The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) has tracked women’s political candidacies for three decades. Since 2004, CAWP has collected women candidates’ racial identification, relying primarily on candidate self-identification. This year, we are reporting this data pre-election and in greater depth than we have before, providing summary information on...

This summer, statues and memorials of former presidents and public leaders have toppled or been removed in a reckoning with the nation’s profound legacy of racism. As the country grapples with that legacy, the time is ripe for an examination of whom we choose to memorialize. In particular, we must look for those who have made important contributions to our...

Women’s gains to Congress in the 2018 midterm elections were party specific. That year nearly three dozen new Democratic women, and just one Republican woman, were elected to the U.S. House. As Republican women’s membership in the House shrunk to 13, Representative Elise Stefanik (NY-21) promised to “play in primaries” to increase the number of Republican...

This August marks the 100 th anniversary of the ratification and adoption of the 19 th Amendment, which extended the right to vote to American women nationwide. Though full suffrage for all women, specifically women of color, would continue to be denied for many more decades through discriminatory legislation, political machinations, and domestic terrorism...

With about two-thirds of congressional primaries wrapped up, Republican women have already broken records for candidacies and nominations to the U.S. House. Some journalists and pundits are asking whether 2020 might be for Republican women what 2018 was for Democratic women. In 2018 , a cohort of overwhelmingly Democratic women ran for and were elected to...

In another record year for women candidates, U.S. politics is still dominated by men and masculinity. Political candidates and practitioners have the power to change that, but too often they engage in tactics that reinforce instead of disrupt expectations that being fit for political leadership means proving you are “man enough” for the job. Take the recent...