Shaping History: CAWP Through the Years

A U.S. House subcommittee opens hearings on the Equal Rights Amendment, the first House hearings on the Amendment since 1948. The ERA in its original form passes the House of Representatives by a vote of 354-23 in October 1971.

Ellen Walker Craig-Jones of Urbancrest, Ohio became the first Black woman to be elected mayor by popular vote of a United States municipality. She served as mayor of Urbancrest from 1972-1975.

For the first time, Phyllis Schlafly attacks the Equal Rights Amendment in her newsletter, The Phyllis Schlafly Report, and forms a new organization called “Stop ERA.”

Ms. magazine makes its debut in a preview issue with Gloria Steinem as editor and Pat Carbine as publisher.

CAWP convenes the historic first national gathering of elected women, the Conference for Women State Legislators, in May 1972. Funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and held in the Pocono Mountains, the conference focuses on the backgrounds, attitudes and experiences of women elected to state legislatures. The meeting becomes the basis for political scientist Jeane Kirkpatrick’s Political Woman (Basic Books, 1974), a landmark book commissioned by CAWP.

Shirley Chisholm wins 151.25 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention, but does not win the nomination. Rep. Patsy Mink (the first woman of color in Congress) had appeared on the Oregon presidential primary ballot, and she received votes in multiple states but makes no effort to have her name placed into nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Jean Westwood is named by presidential nominee George McGovern to chair the Democratic National Committee. The first woman to hold that position, she serves until just after the election, when she is replaced by Robert Strauss.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade declares invalid all state laws that restricted abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, grounding the decision on the right to privacy.

Lelia Foley-Davis was elected mayor of Taft, Oklahoma. She was widely cited in national news reports at the time as the nation's first elected Black woman mayor. While she is not technically the first (see the 1971 timeline entry on Ellen Walker Craig-Jones), she is one of the very first Black women to serve as mayor of a municipality in the country and the first Black woman to serve as mayor of an all-Black town.

Doris A. Davis was elected mayor of the City of Compton, California, making her the first Black woman mayor of a metropolitan city in the United States.

Women’s Equality Day, conceived by NOW, and introduced in Congress by Rep. Bella Abzug (D-NY), is confirmed by Congress and the president.

Yvonne Brathwaite Burke (D-CA) becomes the first woman to give birth while serving in Congress. Her daughter, Autumn Burke, went on to be elected to the California State Assembly in 2014. As of August 2021, 11 women have given birth while serving in Congress.

Kathy Kozachenko becomes the first openly gay or lesbian candidate to run successfully for political office in the United States, winning a seat on the Ann Arbor, Michigan city council.

Elaine Noble (D) becomes the first openly lesbian or gay candidate elected to a state legislature. She serves in the Massachusetts House of Representatives for two terms starting in January 1975.

March Fong Eu (D) is elected California's secretary of state, the first Asian or Pacific Islander to hold a statewide elected executive office.

Political Woman (Basic Books, 1974) by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick is published. It is the first study of U.S. women in elective office, and was commissioned by CAWP in conjunction with its 1972 Conference for Women State Legislators.

Phyllis Schlafly organizes the Eagle Forum. In addition to opposition to the ERA, the organization, which Schlafly described as “the alternative to women’s lib,” offers a broad agenda including support for voluntary school prayer, law and order, and a strong national defense and opposition to school busing, federally funded child care, and abortion.

The Time Person of the Year is American Women, celebrating the successes of the feminist movement. They write: “[Women] have arrived like a new immigrant wave in male America...Across the broad range of American life, from suburban tract houses to state legislatures, from church pulpits to Army barracks, women's lives are profoundly changing, and with them, the traditional relationships between the sexes. Few women are unaffected, few are thinking as they did ten years—or even a couple of years—ago…enough U.S. women have so deliberately taken possession of their lives that the event is spiritually equivalent to the discovery of a new continent."

CAWP publishes a monograph, Profile of Women Holding Office, as a reprint from Women in Public Office, analyzing data from 3,298 respondents to the first-ever nationwide survey of elected women.

