| Cynthia Terrell | MSN |
This November, 25 women — 16 Democrats and nine Republicans — are on the ballot for governor; a new record in U.S. history. While this is a milestone worth celebrating, at this rate, it’s going to take more than 30 years of record breaking to achieve gender balance in American politics.
That’s because despite recent milestones, the U.S. is moving at a slower pace towards gender parity in the federal government compared to the international scale. The United States now ranks 70 along with Lithuania out of 193 countries for the representation of women. More importantly, the U.S. ranks 37th among democratic allies in the 38 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations. But even our peak of ranking 46th in 2000 says a lot about how far we still have to go.
”...most of the country is still using outdated voting systems that get us a D grade in equal representation.
This November, as we celebrate new milestones for women in leadership and see yet another “Year of the Woman” headline, let’s remember that most of the country is still using outdated voting systems that get us a D grade in equal representation. In order to achieve true gender balance, we must improve elections to ensure more women can run, win, serve and lead. It starts with ranked choice voting.
Cynthia Richie Terrell is founder and executive director of RepresentWomen, a nonpartisan organization advancing reforms that ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead.
