Weekend Reading on Women's Representation Archives

Women in Politics Weekly Roundup: Miami’s First Woman Mayor; Congress Moves to Reform How We Vote; Forbes Ranks World’s 100 Most Powerful Women

PUBLISHED 12/12/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation in politics, sports and entertainment, judicial offices and the private sector—with a little gardening mixed in!

This week:
—A seachange in New Mexico’s new women-majority legislature.
— The Ranked Choice Voting Act has been introduced in Congress, which would require RCV for all primary and general congressional races beginning in 2030, allowing voters to express their ranked support for multiple candidates.
—Eileen Higgins is elected as Miami’s first woman mayor. She ran on a platform of structural reforms: affordable housing, climate resilience, improved municipal governance and expanded representation.
—Australia enacts a nationwide ban on social media accounts for children under 16.
—Forbes 2025 ranking of the world’s 100 most powerful women spotlights an increasingly diverse and influential generation of female leaders across business, politics, technology, media and culture.

… and more.

Seventy Years After Rosa Parks’ Arrest: How We Commit to Carrying the Work Forward

PUBLISHED 12/5/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—The 2025 elections prove that voters across the country want women as their leaders.
—Democratic leaders are exploring ranked-choice voting for the 2028 presidential primaries.
—In a Tennesee special election, Democratic nominee Aftyn Behn surpassed electoral expectations for her congressional district.
—Fort Collins, Colo., elected Emily Francis as mayor in its first use of ranked-choice voting.
—College student Any Lucía López Belloza was deported in Massachusetts on her way home to Texas for Thanksgiving.

… and more.

2025’s Pink Wave: Election Night Marks Historic Wins for Women’s Representation

PUBLISHED 11/7/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—Elections in Virginia and New Jersey make history for women’s representation in the U.S.
—Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces she will not seek reelection, marking the close to one of the most consequential careers in modern American politics.
—New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces his transition team will be led entirely by women.

… and more.

The Witch Was Never the Villain. She Was the Beginning of Women’s Power.

PUBLISHED 10/31/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—Long before Halloween became a night of costumes and candy, it was Samhain: a Celtic festival marking the end of harvest and the beginning of winter’s half-dark. Communities gathered to honor what had ended, prepare for what was to come, and find renewal in letting go. At the heart of those gatherings were women. When patriarchal religions spread across Europe, that spiritual authority became a threat.
—When my children were young, during the Halloween season, I remember thinking how natural it is for young children, especially young girls, to believe they can transform … to step boldly into whoever they want to be.
—As we approach another Election Week, women once again stand at the threshold between what is and what could be: Women could sweep governor elections in New Jersey and Virginia. And Women are posed for gains in city elections across the country.
—New York Attorney General Tish Janes is targeted by the DOJ.
—Ireland elects Independent Catherine Connolly as its third woman president.

… and more.

From Iceland’s ‘Women’s Day Off’ to No Kings, Progress Begins When Women Stand Together

PUBLISHED 10/24/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—Fifty years ago, the women of Iceland changed the course of their nation … not through an election or a revolution, but through one simple, collective act: They stopped. On Oct. 24, 1975, 90 percent of Icelandic women refused to work, cook or care for children for a single day. That strike, known as the Women’s Day Off, became a watershed moment for equality, but it didn’t emerge overnight.
—Women hold the majority in the Bolivia legislature.
—Japan confirms Sanae Takaichi as its first woman prime minister.

… and more.

As Trump Targets Portland, a New Report Shows How the City Became a Model for Women’s Representation

PUBLISHED 10/10/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—How did Portland, Ore., achieve one of the mosdt representative city councils in the country? Through structural reform and community-driven organizing.
—A woman will be Ireland’s next president.
—Japan is posed to make a historic shift in women’s leadership.
—For the first time, a woman will lead one of Christianity’s oldest institutions.
—We celebrate the life of Jane Goodall.
—We mark what would be Eleanor Roosevelt’s birthday. She helped craft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—insisting that freedom must include not only political rights, but also the right to food, housing and dignity: “You cannot talk civil rights to people who are hungry.” In the midst of Cold War tension, Roosevelt’s words were a quiet but radical act—a reminder that peace often begins not in policy or power, but in empathy and connection.