Representative Lindy Boggs (D-LA) becomes the first woman to preside over a major party convention when she chairs the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Boggs is also the first woman elected to Congress from Louisiana and later serves as United States Ambassador to the Holy See.

Mary Rose Oakar (D-OH) becomes the first Arab American woman elected to Congress.

CAWP publishes the first of two editions of Women in Public Office: A Biographical Directory and Statistical Analysis (Scarecrow Press, 1976 and 1978). These comprehensive directories make national information about women officeholders publicly available for the first time.

Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) becomes the first woman to have been elected to the Senate without having previously filled an unexpired Congressional term.

CAWP publishes Profile of Women Holding Office II as a reprint from the second edition of Women in Public Office. Going beyond the original Profile published in 1976, this monograph analyzes a more expansive survey including data on  women officeholders serving in 1977, a comparison sample of male officeholders, and a sample of former women officeholders. It examines personal background, political experience, issue orientations, perceptions about women in politics, and political ambition.

Concerned Women for America (CWA), a “pro-family” organization, is formed by Beverly LaHaye, wife of pastor Timothy LaHaye, the founder and president of Family Life Seminars.

With a grant from the New Jersey Division on Women, CAWP publishes Lobbying in New Jersey by Nancy H. Becker. The instructional handbook describes the process of lobbying within a state legislative framework, listing resources from that time necessary to plan and carry out an effective lobbying campaign and explaining the legal requirements surrounding advocacy when the handbook was written. It is one of CAWP's many research and programmatic efforts to advance women's political status in its home state.

Velvalea "Vel" Phillips (D) is elected Wisconsin's secretary of state, the first Black woman to hold a statewide elected executive office.

A thousand Hispanic and non-Hispanic feminists gather for the First National Hispanic Feminist Conference.

Drawing from observations during meetings and conferences of women's organizations as well as interviews with women leaders around the country between 1978 and 1979, CAWP publishes Women's Organizations in the Public Service: Toward Agenda Setting. This report identifies organizations of women public officials across the country and examines their goals and agendas, describing the founding of these organizations, their structures, their relationships with parent organizations, their reasons for forming, and their programs.

In the Running: The New Woman Candidate (Ticknor and Fields 1981; paperback Beacon Press, 1983), by CAWP’s director Ruth B. Mandel, is published. The product of research begun in 1976 with stories collected by a team of journalists working on the project, it describes the emergence of women as candidates for elective office in the United States in the 1970s.

This Bridge Called My Back: Radical Writings by Women of Color is published as a feminist anthology.

Sandra Day O’Connor, 51, becomes the first woman on the Supreme Court and the court’s 102nd justice.

As part of the grant from the Revson Foundation, CAWP brings together twenty elected women, women political strategists, leaders of major women's organizations and women holding or who have held cabinet positions in New Jersey. Participants discuss strategies for ensuring that women would be appointed to key posts in 1982 by the state's newly elected governor. At this meeting, the New Jersey Bipartisan Coalition for Women’s Appointments (BCWA) is formed. Getting Women Appointed: New Jersey's Bipartisan Coalition, published two years later as part of the Women Make a Difference series, is a report of BCWA’s formation, accomplishments, and future plans. BCWA continues its efforts to ensure the placement of women in key positions throughout state government today. BCWA provides newly elected governors with a “talent bank” of resumes from New Jersey women interested in appointments. Other states have adopted the BCWA model.

As part of the Revson Foundation grant, CAWP convenes the first national meeting about women’s Political Action Committees (PACs). CAWP had identified fundraising as one of the key challenges facing women candidates. In response, CAWP brings together the earliest PACs that had formed at the state and national level to support women running for office. Representatives from 16 PACs across the country gather to share best practices and to learn from each other how best to support women candidates and grow their numbers. Women's PACs, published the next year as part of the Women Make a Difference series, is a report of the meeting.

As part of the Revson Foundation grant, CAWP convenes three state-based meetings (Minnesota, Sacramento, CA and Los Angeles, CA) of women elected and appointed officials, women candidates and heads of women’s organizations to discuss what factors facilitate or hinder women’s entry in public office with major emphasis on political parties and candidate recruitment. Political Women Tell What It Takes, published the following year as part of the Women Make a Difference series, is a report of those meetings.

