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Women’s Campaign Forum
Who needs more women in government? Everyone.
Women's Campaign Forum (WCF), founded in 1974, is the only non-partisan political venture capitalist organization supporting women leaders at all levels of office, during the earliest stages of their public life. WCF is dedicated to advancing the political participation and leadership of women who support reproductive health choices for all.
The WCF Experience
As political venture capitalists, WCF is unique amongst women's organizations...
We focus on the woman, not only the race.
We work closely with women leaders at all stages of their political lives to help them cultivate their expertise and enrich their experience.
Our endorsements come early when the need for support is greatest.
We are dedicated to achieving equality for women in public office.
Our cutting-edge programs such as She Should RunTM are helping to build the pool of women leaders at all levels of political participation.
WCF is dedicated to helping this country achieve equality in public life for women. It is essential to the health and future of our country that 50% of our population has equal power and leadership.
Despite our progress, women still lag far behind men in local, state, and federal office:
Women hold less than 20% of the seats in Congress
State legislatures have less than 25% women
Only 10% of women have ever thought about running for office, compared with 20% of men. Our She Should RunTM program gets women to think about running and helps them make a decision.
Blog Posts from Women’s Campaign Forum
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2012 State Summit this week -- we hope you found the panels helpful. We look forward to an exciting 2012 and welcome any suggestions you might have to make the next State Summit even better!
Summit is Almost Here!
The America Votes 2012 State Summit is only days away. Don't miss your chance to be a part of one the most important gatherings of progressives in 2012. Check out the State Summit page here.
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New Research on Female Political Candidates
Our friends at the The Barbara Lee Family Foundation have just published new research showing gains for women candidates in campaigns for executive office and pinpoints key areas for women to master. The research shows that in 2010:
• Women candidates ran on a more level playing field;
• Voters prioritized more gender-neutral traits than in past years;
• Women candidates showed some distinct advantages over men;
• Younger women are no longer a reliable voting bloc.
Turning Point: The Changing Landscape for Women Candidates is the latest addition to their landmark Governors Guidebook Series, Turning Point is designed to be accessible and relevant to citizens, students, campaign consultants, and candidates at all levels and across parties.
Women fighting Wal-Mart shut down by Supreme Court
Yesterday the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissing a case of sex-discrimination against women workers at Wal-Mart. The case Wal-Mart vs. Dukes was a class action suit seeking to battle discriminatory pay and a flawed promotion policy that promoted men before women despite performance evaluations.
The Supreme Court decision on this case was a huge victory for big businesses like Wal-Mart but it was also a "devastating defeat" for people fighting for equality in the workplace. Justice Antonin Scalia, leading the majority opinion in a 5-4 vote, said that there was not enough convincing proof of "companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy" and that there were just too many women holding jobs at Wal-Mart to wrap it all into one lawsuit. The examples of segregating departments, for instance, with women working in the baby departments and men working with the electronics and pay disparity between those departments and low management promotion rates among women in spite of performance was apparently not enough support for the case against Wal-Mart.
Further analysis of the majority opinion leads to the precedent being set that discrimination will only be prosecuted if it appears in tangible policy or bylaws. Large companies will no longer have to worry about being held accountable for discrimination in the workplace, as this decision is "stripping away important legal protections, the Supreme Court has sent a loud-and-clear message to the American people: you're out of luck and on your own," according to American Association for Justice President Gibson Vance.
Women in Politics
Did you know that women hold less than 20% of House and Senate seats and less than 25% of seats in state legislatures? In a recent blog on the Huffington Post's website, Yashar Ali discusses the lack of women in public office and political campaign work, which he blames on the men running the campaigns.
Ali notes that it is hard for women to be motivated to run for office when it is always men running the campaigns. The downward trend of women's involvement needs to be fixed, as America is ranked 92nd in women's parliamentary involvement out of 181 countries for which data was provided.
The issue of women in positions of power was addressed this morning further on Morning Joe on MSNBC. Host Mika Brzezinski has recently published a book entitled "Knowing Your Value," and discussed the differences between women and men in the workplace that may lead to the issues Ali talked about in his blog. Brzezinski and her Morning Joe counterparts brought up some points that women often wait to be noticed while men more typically assume they have the right to lead. Watch more of the discussion.