Election Reflections and New Directions

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER • NOVEMBER 2020

Inspiring Images: To Kamala, With Love!

Women artists were quick to commemorate Kamala Harris’ historic win as the first woman, first African American and first South-Asian to become vice president-elect.

San Francisco artist Bria Goeller paired Harris’s confident stride into one of America’s oldest men’s clubs with the shadow of 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, who blazed a trail for others by integrating her New Orleans elementary school in 1960.

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson, a panelist in our recent Women's Leadership Forums, gave Vision 2020 permission to reprint her passing-the-torch drawing from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.

Wilkinson commented: "What better way to celebrate this year’s 100th Anniversary of U.S. women winning the right to vote than by electing the first woman vice president of the United States of America! We’re almost catching up with India, Israel, Sri Lanka, Malta, Latvia, Senegal, Liberia, Croatia, Norway and many other countries which have survived having a woman president or prime minister. Any bets on how long that will take? In the meantime, it feels great to get this close. Congratulations, Kamala Harris!"

Women 100 Events

Important Themes Emerge From Panels During the Women's Leadership Forums

Healthcare, legal rights and education continue to shape the priorities of women’s activism in the United States, and building coalitions remains integral to women’s progress. Those are the threads tying together the past, present and future of women's equality in leadership, according to participants in the Women’s Leadership Forums held Nov. 4. View recordings of the panels.

More than 1,300 people registered for the virtual forums, the third event in Vision 2020's Women 100, a yearlong commemoration of the women’s voting rights centennial. Registrants were able to pose questions during the interactive panel discussions and watch the Pew Research Center special briefing on perceptions of gender equality in the United States.

Major themes that emerged as agenda items for increasing the power of women's leadership include, in no particular order:

Building bridges among women across political and other differences
Creating and leveraging coalitions to increase reach and impact
Investing in youth education on civics, leadership, financial literacy and women’s history
Providing government support for childcare, which has gained urgency during the pandemic because a disproportionate share of increased childcare demands have interrupted women's careers
Helping more women run for state elected offices because many laws and policies that affect women are made at the state level

Vision 2020 thanks Women's Leadership Forums sponsors The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company and Qurate Retail Group/QVC.

New Dates and Format for Spring Breakthru

College students nationwide will be invited to gather virtually for Women 100's Spring Breakthru on March 18-19, 2021. During two days of online lectures, seminars and workshops, participants will learn how to become effective advocates for positive social change. Along the way, they will delve into issues of intersectional feminism, civic engagement and social justice.

Seat at the Table to Reopen in 2021

Women 100's interactive exhibition, Seat at the Table: Women’s Right to Vote and Equality 100 Year Later, will reopen April 1, 2021 in the lobby of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and continue through September 2021. Meanwhile, you can take a video tour of the exhibition.

In time for the reopening, Vision 2020 plans to expand the exhibition's content to include data points from the 2020 national election as well as the COVID-19 pandemic's social and economic impact on American women.

“We are thrilled that our great partnership with the Kimmel Center will give the public more time to view this exhibition in person and see not only how far women have come but how far we still need to go to achieve women’s equality,” said Vision 2020 President Lynn Yeakel.

Vision2020Votes

AJLI Was Top Team in Vision2020Votes

As part of its Women 100 celebration, Vision 2020 wanted to help mobilize women voters in record numbers as a tribute to the suffragists' victory in securing voting rights for women 100 years ago.

We partnered with Motivote to create Vision2020Votes, an online engagement platform, to help our national network do the critical work of getting more women to cast ballots this election year. The platform made the process fun, easy and social. In total, 330 teams joined Vision2020Votes, representing a diverse range of nonpartisan organizations across the country.

Thank you to those who participated, and to the 50+ mission-aligned brands that donated prizes to incentivize getting ready to vote! Among Vision 2020 Allies, the Association of Junior Leagues International team led the way with more than 1,300 participants nationwide. Congratulations to AJLI and their extensive and powerful network!

Vision 2020 Coalition

Vote Run Lead Scores Big Election Wins

Vision 2020 Allied Organization Vote Run Lead saw impressive results this election year, with a 55% win rate for women who have participated in its trainings. In addition, its pipeline grew an astounding 47% in just two years, with 308 Vote Run Lead alums running for office. The number-one office sought was state representative, and half of those running for state legislatures won. Other notable statistics: 71% of alumnae who are women of color won their races, and 87 alumnae ran as challengers or non-incumbents.

Pie chart illustration courtesy of Vote Run Lead

Election Day Photos From Vision 2020 Delegates

A record 151 million Americans voted in this year’s national elections, and several Vision 2020 delegates celebrated their participation by sharing photographs of themselves on Election Day! Enjoy some of those images here.

Channel Powe

Phoenix, Arizona

Cheryl Borland

Villa Hills, Kentucky

Jennifer Lynn Robinson

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania

Anaida Colon Muniz

California

Jennifer Li Dotson

Honolulu, Hawaii

Cheryl Myers

Portland, Oregon

Welcome New Coalition Members

We are pleased to welcome Woodmere Art Museum as a new Women 100 Proud Partner. Many Proud Partners host women-themed events. Check the Women 100 Events Calendar or the Partner's website to learn about upcoming events.

Thank You to Our Sponsors and Partners!