“Black Women’s Routes to Elective Office: An Exploratory Essay” is published as part of Women's Routes to Public Office. This analysis, made possible by oversampling African American women officeholders, is one of the first focusing on Black women’s pathways to elective office.

Vesta Roy (R-NH) becomes the first woman to hold the position of president of a state senate.

Women's Routes to Elective Office: A Comparison with Men is published, continuing CAWP's pioneering research on women serving in elective office begun with the 1975 and 1977 surveys of women officeholders. As the first study to survey national samples of women and men holding office, this research compares women's and men's pathways into public office.

Women Appointed to the Carter Administration: A Comparison with Men and Women Appointed to State Government: A Comparison with All State Appointees are published, expanding CAWP's research into the appointed realm. Based on analysis of telephone surveys with high-level appointees at federal and state levels, these studies are the first to profile women serving in top appointive positions.

CAWP releases Women Make A Difference, a report of highlights from a publications series entitled Bringing More Women into Public Office, the first Revson Foundation-funded series. Reports in the series include:

• Women Appointed to the Carter Administration: A Comparison with Men
• Women Appointed to State Government: A Comparison with All State Appointees
• Women’s Routes to Elective Office: A Comparison with Men’s
• Political Women Tell What it Takes
• Women’s PACs
• Elected Women Organize: Statewide Associations
• Getting Women Appointed: New Jersey's Bipartisan Coalition

Sonia Johnson runs on the U.S. Citizens Party ticket, Pennsylvania's Consumer Party ticket, and California's Peace and Freedom Party ticket, becoming the first third-party candidate for U.S. president eligible for federal primary matching funds. 

Arlene Violet (R-RI), a former nun, becomes the first woman elected as a state's attorney general, serving from 1985-87.

Representative Lynn Morley Martin (R-IL) begins the first of two terms as vice chair of the Republican Conference in the House, the first time a woman holds an elected leadership position in the GOP.

Women as Candidates in American Politics (Indiana University Press, by CAWP Senior Scholar Susan J. Carroll is published. Based on the first and still only (as of 2021) nationwide survey of women running for office, this study examines political parties' recruitment of women candidates, the factors that affect the outcomes of women's primary election campaigns, officeholding ambitions of women candidates, and women candidates' views on women's issues.

Barbara Ann Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, becomes the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate without previously filling an unexpired Congressional term. Combining her Senate service from 1987-2017 with her service in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, she is the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress.

Kay Orr, a Republican from Nebraska, is the first Republican woman elected governor of a state, as well as the first woman to defeat another woman in a gubernatorial race.

Lottie Shackelford becomes mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, the first Black woman elected mayor of one of the 100 largest cities in the United States.

Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-CO), after spending the summer exploring her chances of winning the Democratic nomination for President, announces that she would not become a candidate in 1988.

Lenora Fulani runs for U.S. President twice, first in 1988 and again in 1992, and qualifies for federal matching funds as a candidate for the New Alliance Party.

Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw coins the term intersectionality to address how the law fails to address the distinct situatedness of Black women.

Representative Barbara Kennelly (D-CT) becomes the first woman to hold the position of House Democratic chief deputy whip.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, becomes the first Hispanic woman and first Cuban American to serve to in Congress. She is elected in August 1989 in a special election.

Joan Finney, a Kansas Democrat, becomes the first woman in any state to defeat an incumbent governor. She serves as governor from 1991-1995.

Sandy Garrett (D) is elected Oklahoma's superintendent of public instruction, the first Native American woman elected to any statewide executive office in the U.S.

The Eagleton Institute of Politics publishes Election 1989: The Abortion Issue in New Jersey and Virginia. New Jersey and Virginia were the first two states to hold gubernatorial and legislative elections following the Supreme Court's decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, which gave states greater freedom to set abortion policy. The report weaves together information provided by voters, candidates, and activists to analyze whether and how the abortion issues played a role in the two states’ elections.

