Women's Group Supermajority Aims To Push Women's Issues And More Women Into Office In Pennsylvania
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A full-page advertisement in the local newspaper was headlined "Women Are The Supermajority."
KDKA political editor Jon Delano checked out the group behind the ad and what their mission is all about.
Most politicians know women are a majority of our citizens and more likely to vote than men. But 100 years after women's suffrage, more than two-thirds of government leaders are male.
A group called Supermajority is trying to change that.
"What Supermajority is trying to do is build trust and relationship with women across the country, in Pennsylvania specifically, and help them understand that they are powerful as an individual, and they are not alone in their experience of government now working for them," said Amanda Brown Lierman, the executive director of Supermajority.
On Thursday, Supermajority, sponsored by 17 women-run organizations from the American Association of People with Disabilities to the YWCA, ran an ad in Pittsburgh and other cities to promote women coming together for political action.
"When we come together and sort of say, screw the patriarchy for dividing us and putting us in these silos of race and age and all the things they're trying to do to keep us apart," Lierman said.
"We have for decades now out-registered and outvoted our male counterparts," said Dr. Dana Brown, executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women in Politics at Chatham University.
She said Pennsylvania is a good example of a state where women are the majority, but 71 percent of the Legislature is male.
After Democratic gains among women in 2018, says Brown, "We saw in 2020, some Republican women and Republican organizations make a real concerted effort to try to get back some of those seats."
Noting that women's progress in electoral politics must be bipartisan, Brown adds, "We're not going to be able to reach parity in terms of women in politics if both major parties are not participating fully."
While Supermajority seems aligned with the Democrats on many policies, Lierman said it seeks to unite as many women as possible to push issues important to women, not a party.
"When we are able to organize together, to come together, we are a powerful force. We are unstoppable," Lierman said.
