Championing female voters as powerful ‘Supermajority,’ organizers launch movement to fight for women’s agenda

"In many ways, women have been doing all this work – whether it's running their PTA, or organizing around reproductive healthcare – but we haven't been doing it together."

By
Julia Conley
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210
SOURCECommon Dreams
Image Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty

Several influential progressive women on Monday launched a new grassroots movement aimed at building on the energy and political power of American women, who make up the majority of the U.S. population, voters, and grassroots donors – forming what the group calls a “Supermajority.”

Created by former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, and National Domestic Workers Alliance director Ai-jen Poo, the Supermajority is aimed at building on the political power women have demonstrated since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016.

“In the past two years, we’ve seen what happens when women mobilize,” reads a statement on the group’s website. “Women donated $100 million more to campaigns and causes in 2018 than they did in 2016. We’ve been the majority of voters in every national election since 1964. In 2018, women helped elect a Congress with a record-breaking 127 women members.”

“Women are on the cusp of becoming the most powerful force in America,” the statement adds. “But to fundamentally transform this country, we need to work together.”

The group launched with a video featuring its slogan, taken from Richards’ speech at the Women’s March in 2017: “One of us can be dismissed. Two can be dismissed. But together, we aren’t just the majority, we are a Supermajority – and we are unstoppable.”

The Supermajority plans to gather the input of millions of women across the country in order to “create a women’s agenda that puts our issues first – from economic equity and opportunity to dignity and safety on the job to keeping families and communities safe.”

Headed by women who have dedicated their careers to organizing around causes affecting marginalized communities, the group also plans to provide on-the-ground training to women who are new to activism and include a “Supermajority Education Fund” which will research and educate women about civic participation, visibility, and political power.

“We’ve spent the last year going around the country to all kinds of communities – urban, suburban, rural – and talking to women, listening to their stories,” Poo told CNN‘s “New Day” on Monday morning. “And it’s been so inspiring. They’re already much more engaged in unprecedented ways…and they want to do more. They don’t want to stop here, they want to do more and they want to be connected.”

The group argues that while women have become more politically engaged in recent years, there hasn’t yet been a platform where they can join together to build on and learn from one another’s efforts and activism.

“In many ways, women have been doing all this work – whether it’s running their PTA, or organizing around reproductive healthcare – but we haven’t been doing it together,” Richards told the Washington Post. “What are we going to do to make this moment not something that is just a fleeting flash point of activism, but actually creating a permanent organizing ability for women?”

On social media, one supporter of the new movement likened its agenda to a “Women’s New Deal,” aimed at pushing for affordable childcare, universal healthcare, pay equity, and other reforms that would help American women – and the rest of the country.

“There’s a majority of Americans who want to see better, affordable healthcare, there’s a majority of Americans that are impacted by childcare issues and elder care issues,” Garza told CNN. “These are issues that are often sidelined as women’s issues or special interests but what the Supermajority is saying is actually these are issues that are impacting all Americans and they should be addressed as the national issues and the national emergencies that they are.”

In its statement of values, the Supermajority writes that women’s equity is essential to “fighting for the basic human needs of all people, including universal healthcare, public education, a living wage, a clean environment, and affordable housing.”

On Twitter, other influential women applauded the group for creating a new space in the political landscape in which women can work together to fight for economic, political, and social justice.

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