CAWP establishes NEW Leadership® (National Education for Women’s Leadership) in 1991 as a series of annual national summer leadership institutes for college women. After the initial grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ends, CAWP shifts from a single national program based at CAWP to state-based institutes at colleges and universities around the country that serve students from each state or region.

CAWP releases The Impact of Women in Public Office, a series of three reports of research conducted under the second grant from the Revson Foundation. Monographs in the series include:

• Reshaping the Agenda: Women in State Legislatures, which presents findings from telephone surveys of women and men serving in state legislatures across the country, revealing gender differences in policy attitudes, legislative priorities, and work on women’s rights legislation.
• Gender and Policymaking: Studies of Women in Office, which presents findings from eleven small-scale research projects conducted by scholars across the country focusing on how women serving in a variety of political offices make a difference.
• The Impact of Women in Public Office: An Overview, which highlights major findings from the other two reports. 

CAWP publishes Abortion Politics in State Elections: Comparisons Across States by Debra L. Dodson, a second report in a series of studies of electoral politics following the Supreme Court decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, which gave states greater power in enacting abortion policy.

CAWP launches Election Watch, tracking the numbers of women candidates for state legislatures, statewide executive offices, and Congress. Election Watch continues to evolve over the years, becoming the go-to source for data and analysis on women candidates in every election cycle.

Carol Moseley Braun, an Illinois Democrat, becomes the first Black woman and the first woman of color elected to the U.S. Senate.

Nydia Velázquez, a New York Democrat, becomes the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress.

Janet Reno becomes the first woman to serve as U.S. attorney general. She served in President Bill Clinton's Cabinet from 1993-2001. She ran unsuccessfully for governor in the 2002 Florida Democratic primary.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the second woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She is appointed by President Bill Clinton.

CAWP publishes The 1992 Election and the Politics of Abortion. The report provides an in-depth look at the effects of the abortion issue on several election contests in order to explain the role it played in the electoral process and to speculate about what electoral politics may hold for abortion policy and cultural politics in the future.

CAWP, with funding provided by the Ford Foundation, convenes a group of 79 scholars, researchers, political practitioners, and activists to help identify existing gaps in knowledge, discuss the reasons for the gaps, and imagine the kinds of research projects needed to address unanswered questions. The resulting publication, Women and American Politics: A Research Agenda for the 21st Century, provides a guide for research on women’s participation in American politics to lead us into the next century.

CAWP publishes Equality Deferred: Women Candidates for the New Jersey Assembly 1920-1993 by Richard P. and Katheryne C. McCormick, which explores the history of women's candidacies for the New Jersey Assembly and analyzes some of the reasons for the status of women as office-seekers in the state.

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) becomes the first woman to hold the position of secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference in the 104th Congress (1995-1997).

Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS) becomes the first woman to chair a major Senate committee, the Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

CAWP publishes Voices, Views, Votes: Women in the 103rd Congress. In the wake of the 1992 elections which saw the number of women in the US House almost double, CAWP asked the important question of what difference does women’s representation make. Funded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the report examines how the women in the 103rd Congress acted to shape the content of legislation, to build support for bills, and to create a political environment in which they could effect change.

Aida Alvarez becomes the first Hispanic woman, as well as the first person of Puerto Rican heritage, to hold a Cabinet-level position when she is appointed administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration in the Clinton administration.

From 1998 through 2005, Good Housekeeping magazine and CAWP, with funding from the Ford Foundation, present annual Good Housekeeping Awards for Women in Government. The awards recognize women elected or appointed officials, career civil servants, or members of the military whose work exemplifies how government improves people's lives.

Mary Hawkesworth, then a professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville, becomes CAWP director. Debbie Walsh becomes the associate director.

Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, becomes the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. She is also Wisconsin's first woman in Congress. In 2012, she becomes the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the U.S. Senate.

Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) becomes the first woman to serve as secretary of the Senate Republican Conference.