… and more.

From Berlin to Beijing to U.S. Congress, Women’s Courage to Convene Propels Us Forward

PUBLISHED 9/26/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—We mark 60 years since former President Lyndon Johnson advanced equal opportunity in employment.
—When women come together, share our strength, and lift one another up, the impossible becomes possible.
—In a landslide victory, Adelita Grigalva becomes Arizona’s first Latina to Congress.
—Of the four Republican House members signing the petition about the actions and allies of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, three are women.
—A record number of U.S. legislators won’t run for reelection next year.
—Hillary Clinton “sees a dangerous moment for women’s rights and democracy.”
—Akshi Chawla, who writes the #WomenLead Substack and is a valuable resource on international women’s representation, on the great question: “How do I get started?”
—The Marshall Islands, a rapidly vanishing Oceania nation, is led by the region’s first-ever woman president, Hilda Heine.
—Who was the first American woman to have an airport named in her honor?

… and more.

The Health of a Democracy Is Measured by Its Leaders: Celebrating Women’s Political Leadership in Mexico, Iraq, Nepal and More

PUBLISHED 9/19/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—Suhikla Karki is the new prime minister of Nepal, following demonstrations that toppled the previous government and negotiations between Gen Z demonstrators and the military.
—On Oct. 24, an open-seat contest for Ireland’s next president is taking shape for a seven-year term, with two of the three candidates already on the ballot being women; the field will be finalized later this month.
—Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has one of the highest approval ratings of national leaders a year after her trailblazing elections.
—As the United Nations prepares to open its General Debate for the 80th session in New York next week, I’ve been carrying Jacinda Ardern’s words with me: “I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you’re constantly focused on scoring hits against one another. Yes, we need a robust democracy, but you can be strong, and you can be kind.”
—Iraq will hold its next parliamentary elections in November. Women hold 28.9 percent of seats in its Parliament, just about the same as the 28.7 percent held by women in the U.S. House of Representatives.

… and more.

Women as Teachers, Governors and Civil Service: The Fight for Women’s Leadership Everywhere

PUBLISHED 9/5/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
—Teachers have always been the cornerstone of thriving communities and a healthy democracy. It’s no accident that so many powerful women leaders began their journeys in classrooms. And yet, while women dominate the teaching profession, they remain underrepresented in our political institutions.
—President Trump’s recent federal workforce reductions have disproportionately harmed Black women, who are long overrepresented in civil service relative to the private sector.
—A growing number of women are entering the race for governor in 2025 and 2026.
—Debra Shigley, an attorney, small business owner and mom of five, has secured a top spot in a Georgia runoff election for a state Senate seat. Her election on Tuesday, Sept. 23, will be one to watch as women’s leadership in Georgia, and across the country, continues to grow. Georgia already uses ranked-choice voting, sometimes called “instant runoffs,” for military and overseas voters. Expanding this system statewide would guarantee majority winners in a single election.
—U.K. women are calling out dangerous narratives that weaponize sexual violence against women to scapegoat asylum seekers.
—Italian women fight digital violence and demand consent online.

… and more.

Celebrating Women’s Equality Day—105 Years After the 19th Amendment

PUBLISHED 8/29/2025 by Cynthia Richie Terrell

This week:
– Marking 105 years since the 19th Amendment certified women’s right to vote.
– Democrat Catelin Drey wins a special election in Iowa, breaking the GOP’s majority in the state’s chamber.
– Australia’s youngest-ever senator, Labor Senator Charlotte Walker, delivers her first speech to Parliament.
– Women’s Emergency Response Rooms in Sudan are signs of Democracy.

… and more.

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