TIME: A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office

TIME Magazine attended the Women’s Convention in Detroit and published this great story about the wave of first-time female candidates pursuing elected office in post-Trump America. Spoiler: Michele is on the cover!

http://time.com/5107499/record-number-of-women-are-running-for-office/

Select quotes here:

“In 2016, they were ordinary voters. In 2017, they became activists, spurred by the bitter defeat of the first major female presidential candidate at the hands of a self-described pussy grabber. Now, in 2018, these doctors and mothers and teachers and executives are jumping into the arena and bringing new energy to a Democratic Party sorely in need of fresh faces. About four times as many Democratic women are running for House seats as Republican women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics; in the Senate, the ratio is 2 to 1.”

“The movement is about more than the midterms. It’s about how our national priorities would change if more women had a hand in shaping them.”

“Nations with a higher proportion of female representation may provide a glimpse of how the political landscape could change. After the proportion of women serving in Iceland’s Parliament rose to 48% in 2016, the government passed a law requiring companies to prove that men and women receive equal pay. In Sweden, where the gender split in both the ministry and Parliament is almost equal, all parents are entitled to nearly 16 months of paid family leave. Finland, whose Parliament is 42% female, has heavily subsidized child care and a high-performing public education system. According to the World Economic Forum’s rankings of gender equality, the U.S. is ranked 49th, behind Nicaragua, Cuba and Belarus.”

“Women,” Alexandre Dumas wrote in Queen Margot, “are never so strong as after their defeat.”