Since 2000, the New Jersey legislature has entrusted CAWP with the Senator Wynona Lipman Chair in Women’s Political Leadership, created to honor the legacy of the first African American woman in the New Jersey State Senate. Lipman Chair funding is used to inspire women to follow in the Senator’s footsteps. The Chair is established in 2000 when Governor Christine Todd Whitman signed legislation that had been sponsored by the legislative leaders in both parties and passed in both houses without opposition. In 2000, former US Representative Shirley A. Chisholm is the inaugural Lipman Chairholder.

Heather Fargo is elected mayor of Sacramento, CA, the first Latina elected mayor of one of the 100 largest cities in the U.S.

Sila Calderon (Popular Democratic Party), former mayor of San Juan, becomes the first elected woman governor of Puerto Rico.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is elected by her colleagues as House Democratic whip, at the time the highest-ranking woman in the history of Congress.

Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) becomes the first woman to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She also serves as House Minority whip-at-large.

Condoleezza Rice becomes the first woman to hold the post of national security advisor (formally known as assistant to the president for national security affairs) when she is appointed by President George W. Bush.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) becomes the first woman to serve as vice chair of the Senate Republican Conference.

Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) becomes the first woman to serve as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Ann Veneman is appointed by President George W. Bush to be the first female secretary of agriculture. She had previously been the first woman to serve as Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Elaine Chao becomes the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet when she is appointed secretary of labor by President Bush.

Gale Norton became the first woman to serve as secretary of the interior, appointed by President George W. Bush. Norton is the first woman elected as Colorado's attorney general and served in that position for two terms.

Christine Todd Whitman (R) of New Jersey becomes the first female former governor to serve in a presidential Cabinet-level position when she is appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency by President George W. Bush. She had been the first woman elected governor of New Jersey and served two terms in that position.

The Honorable Gertrude Fester, former Member of Parliament and commissioner for the National Gender Equality Commission of South Africa, serves as the 2001 Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder.

Debbie Walsh becomes CAWP director.

CAWP publishes Legislating By and For Women: A Comparison of the 103rd and 104th Congresses, which examines the political work of women legislators in the 103rd and 104th congresses as they attempted to transform their commitment to represent women into law.

The Impact of Women in Public Office (Indiana University Press), edited by CAWP senior scholar Susan Carroll, is published. This book presents findings from studies by several different scholars about women public officials serving in various offices and locales. Although context and identity matter, the book also offers considerable evidence of gender-related impact.

CAWP publishes Women State Legislators: Past, Present and Future, updating its findings on the impact of women in state legislatures. The report highlights how women and men in state legislatures are similar or different in terms of their attitudes and priorities as well as in terms of characteristics such as age, education and career background. The research was funded by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) becomes the first woman to head her party in Congress when she is elected by her colleagues as House Democratic leader.

Alexis Herman, former US Secretary of Labor, is the Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder from 2001-2002.

CAWP releases the first New Jersey County Report card, ranking New Jersey's 21 counties on women's representation in county and local elected office. CAWP continues to release the report card annually to highlight women's representation in our home state. More details can be found in New Jersey Facts.

Professor Patricia J. Williams, Columbia University School of Law, is the Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder from 2002-2003.

Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) becomes the first woman governor whose father (John Gilligan, D-OH) was also governor of a state.

Carol Moseley Braun (D-IL), a former U.S. senator and ambassador to New Zealand under President Bill Clinton, announces her decision to form an exploratory committee for a presidential bid in the 2004 election. She withdraws her name from candidacy in January 2004.

CAWP Senior Scholar Susan J. Carroll edits Women and American Politics: New Questions, New Directions, which presents a new research agenda, developed by leading scholars of American politics, suggesting directions that could fruitfully shape the study of women and American politics in the early twenty-first century. It contains reviews of existing research, but its primary focus is on important research questions, posing a challenge for the next generation of scholars.

Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, former US Senator and US Ambassador to New Zealand, is the 2004 Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder.

Condoleezza Rice becomes the first Republican woman and the first Black woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state.

Political strategist Donna Brazile is the 2005 Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder.

Gender and Civic Engagement: Secondary Analysis of Survey Data by Krista Jenkins is published by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). This CAWP-funded study examines whether, and to what extent, gender is salient in the development of norms of citizen behavior and key precursors to citizen engagement.

