New Article: Ready To Run Pennsylvania

Posted by ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge on February 20, 2024

“Democracy without women is not democracy.” Yet, women hold only 28.2% of the seats in the United States Congress. Therefore, the majority of the perspectives being shared on public policy that affects all of our lives is from the male lived experience. My home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, like most states, has a poor history of women’s political representation in its elected governing bodies. In Pennsylvania, no woman has been elected to serve as its Governor or as a United States Senator. The state’s legislature has recently hit an all-time high of women serving in its body – just 32%; which places it 26th in the nation for the proportion of women serving in the state legislature, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

However, the women in Pennsylvania have made strong political gains in recent years. Pennsylvania has recently selected its first female Speaker of the State House, Joanna McClinton, and its first female Senate President Pro Tempore, Kim Ward. Earlier this month, Philadelphia swore in its first female mayor, Cherelle Parker, and Allegheny County (the second most populated county in the state) swore in its first female County Executive, Sara Innamorato.

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