United States of America

The woman most likely to try again to become the first female Leader of the Free World spent Wednesday morning highlighting her efforts to boost women’s rights around the globe. 

Appearing at a Clinton Global Initiative forum in New York City, Clinton called women’s equal participation in society “the unfinished business of the 21st century” and announced that she will lead an effort to evaluate progress on equality issues in 2015.

Six female members of the Vermont House of Representatives flanked former Democratic Gov. Madeleine Kunin Monday as she announced the launch of Emerge Vermont, an organization that will recruit, train and mentor Democratic women to run for political office.

Kunin said Vermont could be proud that 41 percent of the Vermont Legislature is female and half the 96 Democratic seats in the House are held by women. 

We invite our users to read the complete article published September 23 2013

Vermont’s political “old boys’ club” could have more competition as a national effort to recruit and train female Democratic office-seekers comes to the state.

Former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin announced the formation of Emerge Vermont, a new group that will support women who seek political office in a press conference at City Hall on Monday.

Since the foundation of the United States, of the thousands upon thousands of citizens who have served in elected office, just 23 are Native Americans; this is at every level of government outside tribal lands. 

And of those active politicians, not one currently serves at the federal level. Native Americans in the federal judiciary is even more dismal. 

About 80 young women from Tucson High Magnet School participated in the Running and Winning Political Workshop Thursday.

The workshop, in its 11th year, introduces high school students to politics and encourages them to run for political office in the future by talking with elected officials. It is held at different schools each year for high school juniors and seniors.

The teens planned mock Senate campaigns, discussing topics that included immigration reform, climate change and the death penalty.

High-profile mayoral elections this year have already proved that the steps to City Hall remain steep for female candidates.

Only one of the nation's 10 largest cities is run by a woman: Annise Parker of Houston, who faces re-election in November. Just 12 of the 100 largest cities have women in the top job, including Fort Worth, Baltimore and Las Vegas.

We invite our users to read the full article published September 19 2013

In 1985, I made it to the front page of The Herald newspaper. It was a photo of me wearing a big smile, shaking President Robert Mugabe’s hand during the five-year independence celebrations. This roused my dream to one day become a politician and lead the country. 

We invite our users to read the full article published September 18 2013

Why are there so few female elected officials in the second largest city in the country? Of 18 elected positions in City Hall, only one is held by a woman — Nury Martinez, who joined the council in July.

By comparison, at least 36 percent of the New York City Council is female (at least, there are 18 members of the women’s caucus, and with 50 council members, do the math) as is the speaker, Christine Quinn.

Progressive groups unveiled a major initiative on Wednesday to draw attention to challenges that women still face and to promote public policies to address gender disparities.

Organizing for Action, dedicated to promoting President Barack Obama's agenda, is launching a "Stand with Women" effort on Wednesday night with more than 100 events in homes around the country.