Women Leaders Launch National Campaign To Double Number of Women in Politics

February 28, 2012

By Kathy Groob, Publisher ElectWomen MagazinePolitical Parity, a nonpartisan initiative of 51 women leaders, held a briefing and roundtable announcing a new national campaign to double the number of women in the U.S. House and Senate and among Governors.

Swanee Hunt

Leading the initiative are former US Ambassador to Austria Swanee Hunt and former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts Kerry Healey.  “The mission of the organization is to double the number of women in Congress and women governors in ten years – by 2022,” says Deputy Director, Taylor Woods-Gauthier.

What began as a conversation among a dozen or so women, has lead to a 51-member leadership organization that is focused on four areas:

  1. Convening leaders to create proposals and a strategic plan for achieving the organization’s mission.
  2. Developing research that will provide the demographic profiles of the states that have made considerable strides in electing women.
  3. Fundraising and development to provide the fuel for the initiatives set forth by the leadership team.
  4. Casting a wide net throughout all the states, engaging and involving women leaders at the state level who are already working to improve political parity.

Kerry Healey (left) and Sam Bennett

An annual convening of all the leaders was held in December, including women that are the top of their fields, all working towards to the same goal – to elect more women to public office in The United States.  Leadership team members include Sam Bennett of The Women’s Campaign Fund, Tiffany Dufu of The White House Project, Pollster Celinda Lake, Jessica Grounds of WUFPAC, Professor and Author Jennifer Lawless, Karen Middleton of Emerge America and CAWP Director Debbie Walsh.  Click here to view the full list of leaders.

For more information, visit the Political Parity website at: http://www.politicalparity.org