CAWP Senior Scholar Carroll co-edits, with Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University, the first edition of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics (Cambridge University Press).

CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu publishes Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States (University of Michigan Press, 2006), looking at where and why women run and how parties can help or hinder them.

The Impact of Women in Congress (Oxford University Press, 2006) by Debra L. Dodson, former research faculty member at CAWP, is published. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and archival information from a previous CAWP study, the book explores the complex relationship between women’s presence and impact in two strikingly different, consecutive congresses.

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) becomes the first woman to serve as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Colleen Hanabusa (D) becomes president of the Hawaii Senate, the first woman of color and the first Asian or Pacific Islander woman to hold the top leadership position in any state legislative chamber.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) formally announces her campaign for the presidency.

Political correspondent and TV news anchor Gwen Ifill is the 2007 Senator Wynona Lipman Chairholder.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) is the first woman to win a major party's presidential primary for the purposes of delegate selection when she wins the primary in New Hampshire on January 8. She also becomes the first woman to be a presidential candidate in every primary and caucus in every state.

Karen Bass (D) becomes speaker of the California State Assembly, the first woman of color to serve as speaker of any state house and the first Black woman to lead either house of any state legislature.

The National Organization of Black Elected Legislative Women (NOBEL Women) partners with CAWP for the second time to offer the National Leadership Institute, a leadership training program targeted specifically towards Black women interested in seeking elected and/or appointive office.

Janet Napolitano, governor of Arizona, is appointed secretary of homeland security by President Barack Obama, the first woman to hold that post since the Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003.

CAWP Senior Scholar Carroll co-edits, with Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University, the second edition of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics (Cambridge University Press).

Sonia Sotomayor is appointed as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, becoming the first Hispanic and third female member of the Court. Sotomayor had been appointed in 1991 to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1998 by President Bill Clinton.

CAWP releases Poised to Run: Women's Pathways to the State Legislatures which presents the initial findings of a 2008 CAWP study that surveyed women and men in state legislatures about their routes to elective office. The research shows that:

• women need to be recruited
• political parties matter
• organizations help women run
• more women can run
• resources are important.

This research was made possible by the generous support of a leadership matching grant from the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, project grants from the Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation and Wendy Mackenzie, and other generous donors.

Annise Parker is elected mayor of Houston, becoming the first openly gay individual to serve as mayor of one of the top ten cities in the United States.

U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) campaigns for the Republican nomination for president. She withdraws from the race after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses in December 2012.

In partnership with political consultant Mary Hughes, CAWP launches The 2012 Project, a national, nonpartisan campaign to encourage record numbers of women to run for office. The project focuses on the 2012 election to take advantage of the once-in-a-decade opportunities created when all congressional and legislative districts are redrawn and women have the best opportunity to win open and new seats.

Margarita Prentice (D) becomes Senate President Pro Tempore of the Washington Senate, the first Latina to lead either chamber of a state legislature.

CAWP releases Preparedness Meets Opportunity: Women’s Increased Representation in the New Jersey Legislature, a research report which examines the factors that helped propel New Jersey’s state legislature from 43rd in 2004 to 10th in 2012 among all 50 states in the representation of women.

Mazie Hirono (D-HI) becomes the first Asian or Pacific Islander woman – and only the second woman of color – elected to the U.S. Senate.

Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) becomes the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress. In 2018, she becomes the first openly bisexual person elected to the U.S. Senate.

Tina Kotek (D-OR) becomes the country's first openly lesbian state House speaker.

Responding to a call to action from President Barack Obama in a 2011 address to the UN General Assembly, CAWP establishes Teach a Girl to Lead® (TAG) in January 2013, which provides the tools and resources to help young people rethink leadership. The project is created to inspire girls and young women to follow in the footsteps of women leaders, past and present, and to make women’s political leadership visible to America’s youth, both boys and girls. Using a gender lens, TAG offers a fresh way of looking at public leadership that asks where women are, where they have been absent by design or by custom, and how we can reframe our ideas about who leads. Through a rich and growing set of online resources, TAG serves educators, leaders of youth-serving groups, media outlets that target young audiences, and parents.

