The Illusion of Progress: America’s Broken Promise to Women in Politics

As New Jersey Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill barrels toward the governor’s mansion, a chorus of national media declares it a watershed moment for women, but progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick isn’t celebrating—not when the machinery of American politics still grinds down half the population into second-class political status.

In a nation where women outnumber men, represent the majority of college graduates, and shoulder the bulk of caregiving responsibilities, their absence from the halls of power remains an indictment of our so-called democracy.

As the United States approaches its 250th year, women still hold just one-third of elected positions and a pitiful 28 percent of Congressional seats.

"Behind every campaign victory banner, there is the hushed reality of a system that is structurally hostile to female leadership," said McCormick, who described Julie Roginski and Katie Brennan as trailblazing survivors of the very brutality that defines that system. "The political establishment has rigged the system against women and our society for a long time discouraged us from pursuing leadership."

The cold numbers tell the story: despite headlines about “record-breaking” victories for women in politics, the pipeline is leaking.

Fewer women are running this year than in years past.

In the U.S. House, the number of women candidates from major parties has dropped by 20 percent. In the Senate, the decline is even worse—26 percent.

"We are moving backwards, while other nations speed past us with mature, modern political systems that welcome female leadership rather than resist it," said McCormick. "Finland. Spain. Australia. Belgium. Germany. These countries surpass America in gender equity, leaving us exposed as the self-declared leader of the free world that cannot manage to elect a woman governor in all 50 states, let alone a woman president."

“The system is rigged,” said McCormick with unflinching clarity. “We are not going to fix inequality with press releases and pink buttons. We need systemic reform to elect more women, not just once, but every time. A big part of that is on us, because women need to insist on getting their rightful place. As Frederick Douglass said, power concedes nothing without a demand.”

This year’s Gender Parity Index, published by RepresentWomen, is a searing mirror held up to a nation in denial. It assigns each state a score from 0 to 100. A perfect score is 50. Most states still wallow in the D-grade dungeon, while only two—Oregon and Maine—achieved an “A.”

New Jersey? Mired in mediocrity, a state that has never sent a woman to the United States Senate, ranking 34 on the list of 50 states, New Jersey earned a “D” for its score of 18.9

For the first time in the report’s eleven-year history, no state received a failing grade. That fact was paraded as progress, but let’s be clear: when “not failing” is considered success, the standards have been buried six feet deep.

Louisiana, which spent eight years at the bottom with an “F,” finally clawed its way to a “D” after electing two women to statewide office. That is not transformation. That is statistical noise.

And even the modest gains come with warnings. Vermont gained local representation but lost ground at the state level. What looks like advancement on paper is often neutralized by regression elsewhere. We are marching in place while other democracies are sprinting ahead.

“The obstacles aren’t mysterious,” McCormick said. “They are baked into every layer of the political ecosystem: party gatekeeping that favors familiar male candidates, media narratives obsessed with appearance over competence, a campaign finance system that rewards corporate allegiance and punishes independence, and a work culture in Washington designed for men without caregiving responsibilities.”

“The political workplace is not just unequal—it’s often openly hostile,” McCormick said. “It is no wonder that so few women get involved and so many women leave after being exposed to the process.”

But as McCormick insists, this is not just about fairness. This is about governing power.

“A government that doesn’t represent its people can’t serve them either,” McCormick said. “We need ranked choice voting. We need proportional representation. We need political parties that put money and muscle behind women candidates, not just when it’s trendy but as a permanent commitment.”

She has a point. Where ranked choice voting has been implemented, women have thrived. Where systems allow voters to elect multiple representatives per district, women do better. Where parties require gender balance in slates or internal leadership, parity becomes reality rather than aspiration.

But here, in the land of liberty, women are expected to crash the gates alone, navigate labyrinths blindfolded, and smile while doing it.

Even as Sherrill edges toward the finish line, her breakthrough—if it happens—will be a reminder of how far behind we still are. That her potential governorship would be historic in so many ways underscores how structurally backward America's political culture remains.

This isn’t new. Elizabeth Cady Stanton ran for Congress before she could vote. Jeannette Rankin—the first woman elected to Congress over a century ago—had to fight two world wars and her colleagues just to cast a lone dissenting vote for peace. And here in 2025, a full 105 years after women won the right to vote, progress limps forward, uneven and under constant threat while the Equal Rights Amendment is not recognized as part of the Constitution, although it was ratified by 38 states.

“America likes to pretend it’s a meritocracy,” said McCormick. “But if women can’t get elected in equal numbers, something is broken—and it’s not entirely about the women.”

McCormick isn’t here to decorate the stage with token victories. She wants to rip up the script. To challenge the two-party duopoly that treats political leadership as a birthright for the connected and male. To demand a politics that is not just performative, but transformational.

“We’ve had enough one-steps-forward, two-steps-back,” McCormick said. “The fact that we are still celebrating 'firsts' in 2024 should embarrass every man, woman, and child who believes in democracy.”

“Representation isn’t window dressing. It is the architecture of power,” McCormick said. “And until that architecture is rebuilt—brick by brick, vote by vote, law by law—America will remain a nation that talks a good game about equality while practicing something much uglier.”