out of 181 countries surveyed), according to UN Women, a United Nations organization focused on gender equity. While the United States is not on that list, it is among the 14 countries that have gender-balanced cabinets.

While 51 percent of the Americans are women, the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University found that just 27 percent of members of Congress are women, including 106 Democrats and 39 Republicans, slightly outpacing the rest of the world, according to UN Women. But the United States is far from a leader.

"In fact, 20 years ago the U.S. ranked 46th among nations for women's representation but in 2022 the U.S. is tied for 72nd place with Egypt and the Philippines," said Cynthia Richie Terrell, executive director of the advocacy organization RepresentWomen. "Countries ranked above the U.S. don't have better qualified women, rather, they have electoral systems that create more opportunities for women to run and win."

Moving down a level, women perform better in state elections — just not for the top job. While women hold 31 percent of statewide elective positions, they hold just nine governorships. But 44 percent of lieutenant governors and 31 percent over other statewide elected officeholders are women.

Terrell believes that the higher rate of women as lieutenant governors is the result of strategic campaign decisions by men running for governor.

"It's also notable that male gubernatorial candidates of both parties are more likely than not to choose a woman as a running mate because they know intuitively that they must appeal to a wide array of voters to win elections," she said.

Women control 31 percent of legislative seats, performing slightly better in state Houses than state Senates. That share has been slowly risin g since 1980, but Nevada is the only state where women have achieved at least parity (they currently hold 59 percent of the legislature there). Women have the smallest share, just 23 percent, in Arkansas.

Eleven Democratic and four Republican women have the top position in state Senates, but there are just six women who serve as speaker in state Houses (five Democrats, one Republican).

CAWP also analyzed local governments and found that 31 percent of all officeholders in cities with populations greater than 10,000 are women. One-quarter of cities with populations above 30,000 have women as governors, including 31 of the 100 most populous cities.

UN Women has data on local government in 133 countries, in which 36 percent of elected members are women.

RepresentWomen works for structural changes to the electoral system that would enable more women to win elections.

"We must employ strategies that address the structural barriers women face so that more women of all demographic groups can run, win, serve, and lead. To ensure that more women run, we need political parties to recruit more women to run and donors to commit to funding their campaigns," Terrell said. "For these women to win, we need to upgrade our antiquated electoral system and replace it with ranked choice voting so that women have a greater chance of winning when they run."

She added that additional changes, such as onsite child care and other benefits are necessary to allow women to serve once elected.

Read More

A Promise in the Making: Thirty-Five Years of the ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act ADA and glasses.

Getty Images

A Promise in the Making: Thirty-Five Years of the ADA

One July morning in 1990, a crowd gathered on the White House lawn, some in wheelchairs, others holding signs, many with tears in their eyes. President George H.W. Bush lifted his pen and signed his name to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—the most sweeping civil rights law for people with disabilities in the nation's history. It was a moment three decades in the making: a rare convergence of activism, outrage, and legislative will. The ADA's promise was simple—no longer would disability mean exclusion from public life—but its implications were anything but.

Thirty-five years later, the ADA remains a landmark, a legal bulwark against discrimination, and a symbol of hard-won visibility for a community that has been too often relegated to the margins. Yet, like every civil rights law, the ADA's story is more complex than a single signature or a morning in Washington. Its passage and its legacy have always been about more than ramps and regulations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Illinois Camp Gives Underrepresented Kids an Opportunity To Explore New Pathways

Kuumba Family Festival at Evanston Township High School

Illinois Camp Gives Underrepresented Kids an Opportunity To Explore New Pathways

Summer camps in Evanston, Illinois — a quiet suburb just north of Chicago — usually consist of an array of different sports, educational programs, and even learning how to sail. But one thing is obviously apparent throughout the city’s camps: they’re almost all white.

Despite Black or African American families making up nearly 16% of Evanston’s population, Black kids are massively underrepresented throughout the city's summer camps.

Keep ReadingShow less
Students in a classroom.​

Today, Hispanic-Serving Institutions enroll 64 percent of all Latino college students.

Getty Images, andresr

Tennessee’s Attack on Federal Support for Hispanic-Serving Colleges Hurts Us All

The Tennessee Attorney General has partnered with a conservative legal nonprofit to sue the U.S. Department of Education over programming that supports Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), colleges, and universities where at least 25% of the undergraduate full-time equivalent student enrollment is Hispanic. On its face, this action claims to oppose “discriminatory” federal funding. In reality, it is part of a broader and deeply troubling trend: a coordinated effort to dismantle educational opportunity for communities of color under the guise of anti-DEI rhetoric.

As a scholar of educational policy and leadership in higher education, I believe we must confront policies that narrow access and undermine equity in education for those who have been historically underserved. What is happening in Tennessee is not just a misguided action—it’s a self-inflicted wound that will harm the state's economic future and deepen historical inequality.

Keep ReadingShow less
Inclusion Is Not a Slogan. It’s the Ground We Walk On.

A miniature globe between a row of blue human figures

Getty Images//Stock Photo

Inclusion Is Not a Slogan. It’s the Ground We Walk On.

After political pressure and a federal investigation, Harvard University recently renamed and restructured its Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. MIT announced the closure of its DEI office, stating that it would no longer support centralized diversity initiatives. Meanwhile, Purdue University shut down its Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and removed cultural center programs that once served as safe spaces for marginalized students. I am aware of the costs of not engaging with ideas surrounding diversity and difference, and I have witnessed the consequences of the current administration's actions— and the pace at which universities are responding. It’s nowhere good.

I was forced to move to the United States from Russia, a country where the words inclusion, diversity, and equality are either misunderstood, mocked, or treated as dangerous ideology. In this country, a woman over fifty is considered “unfit” for the job market. Disability is not viewed as a condition that warrants accommodation, but rather as a reason to deny employment. LGBTQ+ individuals are treated not as equal citizens but as people who, ideally, shouldn’t exist, where the image of a rainbow on a toy or an ice cream wrapper can result in legal prosecution.

Keep ReadingShow less