Updated: Aug 23, 2020
Rutgers Center for American Women & Politics
April 22, 2020
Whether you're talking about COVID testing or women candidates, denominators matter. In a new piece on our blog, Kelly Dittmar looks at how paying attention to the denominator puts women's political progress in perspective: "Taking the denominators into account in our assessment of women's political status and progress often results in some cognitive dissonance, and that is true again here. On the one hand, it is important to celebrate the gains in women's representation in candidate pools and among nominees. But on the other hand, these data reveal that women remain underrepresented at each stage of the electoral process and across parties." Read the full piece to find out how paying attention to the denominator reveals both successes and progress yet unmade for women as candidates and officeholders.