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NOW Advocates for
More Diverse Representation in U.S. Government
National NOW Times, Winter
2001
by Lisa Bhungalia
Although women make up half of the U.S. population,
their presence at all levels of government lies far below the
halfway mark. After the Nov. 7 elections, women still make up fewer
than one in seven members of the House of Representatives and only
twelve women sit in the U.S. Senate (possibly 13, if Maria
Cantwell's win over incumbent Washington state Senator Slade Gorton
is certified). People of color are also poorly represented in
Congress and state legislatures. In an effort to create a government
that more closely represents the diversity of its voters, NOW's
National Board members agreed last year to endorse a move to
proportional representation throughout the U.S.
"We are tired of a government that purports to
represent all of the people, but resembles a corporate boardroom,"
says NOW President Patricia Ireland. "That is why NOW is initiating
an education campaign on reforming our winner-takeall voting system
in order to elect more feminist candidates to office."
Under the current system for congressional
elections in the U.S., all candidates run for a single legislative
seat and win by obtaining the most votes. For example, in a
two-person race, a candidate must win by obtaining at least 50
percent plus one vote. The population that voted for the losing
candidate-which may collect up to 49 percent minus one vote-is left
without any representation.
Proportional representation is an alternative
electoral system that offers more voting power to minority
populations and more opportunity to elect women and people of color.
It is based upon the principle that any group of like-minded voters
should win legislative seats in proportion to its share of the
popular vote, rather than see its votes essentially go to waste, as
they do in a winner-take-all system. The recent controversy in the
presidential election suggests that a proportional allocation of
each state's votes could benefit the Electoral College, in addition
to city, state and congressional races.
In the book "Reflecting All of Us: The Case for
Proportional Representation," Harvard Law professor Lani Guinier
writes: "What America needs is a system that disperses power more
broadly. Ultimately, proportional and semi-proportional systems
reflect ideas of cooperation and rotation-the importance of public
access to power . . . It is about transforming how power itself is
exercised and shared."
Instituting proportional representation in the
U.S. would mean re-drawing congressional districts to construct
fewer, but much larger, districts. This would make several seats
available in each district, rather than just one. Under one
variation of proportional representation, voters would then cast a
number of votes equal to the number of seats available and could be
allowed to cast all of their votes for one candidate or distribute
them among candidates as they see fit.
Feminists and other voting reform advocates
believe that an increase in available seats would encourage more
women and people of color to run for office and give their
supporters a greater incentive to form coalitions that could truly
affect the outcome of elections. Experts also predict that voting
rates would go up among women and people of color as they see their
own power grow.
This power is not hypothetical-it can be seen
around the globe. In democracies that use proportional
representation exclusively, a much higher share of women are elected
to office then in countries that use only the winner-take-all
approach. Sweden, Finland and Denmark, all countries that have
implemented this system, have legislatures made-up of more than a
third women.
Sweden implemented proportional representation in
its 1998 national election and currently fills 43 percent of its
national legislature with women. In 1990, Germany elected half of
its parliament using the winner-take-all system, which resulted in
women winning 12 percent of the seats, and the other half by
proportional representation, where women won nearly 29 percent of
the seats.
Women's representation in these countries is also
enhanced by Labor, Social Democrat and Green Party quotas for the
number of female candidates run on their tickets.
In 2001 nearly every jurisdiction in the U.S.
will re-draw its district lines, making NOW's efforts both timely
and urgent. "As political pundits again discuss the depressing voter
turn-out in the U.S., a system that can empower people must be
seriously considered," says Ireland. "And as feminists analyze our
meager gains in the House and Senate, we believe that proportional
representation may be the best way to build a government that is
responsive to our issues."
To learn how you can help endorse proportional
representation and educate others, contact the NOW Action Center at
202-628-8669, ext. 121, and visit the web site for the Center for
Voting and Democracy at www.fairvote.org or call 301-270-4616.
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