Our hearts are full and our spirits are fired up after a three-day Democracy Solutions Summit hosted by our grantee partner’s team at RepresentWomen. President and CEO Danielle M. Reyes, Senior Program Officer Robyn Ellis, and Philanthropy Fellow Lauren Kim attended this nonpartisan Summit and are sharing some of the insights from their incredible speaker lineup.

Summit Highlights: 

• Day One covered the Voting Rights Act in its many stages, Ranked Choice Voting and how Iceland has used Proportional Representation to close the gender gap in political participation. 

• We learned that more Americans today are identifying as an Independent or Unaffiliated politically, more than ever before in our history. 

• Members of Congress and other bipartisan leaders discussed the safety of women in public life amid growing threats of political violence impacting elected officials. 

• Nonprofit leaders offered ways to engage in conversations with neighbors about civic topics, the importance of civic associations, and the many avenues for action. 

• Day Two talked about the importance of cohort-based leadership programs. For Democrats, women’s leadership training infrastructure has existed for fifty years. For Republicans, there are only a few working with women to offer leadership training for elected office. 

• Running for office is a two-year unpaid role that adds stress to caregiving candidates, especially felt for women running for elected office at all levels. One panelist noted that changing the compensation package would dramatically increase the candidate pool. 

  
  

The Summit captured national civic engagement organizations’ momentum toward getting more women leaders involved in communities across the country and across all political parties. Panelists highlighted this passion throughout the Summit:

“We should be challenging norms that challenge women and men, to promote gender equality in all spheres.” -Lois Taylor, Verian Group

“Many women take a long time to encourage to run for office and are somewhere between I’m not considering running for office and I’m going to run” and take time to consider. Most men running for office have a shorter timeline to get to deciding to run for office." - Susanna Delano, Close the Gap CA 

"If you have to ask a Democratic woman 7 times to run for office, it’s at least 17 for a Republican woman! Since it’s a bit scary time to speak out if you’re a Republican woman, our support is typically one-on-one throughout the campaign.”- Jennifer Pierotti Lim, Republican Women for Progress 

“More millionaires in Congress than women! Three times more men in the Senate named John than moms of minor kids. 7.2% of congress members are moms of minor children and 7.9% of state legislators are moms of minors.” – Liuba Grechen Shirley, Vote Mama

“We need more examples of collective positive power. We need to see more women using their voices. We need to hear women’s voices more, not less.” – Eliza Reid, Former First Lady of Iceland

“We’re building the new girls’ network. You don’t have to be perfect. There are all of these organizations to help you be effective in elected office.” - A’shanti Gholar, Emerge America

To learn more about RepresentWomen and see their full list of resources, visit https://www.representwomen.org/.