CAWP Senior Scholar Carroll co-edits, with Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University, the third edition of of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics (Cambridge University Press).

More Women Can Run: Gender and Pathways to the State Legislatures (Oxford University Press, 2013) by CAWP Senior Scholars Susan Carroll and Kira Sanbonmatsu is published. The book draws on CAWP surveys of women legislators conducted in 1981 and 2008 and follow-up interviews after the 2008 survey to extend our understanding of gender differences in pathways to the legislatures. Carroll and Sanbonmatsu offer possible explanations and provide insight into new strategies for political practitioners concerned about women's political equality.

Ivy Taylor is elected mayor of San Antonio in a special election by her peers on the city council to fill a vacancy, becoming the first Black woman and first woman of color to serve as mayor of one of the nation's ten largest cities. She is re-elected in a regular election in 2015 and serves until 2017.

In partnership with Higher Heights, CAWP publishes its first report on the status of Black women in American politics. Higher Heights and CAWP continues to issue status reports in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021.

Maura Healey (D) is elected Massachusetts attorney general, becoming the first openly gay state attorney general elected in the United States as well as the first openly gay woman to be elected to any statewide office in the country.

Mia Love (R-UT) becomes the first Black Republican woman elected to Congress.

Kate Brown (D-OR) becomes the nation's first openly bisexual governor and the first person to be openly LGBT at the time of assuming a governor's office.

Loretta Lynch becomes the first Black woman and the second woman to serve as U.S. attorney general. Appointed by President Barack Obama, she serves from 2015-2017.

Carly Fiorina (R) is a candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, the only woman among the GOP candidates. She suspends her campaign in February 2016 due to disappointing early primary results. In April 2016, Ted Cruz names her as his vice presidential running mate, but suspends his campaign a week later.

"Electing Women of Color: The Role of Campaign Trainings" by CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu is published in the Journal of Women, Politics, and Public Policy. Presenting a case study of CAWP's New Jersey Ready to Run® Diversity Initiative, a campaign training designed to attract more women of color to the political process, the article examines perceptions of the barriers facing women of color and identifies the mechanisms by which the Diversity Initiative seeks to help women, shedding light on the status of women candidates of color and the role of campaign trainings more generally. For political practitioners, the article suggests the utility of creating programs for women of color.

CAWP teams with the Barbara Lee Family Foundation to create Presidential Gender Watch 2016, a nonpartisan project to track, analyze, and illuminate gender dynamics in that election. The initiative draws on the research and expertise of both partner organizations, as well as other experts, to further public understanding of how gender influences candidate strategy, voter engagement and expectations, media coverage, and electoral outcomes in the race for the nation’s highest executive office.

As part of Teach a Girl to Lead®, CAWP sends a copy of Grace for President to every woman state legislator, who will read the story to girls and boys in their districts. After reading the story to children, the lawmakers donate their copies to school libraries. TAG continues this project every year. The project has been possible with the support of the Hess Family Foundation and the Honorable Connie Hess Williams.

Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) becomes the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate.

Kamala Harris (D-CA), who is both Black and South Asian, becomes the first South Asian and second Black woman elected to the US Senate.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) becomes the first woman to serve as vice chair of the Senate Democratic Conference.

The 2017 Women’s March, which included the Women's March on Washington and many other marches nationally and worldwide, becomes the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

CAWP, with the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, releases Finding Gender in Election 2016: Lessons from Presidential Gender Watch. The public report draws from the project Presidential Gender Watch 2016 to summarize key gender dynamics that emerged in the 2016 presidential election.

CAWP releases Representation Matters: Women in the U.S. Congress, a report drawing from CAWP’s research on the impact of women’s representation in the 114th Congress. With support from the Hunt Alternatives Fund, CAWP’s research team conducted interviews with 83 women in the U.S. Congress. The report is a precursor to the more extensive account of research findings later published as a book.

Danica Roem (D-VA) becomes the first openly transgender person to be elected and to serve in a state legislature in the United States.

CAWP Senior Scholar Susan Carroll co-edits, with Richard Fox of Loyola Marymount University, the fourth edition of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics (Cambridge University Press).

