Closing the CALeg gender gap, with Susannah Delano

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: The California Legislature currently has the highest proportion of women in the state’s history: 50 of 120 legislators are women. While that percentage is impressive compared to the paltry 27 women in the California legislature after the 2016 election, it pales in comparison to some other states, including neighboring Nevada, in which women make up the majority of legislators in both houses.

Susannah Delano, Executive Director at Close the Gap California, a group that recruits progressive women to run for office, joined us to talk about the work of identifying and preparing women for candidacy, and about the very real challenges women face when they choose to enter public life.

And, as always, we look at Who Had the Worst Week in CA Politics.

1:35 What does Close the Gap do?

4:33 How does CTG work with other orgs?

5:21 Success stories

6:25 Getting women to run

8:24 Toxic culture and visibility

10:46 Will electing more women change the toxic culture of politics?

11:52 2016

13:36 National and local picture

15:33 How to fit the district

20:33 Attrition rate of potential candidates

21:58 Targeted seats

24:42 Women gubernatorial candidates

26:30 the path to Close The Gap

31:21 WWCA