Structural Solutions: Breaking Barriers
Representation2020 offers a new—structural—approach to combating the under-representation of women in American politics. While we respect the work of others in recruiting and training women to run for office, we tackle head-on systemic, structural causes of female under-representation. We seek to identify, research, and implement structural reforms that will make women more likely to run, win, and stay in office. We offer three structural solutions to level the playing field for women who want to run for office:
Electoral Reform to Create Gender ParityRepresentation2020 supports the use of multi-member legislative districts with constituency-based proportional voting systems (fair voting), which have been shown to increase the likelihood of women running for and winning elected office, both in the United States and abroad. Learn more about our proposed reform here.
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Recruitment Practices for Women Candidates
Political parties should enact rules and procedures to address the gender imbalance in American politics. They should also actively recruit and encourage qualified women to run for elected office. Learn more about steps political parties can take to increase women's representation here.
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Legislative Practices To Eliminate Gender BiasLegislatures should take steps to ensure that their internal procedures and practices are not biased against female legislators. That way, female legislators will be able to serve as effectively as possible, thereby encouraging more women to join them. Learn more about steps legislatures can take here.
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Gender Parity Starts With You!
Without your help, gender disparity in elected office will persist for centuries. We challenge you to spark a movement in your community to learn more and, more importantly, do something about it! Be the agents of change by taking our Gender Parity Steps (GPS) .