This week in WomensRepresentation: Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden share center stage; women hold less than 1/3 of municipal governments seats nationwide; why we need the FairRepresentationAct; and more! From RepresentWomen CynthiaRTerrell:
So, their presence on the dais was inspiring. Yet it also feels darkly symbolic that the story of female political progress has culminated in the image of two accomplished, top-of-their-game women standing behind a collegial White man, your archetypal average Joe.
Republicans’ attacks on Biden were often really directed at the women and people of color nearby — the fear that he would turn over governance to the “harpies” Kamala and Nancy, that he would be unmanned, an empty husk controlled by wicked witches.
It’s easier for America to support women who are supporting a man, it seems, than it is for America to support women, period. What the joint address underscored is that women are inching closer to the seat of ultimate power — but they still don’t get to sit in it.
“It has been a long-standing aim of ours to be able to take a deeper look at the data on women in local office,” said CAWP Director Debbie Walsh. “This data already fundamentally shifts our understanding of women’s political representation in America. There isn’t some magical level of office where women have equitable representation. They’re under-represented at similar rates at every level.”