This Mother’s Day, we’re wishing for gender parity, not just flowers. When elected, women in general, and specifically moms, leverage their personal experience to pass legislation to improve the lives of women, children, and families.

More women in office will help close the gender and racial pay gap.

Every month is Women’s History Month at The Ascend Fund, but March provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made and to celebrate the women who are leading the way and lifting as they climb.

In the state currently ranked 48th in the nation for women’s representation, fewer women are running for the Mississippi Legislature this year, making it unlikely that the number of women in elected office will increase substantially.

The 2022 midterm election was a staunch reminder that progress towards gender parity in politics is neither linear nor guaranteed, and that we need to keep working to remove systemic barriers so women can achieve 50% representation, in all 50 states, by 2050.

Number of women running for the state legislature in Michigan and Washington increases, but gender parity likely to remain elusive.

It’s been almost 75 years since women were recognized as permanent members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Despite being the fastest growing demographic of the veteran population, the challenges women service members, women veterans, and their families face are often pushed to the side.

Women have been fighting for equal pay since entering the workforce en masse during WWII. One of the most notable pieces of legislation passed on the issue of equal pay was the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibited wage discrimination on account of sex.

This year poses a unique opportunity to achieve a long-overdue first, electing the first Black woman governor in the United States. In November there will be 36 governorships on the ballot, including all of the nine offices currently held by women.

As the calendar rolls over, many people set New Year’s resolutions. But rather than resolving to exercise more, read more books, or watch less TV, what if you resolved to run for office?

At The Ascend Fund, we believe that parity is possible in our lifetime because transformational organizations are building a pathway to public office for women.

In 2020, all eyes were on the White House and Kamala Harris’ historic election as the first woman and woman of color to serve as vice president. In contrast, 2021 was an “off-year,” meaning there were only a few federal or state races which, typically take place in even numbered years.

To rapidly accelerate the pace of change toward gender parity in state legislatures, pivotal policymaking bodies, The Ascend Fund is making targeted, transformational investments in 13 state and local organizations in Michigan, Mississippi, and Washington.

Latinas are deeply underrepresented at every level of elected office. Latina leadership, however, is transformational, when elected, Latinas are powerful changemakers, fighting for their communities.

Women in politics are making history across the country as they continue to break down barriers and increase representation in government. While there are now more women serving in office than ever before, we’re still far from true gender parity.

After two and a half centuries of men governors, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will become New York’s first woman governor when she is sworn in on August 24th, 2021.

The representation of women in lieutenant governors offices and lack of women governors begs the question, why are we as a nation comfortable with women in second place, but not in command?

The Ascend Fund has a plan to close to the gender gap in state legislatures by 2050, not merely because it’s fair, but because it’s what’s smart.

Propelled by the largest voter turnout in 50 years, women’s representation in the Michigan State Legislature skyrocketed from 25% to almost 36%, as a result of the 2018 election.

Achieving gender parity in politics will take persistence in states like Mississippi. Mississippi consistently ranks in the bottom 10 states nationwide for women’s representation and women have never held more than 20% of the state legislative seats.

For more than a decade, from 1993 to 2004, Washington ranked 1st in the nation for women’s representation in the state legislature. But progress faltered from a high of more than 40% in 2000 to just 32% in 2011.

This Pride Month, we’re celebrating progress made to date in addressing the underrepresentation of LGBTQ elected officials, while continuing to identify barriers to future growth.

Women make up more than half of the population in the U.S., yet account for only about a quarter of Congress and just 31% of state legislators. To put it into perspective, if women were to be represented equitably, they would make up half of Congress and all state legislatures.

Moms are essential. As the pandemic ravaged the nation, mothers were forced out of the workforce as school transitioned online and childcare disappeared.

Women candidates running for office in recent years have made headlines for outraising men. In 2018, women running for Congress raised an average of $1,675,000 while men raised $1,537,000.

Winning a contested election is never easy for women, but it is especially difficult when a woman is running as a challenger against an incumbent.

How Legislative Pay Limits Who Can Serve in Office and Inhibits Reflective Democracy

In 2021, a historic 143 women will serve in Congress. Billions of dollars are spent each cycle to elect the 535 members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, federal elected officials receive a disproportionate amount of attention from voters and the media alike. However, there are far more state legislators – 7,383 – than members of Congress, and as Congress becomes more polarized and thus less productive, the role and influence of state legislatures is growing.

A record number 140 women will serve in the 117th Congress, breaking the record of 127 women set in 2019. This record brings us closer to gender parity,

In 2020, the United States ranked 53rd in the global gender parity index by the World Economic Forum. One key reason was the lack of women in political leadership in the U.S.

While we continue to wait for results of the presidential election, we can celebrate women across the country, up and down the ballot, that made history and broke records.