Ranked-Choice Voting Brings Record Number of Women Elected in Australia: Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation & More News Here

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation is a compilation of tales about ladies’s illustration in politics, on boards, in sports activities and leisure, in judicial places of work and in the non-public sector in the U.S. and all over the world—with a bit of gardening and goodwill combined in for refreshment!

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This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX that prohibited sex-based discrimination in any academic program that receives monetary assist from the federal authorities. Adoption of Title IX has elevated alternatives for girls and ladies in educational settings however there was combined success for girls and ladies in sports activities, based on this story in FiveThirtyEight by Neil Paine:

The historic influence of Title IX extends far past the reaches of sports activities. The landmark laws, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded faculties and education schemes, was handed 50 years in the past this month. It coincided with monumental progress in academic attainment for American ladies and has been utilized towards decreasing sexual violence on campus and selling transgender rights in latest years. But athletics have been on the heart of Title IX from the very starting. (Even the battle round it used sports activities as a battleground: Witness the early try by Sen. John Tower of Texas to exempt high-profile males’s sports activities from counting towards Title IX compliance.) Title IX challenged the long-standing notion that sports activities belonged to males — and males solely. And its results had been felt each in the quick time period and over the half-century that has adopted.

In 1971, the yr earlier than Title IX’s passage, fewer than 300,000 ladies participated in sports activities at the highschool degree in the U.S., based on information from the National Federation of State High School Associations. That quantity represented simply 8 p.c of the boys taking part in sports activities at the moment, highlighting how few athletic alternatives existed for women — a quantity mirrored in college-level sports activities participation charges then as effectively. In the 1966-67 sports activities season, round 15,000 ladies participated in faculty sports activities at NCAA establishments (together with leisure sports activities), or about 10 p.c of the participation quantity for males. While faculty enrollment additionally skewed male in that period — males represented 59 p.c of complete postsecondary fall enrollment in 1970 — it was clear that ladies had been severely underrepresented in the athletic ranks previous to Title IX’s passage.

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Australia’s subsequent parliament is about to be the nation’s most numerous ever, with a document quantity of ladies, Asian and Indigenous lawmakers to carry workplace. Congratulations to the 19 ladies who can be taking on seats in the Lower House for the primary time. pic.twitter.com/CC0C31p2kp

— Women & Leadership Australia (@WLASocial) June 2, 2022

The votes have been tallied and it’s official: There can be a document quantity of ladies serving in the Australian parliament—many of whom had been elected to the decrease home through ranked-choice voting. While a quantity of ladies ran and received as “teal independents”—learn extra on their races on Democracy SOS—a quantity of conventional events struggled to draw ladies voters as this story in the Sydney Morning Herald reviews:

A document quantity of ladies will take their seats in the House of Representatives when the forty seventh parliament sits for the primary time in July, however illustration in the Liberal Party has gone backwards because it grapples with regain the religion of feminine voters.

Women will comprise 38 per cent of the chamber in the brand new parliament – the best ever proportion on document – after 58 ladies had been elected to the decrease home, together with 19 first-term MPs….

The election consequence has prompted a renewed spherical of soul-searching throughout the Liberal Party over higher join with ladies, as feminine voters steered clear of the social gathering and 5 Liberal males had been ousted by “teal” independents who campaigned closely on gender equality.

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Look out Government House #auspol pic.twitter.com/X1HUqQzl6j

— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) May 31, 2022

A document quantity of ladies may also be serving on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s new cupboard in Australia based on this piece in The Guardian. This article in the The Conversation—that quotes the superb Karen Beckwith—explores range throughout the new cupboard:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first cupboard is Australia’s most numerous ever. Not solely do ladies comprise ten of 23 cupboard ministers (or about 43%), many have numerous race, ethnic and spiritual backgrounds.

The broader ministry boasts many firsts, together with Penny Wong as Australia’s first international minister with an Asian background, Linda Burney, the primary feminine Indigenous cupboard minister, and Anne Aly, the primary feminine minister with a Muslim background.

A photograph of the incoming Minister for Aged Care and for Sport Anika Wells strolling by means of Parliament House along with her three younger kids appears emblematic of the adjustments introduced by the election.

While falling quick of 50/50 representations, this can be a cupboard that higher represents the nation it serves. It is extensively welcomed and lengthy overdue…Claire Annesley’s guide with Karen Beckwith, and Susan Franceschet, Cabinets, Ministers and Gender, exhibits vital adjustments in ladies’s illustration typically consequence from pre-election pledges made by a frontrunner. For instance, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged a parity cupboard forward of his election in 2015 and achieved this purpose. The pledge is a strong software as a result of many leaders are totally empowered to make their ministerial choices.