A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters (Oxford University Press, 2018) by CAWP scholars Kelly Dittmar, Kira Sanbonmatsu, and Susan Carroll is published. Drawing on personal interviews with over three-quarters of the women serving in the 114th Congress (2015-17), the book looks at what motivates these women's legislative priorities and behavior, details the ways in which women experience service within a male-dominated institution, and highlights why it matters that women sit in the nation's federal legislative chambers.  

During the 2018 mid-term elections, record numbers of women run for and win seats in U.S. Congress, statewide executive offices, and state legislatures. Among other milestones, the freshman class of women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2018 is the largest ever, with 36 (35D, 1R) non-incumbent women entering Congress in January 2019. The previous high was 24, set in 1992.

Michelle Lujan Grisham is elected governor of New Mexico, becoming the first Democratic woman of color governor nationwide.

CAWP partners with the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators to co-host Latinas Lead, a leadership academy which aims to boost the numbers of Latina state legislators nationwide and to ensure that incumbent Latina legislators have the tools they need to reach leadership positions within their legislatures as well as higher office through campaign training, leadership development, and public policy education. The program has been held annually since its inauguration.

Nevada becomes the first state to have women hold a majority of state legislative seats overall (32 of 63, or 50.8%), as well as a majority in the State Assembly (23 of 42, or 54.7%). The New Hampshire Senate was the first state legislative chamber to surpass gender parity in 2009, although its overall proportion in both chambers was only 37.5%.

CAWP releases Unfinished Business: Women Running in 2018 and Beyond, a report and microsite to analyze what happened for women in the 2018 elections, as well as provide a review of scholarship to provide insights on women’s paths to office, style of running/campaigning, barriers to overcome, and sites for future study.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris is selected by former Vice President Joe Biden as his running mate in the 2020 presidential election. Harris is the first woman of color to be selected as the running mate on a major-party ticket, as well as the first multiracial woman, the first South Asian woman, and the first Black woman. Harris joins Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin in becoming the third woman in history tapped as the vice presidential pick, as well as the fourth woman, along with Hillary Clinton, on a major-party presidential ticket.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris is elected vice president of the United States, becoming the first woman, the first woman of color, the first Black woman, and the first South Asian woman elected to this office.

CAWP releases the first in a series of CAWP reports on money, gender, and politics at the state level, The Money Hurdle in the Race for Governor. This research is made possible through a collaboration between CAWP and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP).

Deb Haaland is appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve as secretary of the interior, becoming the first Native American woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet.

CAWP releases Measuring Success: Women in 2020 Legislative Elections, a report and microsite to analyze what happened for women in 2020 legislative (congressional and state legislative) elections, including analyses of the numbers, women’s paths to office and campaign strategy, and what to watch for in upcoming elections

Rachel Levine, appointed by President Joseph Biden to serve as assistant secretary for health, becomes the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, making her the highest-ranking openly transgender official in U.S. history.

For the first time, CAWP releases a nationwide report with data on women’s representation at the municipal level. This data, drawing on information on incorporated cities and towns with populations over 10,000, per the U.S. Census, punctures a long-held myth that women are more abundantly represented in local politics than their share of seats in state and federal offices. In reality, women’s representation in municipal office – mayoral offices and city councils or similar bodies – is analogous to their representation at other levels: women hold less than one-third of seats in municipal governments nationwide. This report will be released annually with new data. 

CAWP publishes Money Matters in the Fifty States, the second report in a series on money, gender, and politics at the state level.

The fifth edition of Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics is published by Cambridge University Press. Edited by CAWP Senior Scholar Susan J. Carroll, Richard L. Fox of Loyola Marymount University, and CAWP Scholar and Director of Research Kelly Dittmar, the latest volume offers a multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2020 elections. It includes essays from scholars across the country, including Wendy G. Smooth, Rosalyn Cooperman, Anna Sampaio, and Dianne Bystrom, as well as pieces from Carroll, Dittmar, and CAWP Senior Scholar Kira Sanbonmatsu.