Abbreviation
il
Woman Governor
None to date
Woman Congress
Current
State Legislature Rank
8
State Fact Sheet

Denominators Matter: Women as a Percentage of All Candidates and Nominees

The current COVID-19 crisis has already offered important reminders about how to define and address problems across sectors – health, economic, and political. Here is a simple one: denominators matter. For weeks now, President Trump has touted the total number of coronavirus tests completed in the U.S. as surpassing the rest of the world, implying our...

Women on the Front Lines in Cities’ Fights Against COVID-19

We know that women are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. According the U.S. Census Bureau , women hold 76% of all heath care jobs. More specifically, women are over 85% of registered nurses nationwide, dominating one of the groups battling coronavirus via patient care in hospitals nationwide. Women are also 31 of 50 (62%) of state health...

Women on the Front Lines in States’ Fights Against COVID19

The gendered dimensions of today’s global pandemic are being revealed, felt, and analyzed in real time. From the gender differences in infection and death rates ( higher for men ) to the amplification of gender inequities in the economic and domestic spheres that heighten the vulnerability of women’s economic, physical, and mental health, the gendered impact...

Miller, Newman Push Potential Gains for Women in Illinois Congressional Delegation

Congressional primaries were held on Tuesday in Illinois. The Ohio primary was postponed due to a state of emergency. Full context about women in the 2020 elections, including candidate lists, summaries, results from previous primaries, and historical comparisons, are available via the Center for American Women and Politics’ (CAWP) Election Watch . Among the...

The Current State of Republican Women and What Might Happen in 2020

The most-told story of the 2018 mid-term elections was the historic gains made by women across different levels of office and nationwide. However, these gains were not made equally across party lines. In fact, the story of 2018 for Republican women was actually quite bleak, particularly in light of the overall historic nature of the election year. As a...

Expert Outlooks: What to Watch in Election 2020

With one year to go until Election Day 2020, the Center for American Women and Politics has asked experts in gender and politics – scholars and practitioners alike – to provide their outlooks for the gender and intersectional dynamics to watch in the next year. See their contributions below and stay tuned to CAWP’s Election Watch throughout the campaign for...

Madam for America

Madam for America is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping to identify, recruit, train, elect, and appoint Black women at every level of government in the Midwest. 

Shirley Chisholm’s Birthday Gift: Support Black Women Candidates

Fifty years to the day that Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, five new Black women won seats in the U.S. House. In January, they will join 17 other incumbent Black women representatives, two Black women delegates, and one Black woman senator to represent the largest cohort of Black congresswomen to ever serve in...

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