Women ran. Women won. Women changed the rules of American politics
Source: The Washington Post
By Kathleen Townsend,
“See Jane Win” is a bracing antidote to that dreadful November election night in 2016 when women of the world watched as their champion, so close to shattering the highest glass ceiling, lost to a self-avowed assaulter. As the returns confirmed Hillary Clinton’s loss, I steeled myself with the hope that Arthur Schlesinger’s words would prove prescient: The pendulum swings. And, as author Caitlin Moscatello reveals, it has so proved.
Moscatello smartly weaves the stories of four inspiring candidates from the 2018 election cycle, illustrative tales of aspirants with startling statistics demonstrating a ground-shifting election. Women ran and women won — transforming American politics. In the 2016 election cycle, 900 women contacted Emily’s List (an organization created in 1985 to support female candidates for elected office); in 2018, 40,000 did.
The energy of the largest protest, the Women’s March that took place globally the day after the inauguration, translated into the largest-ever number of women running and winning. Previously, recruiting women in their 40s was tough . Far more often, younger women or women over 65 volunteered, but in 2018 women across all ages, colors, creeds and sexual orientations stepped up. Wanted in. Wanted to run. Much of the attention was on the 100-plus women who won congressional seats, but the “bulk of the ‘wave’ was the more than 3,500 female candidates running for state legislative seats — a 28 percent increase” from two years before.
Click here to read the full article published by The Washington Post on 30 August 2019.
By Kathleen Townsend,
“See Jane Win” is a bracing antidote to that dreadful November election night in 2016 when women of the world watched as their champion, so close to shattering the highest glass ceiling, lost to a self-avowed assaulter. As the returns confirmed Hillary Clinton’s loss, I steeled myself with the hope that Arthur Schlesinger’s words would prove prescient: The pendulum swings. And, as author Caitlin Moscatello reveals, it has so proved.
Moscatello smartly weaves the stories of four inspiring candidates from the 2018 election cycle, illustrative tales of aspirants with startling statistics demonstrating a ground-shifting election. Women ran and women won — transforming American politics. In the 2016 election cycle, 900 women contacted Emily’s List (an organization created in 1985 to support female candidates for elected office); in 2018, 40,000 did.
The energy of the largest protest, the Women’s March that took place globally the day after the inauguration, translated into the largest-ever number of women running and winning. Previously, recruiting women in their 40s was tough . Far more often, younger women or women over 65 volunteered, but in 2018 women across all ages, colors, creeds and sexual orientations stepped up. Wanted in. Wanted to run. Much of the attention was on the 100-plus women who won congressional seats, but the “bulk of the ‘wave’ was the more than 3,500 female candidates running for state legislative seats — a 28 percent increase” from two years before.
Click here to read the full article published by The Washington Post on 30 August 2019.