Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the NRDC Action Fund, and Rachel’s Network Advisor Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics, joined members of Rachel’s Network after the midterm elections to discuss the role environmental issues played this campaign cycle and how women candidates are faring. Here they look to the future and talk about how their work is bringing positive change to the environment and women’s leadership.
As we learned from our 2011 report “When Women Lead,” women legislators, regardless of party affiliation, vote in favor of environmental protections more often than their male counterparts. Clearly, we need women on both sides of the aisle to advance policy, especially environmental policy. But the vast majority of women in Congress are Democrats; they outnumber Republican congresswomen three to one. Why is this and how can we address this gap? Rachel’s Network has partnered with Political Parity to identify the challenges Republican women face when running in primary elections.
Kef’s appointment was facilitated by the Rachel’s Network’s Board Placement Program, which matches environmental and social justice nonprofits with their talented membership of women environmental funders.
Alison Kay believes that the importance of having diversity in the senior management team is being overlooked by the power and utilities industry at a time when it needs new approaches to resolve the energy trilemma: how to provide energy that’s available, affordable and environmentally sustainable, all at the same time.
My generation of middle-class United States citizens got the message that individual achievement was the measure of success. And we also learned to be rugged individualists—never let ’em see you sweat, big girls and boys don’t cry, no thanks, no help needed, no help wanted. While there are still some holdouts who believe success and well-being are a personal matter, that delusion has been shattered for most of us. Today’s world works in collaboration—at least the smartest and happiest part of the world does.
