Leveling the Playing Field for Women: Cynthia Richie Terrell

February 8, 2024

February 8th, 2024

“The incumbency challenge is really the biggest reason we don't see a change in the composition of legislatures.”

Cynthia Richie Terrell is the founder and executive director of RepresentWomen. We discuss institutional reforms that can reduce the barriers for women to run, win, and govern.

There are approximately 520,000 elected officeholders in the U.S., but incumbency is the biggest barrier to electing more women. Term limits make more seats open to competition. In addition, ranked choice voting eliminates vote splitting if there is more than one woman on the ballot. In NYC, for example, the combination of term limits and ranked choice voting has resulted in a city council where 61% of the seats are held by women. Policy solutions that address the structural barriers do work.

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