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Griffith University surveyed Australians about their views on local weather change and located that almost all polled assist extra aggressive motion to handle the local weather disaster. I point out this to focus on the position of Australia’s ranked voting system and its energy to elect representatives who align with majority opinion. In the United States our antiquated winner take all voting system prevents motion on insurance policies that majorities of Americans assist from gun security measures, to assist for caregivers, to defending reproductive rights, to taking significant motion to protect our planet. It’s simply that straightforward.

One of essentially the most formidable local weather change surveys performed in Australia has discovered three out of 4 Australians are involved about it and assist insurance policies that restrict its potential impacts. 

Results of the Climate Action Survey, carried out by Griffith University’s Climate Action Beacon, confirmed whereas local weather change involved a minority of Australians a decade in the past (34%), in 2021 it was a mainstream problem that precipitated concern among the many majority of Australians (72%) who demanded authorities motion. 

Climate Action Beacon researchers performed the primary of 5 annual Climate Action Surveys in September-October 2021. 

“In phrases of pattern dimension, methodological rigour, multidisciplinary enter and breadth of protection, it was one of essentially the most formidable local weather change surveys but performed in Australia,’’ stated lead creator Associate Professor Sameer Deshpande.

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Vermont is the one state that has by no means had a lady member of Congress however which will effectively change this yr, in accordance this story from AP:

With a uncommon opening this fall in its congressional delegation, Vermont seems poised to lose its distinction as the one state that has by no means been represented by a lady in Washington.

Three ladies, together with Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are among the many Democrats competing in the Aug. 9 major for the seat being vacated by the state’s lone U.S. House member, Democrat Peter Welch, who’s making an attempt to maneuver to the Senate. The two Republican candidates registered to run in the midterm elections are additionally ladies.

Given Vermont’s liberal repute, it may appear unusual that it might be the final state to ship a lady to Congress. But Vermont’s tiny inhabitants makes it one of a handful of states with the smallest attainable congressional delegation — two senators and one House member. And like many states, Vermont has historically reelected its incumbents, who’ve occurred to be white males who’ve ended up serving for terribly lengthy stretches. That consists of Democrat Patrick Leahy, who was first elected in 1974 and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in historical past.

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Rachel’s Action Network, named in honor of Rachel Carson, has launched When Women Lead that tracks the voting data of ladies in Congress on points associated to the surroundings. This unbelievable useful resource underscores the significance of electing extra ladies to workplace if we’re to make substantive progress on addressing the local weather disaster:

In earlier iterations of our report When Women Lead (in 2003 and 2011), we analyzed the voting data of federal legislators going again to 1983 utilizing League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Environmental Scorecard information. We discovered that ladies in Congress vote for laws supporting clear air, clear water, renewable vitality, local weather motion, and public well being far more typically than their male counterparts (and equally vote extra typically in opposition to laws that might roll again these protections).

This replace brings our evaluation as much as the current and appears additional into the previous. After evaluating annual LCV scores every year from 1972-2021, we once more discovered that ladies legislators vote for environmental protections extra typically than their male counterparts in each the House and Senate.

Climate change, air pollution, meals and vitality insecurity, chemical security, and biodiversity loss have develop into pressing international considerations that threaten lives and livelihoods in the US. If we need to make progress on defending the surroundings and public well being, we must always assist elect extra ladies to public workplace, and assist them throughout their tenure.

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Juliet Grable writes in the Sierra Club Magazine concerning the many ladies operating for workplace in the U.S. on a local weather motion platform—however given the constraints of our present voting system, it is going to be arduous to match the success of our buddies in Australia:

In case you haven’t seen, there are some kick-ass ladies operating for workplace this yr. Take Vermont state senator Kesha Ram Hinsdale, who wrote the state’s first environmental justice invoice. If she wins her bid for the US House of Representatives, she’ll be the primary lady of colour to characterize Vermont. Or take a look at Cheri Beasley, the primary Black lady to function Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, now operating for a seat in the US Senate.

Beasley is one of the ladies of colour operating for US House and Senate seats being supported by means of the LCV Victory Fund. “We’re getting involved in these primaries because electing more pro-environment women of color is good for people and the planet – we desperately need Congress to be more representative of the electorate,” stated Megan Jacobs, LCV Victory Fund senior nationwide campaigns director, in a press launch. “With increasing climate-fueled extreme weather events and rising energy prices, it is more important than ever to send strong climate leaders to Congress who support investing in clean energy, advancing environmental justice, and lowering costs for families.”

If we need to make progress on defending the surroundings and public well being, we must always assist elect extra ladies to public workplace, and assist them throughout their tenure, argues Rachel’s Action Network, a nonprofit devoted to empowering pro-environment ladies to take political motion.

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Don’t neglect to take a look at the crew’s guide suggestions from LGBTQ authors:

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My youngest daughter and her friends in the Haverford College class of 2020 graduated in particular person this final weekend and it was a pleasure to see. Here’s to sturdy, adventurous, inventive, problem-solving younger ladies in all places!

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