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NWPC's Politics
Local caucuses endorse pro-choice women candidates for local boards and commissions, school boards, city councils and mayors of smaller cities, as well as County Boards of Supervisors and State Legislative offices. All candidates must complete the Candidate Questionnaire.
For additional information about the endorsement process, please contact your local caucus president or NWPC-CA State PAC Chair.
Why
do we need gender parity
in our governing
bodies?
In our diverse
population, each group needs to be represented
at the decision-making
table. We need gender parity in politics
to guarantee that
women's perspective is represented on
all issues.
Additionally, there are some issues that have
a profound impact on the
quality of life for women and families
that need to be brought
to the political forefront.
Why
endorse women only?
Certainly there are men
who support our positions on reproductive
choice, dependent care,
equal access to educational and
employment
opportunities, domestic and sexual violence and
other "women's issues",
but it is generally women
who introduce the
legislation to further these causes.
Are
women making a
difference?
In the aftermath of the
Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill hearings
in 1991, there was a
surge of newly elected women in public
office. In 1994,
Congress passed into law 30 bills on women's
issues with 33 more the
following year. The previous record
for any year had been
five.
How
close are we to equal
representation?
In
1971
there were only 344
women state legislators.
By 1981
there were over
900.
In 1999
three of the
nation's 50 governors (6%) were women.
Only nine of the 100
Senators
(9%)
and 56 of the 435 Representatives
in the House
(12.9%) were women.
California' percentages
were slightly better
than the national average with 29%
of the congressional
representation and both our Senators
women.
Twenty-six states still
had no women serving in the 106th
Congress. Six states -
Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi,
New Hampshire and
Vermont - have never sent a woman to the
US
Congress.
Only 16 women have ever served as the governor of a state. Women accounted for only 13% of Federal Judges and 9% of state judges although, between 1980 and 1991, the percentage of women state judges did increase from 4% to 9%.
Why
is the organization
multi-partisan?
By working with
pro-choice, pro-ERA women in all political
parties, we can
influence party platforms from within.
Why
is reproductive choice
so important to women?
Women cannot be truly
full and equal partners in a society
that denies them
authority over these most personal and
fundamental issues in
her life. In recent years, anti-choice
factions have mounted a
well funded, well organized, strategic
attack on women's right
to choose. By slick campaigns launched
on selective sub-issues,
they have begun to erode women's
rights to reproductive
self-determination - rights that
many of us worked so
tirelessly and passionately to obtain
a mere quarter of a
century ago. The Supreme Court is only
one vote away from
overturning Roe v Wade. U.S. payments
to the United Nations
are tied up in the controversy over
family planning funding
in third world countries.
On
the Road to 50/50 by 2020
Click this link for a current status report on
NWPC's progress toward
its goal of 50 percent participation in
government by women by the year
2020 (the 100th anniversary of
Suffrage). Contained
within the link are various reports and charts
showing progress on a
state by state basis in Congress and the
Senate.
"We need to
understand that there is no formula for how
women should lead their
lives. That is why we must respect
the choices that each
woman makes for herself and her family.
Every woman deserves the
chance to realize her … potential."
Hillary Rodham
Clinton