Pittsburgh may be at the top of a lot of lists – best place to retire, 10th most romantic city in the US, most liveable city. However, Pittsburgh and the entire state of Pennsylvania are WAY behind when it comes to women in politics.
Some sobering stats on the state of women in politics in Pennsylvania:
- Pennsylvania ranks 47th when looking at the number of women holding elected office, and 47th in terms of women’s overall political participation in our state. (via WomenVotePA)
- State Senate – only 16% are women
- State House – only 18% are women
- Pennsylvanian ranks 38 out of 50 states in terms of women in State Legislatures (via Center for American Women in Politics)
You can help to change these numbers – vote, support a candidate, run for office.
Christine Todd Whitman – Former Gov. of NJ speaks at a PCWP event in 2011
For starters – get to know the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, which happens to be housed right here in Pittsburgh at Chatham College.
The PCWP is a nonprofit’s organization with the goal of getting more women involved in politcs.
“To increase women’s influence and leadership in public life in Pennsylvania and improve the quality of women’s lives by providing them with educational and training opportunities in politics and public policy.”
This weekend they will be hosting a “Ready to Run Campaign Training for Women” workshop to help women who are thinking of running for office get started. Even if you don’t think you want to run for office – this is worth checking out. The more you can learn about campaigns, the better equipped you are to help others who are running for office. Click here to get all of the details on this weekend workshop from PopCity Media.
More Resources on Women in Politics:
- The Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers website has lots of state by state fact sheets.
- Follow PA Center for Women and Politics on Facebook and Twitter @pcwp
- Read this research paper “Public Attitudes toward Women as Public Leaders“
- Last week the Tribune Review published an article looking at women in politics and why more women aren’t running – Women make up Pa.’s political minority, say gender isn’t issue
A global perspective on women running for office – here are some blog posts from around the globe about women running for office:
- Fiji – Women in politics (fijitimes.com)
- Ireland – Lack of female local politicians in Ireland is a growing concern (theguardian.com)
- London – We Need More Women (fempolildn.wordpress.com)
