Why Recruit?
Because gender parity is a numbers game, and we can’t drive the numbers up without adding diverse women to the field.
Close the Gap California’s core contribution to the movement is recruiting: recruiting and preparing a higher volume of talented, diverse women candidates for targeted opportunities than our state has ever seen. District by district, in partnership with our allies, we are building a wave of outstanding women whom a thriving ecosystem of support can train and fund, to seize the opportunity of a generation.
Our proven recruiting strategy is a unique and necessary component of a larger win plan to transform leadership in California, alongside our allies.
We understand that there is transformative value in ensuring a more equitable array of experience, perspectives and priorities are represented at the decision-making table. That’s why we recruit women, and women of color.
Close the Gap California recruits self-identified female candidates who have promise to lead effectively as progressives in the State Legislature. We are committed to speeding up the pace of progress when it comes to representation — ensuring we can elect leadership that looks a LOT more like the voters who elect them than it does today.
And we have a LOT of work to do on the numbers front.
Defining the problem
Nationally:
- The U.S. is tied for 76th with Afghanistan and Cabo Verde on the world stage for female representation in its governing body
- Our United States Senate includes only 3 women of color, none of them Black women
- At the current rate of progress, gender parity in national legislative bodies will not be achieved before 2063
At the State level:
- California has risen to 11th in the nation for gender parity in its State Legislature as of 2023, at 42% women, however just a decade before it stood at not even one-quarter
- Most of our western state neighbors are far out ahead, with Nevada over 60% women and Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico closing in on 50%
- Although California nearly triples the national average for percentage women of color serving, only 3 Legislators are Black women, and only 2 are AAPI Democratic women
And on the ground locally:
- Only 27% of California’s 296 County Supervisors are women
- 13 of California’s County Boards of Supervisors are 100% male
- 20 of California’s County Boards of Supervisors have a 4-to-1 male to female ratio
History has shown that progress on the representation front is far from inevitable. Progress as we’ve known it has been painfully incremental.
The World Economic Forum has even pointed to 208 years as the timeline for gender equality in U.S. representation, as Melinda Gates’ “Equality Can’t Wait” initiative has hilariously brought to life.
208 years?? Will we still be defending Roe v. Wade and fighting for the basic right to vote in the 2230s too? Let’s make sure that’s not the case, by changing up business as usual.
Recruit Women to flip the numbers problem on its head
It’s clear that in order to move the needle in a way that’s significant and sustainable, a dramatic intervention is needed.
Our founders landed on the win plan of recruiting women to run for open seats in the all-important California State Legislature, and here’s how they got there.
Key factors in California’s recruiting landscape
In order to get all the way to gender parity, two realities stand out:
- A sole focus on driving the numbers of qualified women running for State Legislature up has been the missing link
California is home to a thriving ecosystem of support for women candidates. Indeed many of the allies CTG partners with and are currently breaking new ground nationally on women’s leadership were founded in the Golden State, including Emerge, BWOPA, She the People, Fund Her, Sister District, Latinas Lead, and more.
All these partners do critical work, and all need more investment urgently in order for women to rise. BUT — without the sheer numbers of women to train and fund, simple math says we won’t reach parity for decades, if not centuries, no matter how well-trained or well-funded the women who run are.
So CTG focuses solely on recruiting those sheer numbers of women, and aims their considerable talent right at the critical midsection of the political leadership pipeline in the world’s fourth largest economy, ensuring flow upwards and out to the national stage.
Recruiting is the “special sauce” that CTG adds to the ecosystem of support for women, in order to jumpstart transformative change.
Recruiting works. That’s why 20 of the 50 women (and counting) serving today in Sacramento is a CTG Recruit!
2. California’s term limits give women a unique opportunity to win at transformative volume.
There are many reasons why California is prime recruiting turf, but a big one is our 12-year term limit for state legislators. As one of just 15 states that has term limits, California provides those looking to reshape the political future a distinct strategic advantage: the ability to anticipate open seats.
We have no hope of making big leaps forward on representation if women have to settle for taking out incumbents. Incumbents are notoriously difficult to unseat, so if seats open infrequently, the pace of progress is virtually impossible to speed up.
Open seats are women’s most direct path to election, and term limits have the all-important effect of leveling the playing field as far as open seat opportunity.
While women and especially women of color still enter the candidate field at any number of disadvantages, research shows they are able to overcome those disadvantages often enough to win open seats at roughly the same rate as white men. That’s right ladies, we really do persist.
It’s no coincidence that CTG launched in 2013, the year after California voters enacted term limits. Our campaign’s founders understood that being able to anticipate open seats at predictable intervals was exactly the strategic edge we needed to speed up the pace of progress.
Women’s numbers are simply too far behind for us to be satisfied with incremental steps forward. We need equal representation, and we can’t catch up without a real plan to win.
California’s win number: 2028, the Motherlode!
Our founders also understood way back in 2013 that if we could refine and scale our recruiting model by 2022, California’s term limit rule would provide an unprecedented “Motherlode” of open seats over the next four election cycles — enough volume to bring women to 50% of the legislature.
We stand at 42% today — and we CAN get to gender parity by 2028, if we recruit. This Motherlode of opportunity is core to CTG’s win strategy.
A high volume of open seats triggered by term limits gives women and women of color a fighting chance to reach equal numbers this decade.
More than 90 of California’s 120 state legislators will exit the chambers between 2022–2028, shaking up the entire leadership roster across the pipeline. That’s 90+ open districts for our recruiting team to target, triple the number of districts we’ve recruited in before.
We need support now more than ever, to ensure our successful recruiting model is scaled to the challenge ahead and firing on all cylinders.
When Californians consider scores of new legislative candidates on their ballots 2022–2028, each voter should have the option to elect an accomplished progressive woman who reflects her community — we recruit in order to ensure they do.
We recruit because we understand the math, and we’ve got a lot of ground to make up.
Now IS the opportunity of a generation to ensure women are equally represented, with equal opportunity to achieve real progress for 40 million Californians. Join us!
Interested in why we do this work entirely in California?
Or why we focus exclusively on the State Legislature?
Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving gender parity in California by 2028. Join us!
About Close the Gap California
Close the Gap California (CTG) is a statewide campaign to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTG has been changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time since launch in 2013.
Twenty CTG Recruits (14 of them women of color) are serving in Sacramento today. CTG Recruits are committed to reproductive freedom, public education funding, and combating poverty.
