Happy Friday! Welcome to our Media Round Up. Each week we’re collecting and sharing our favorite gender + politics stories. Here’s what caught our eye this week:

The Midterms Could Set A New Record For Female Governors — And Send Fewer Women To Congress

Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Meredith Conroy, FiveThirtyEight

This election year could be record-setting for women in governor’s races. According to FiveThirtyEight’s Deluxe forecast, there are 12 women gubernatorial candidates who have at least 50% chance of winning. If all win their elections they will break the record for the number of women governors at the same time, which is currently nine. Two of the most competitive governors’ races are in Oregon and Arizona and only have women as major candidates, increasing the odds of the number of women holding gubernatorial positions simultaneously. The outlook for women running for Congress doesn’t look the same, with the possibility that the number of women will decline after the November elections.

Read the full story here.

 

Women are switching jobs at record rates, executive ranks included

Kaitlin Balasaygun, CNBC

According to McKinsey & Company’s 2022 “Women in the Workplace” report, many women left the workforce during the pandemic’s peak and now are switching jobs at a furious pace, especially women higher up in organizations. The percentage of women in C-suite positions has slowly increased, with women of color occupying a small margin of those moving their way up in leadership. 20% of women held C-suite positions in 2017, and five years later that number has risen to 26% – with only 5% of women in these positions being women of color. Even though these numbers represent a gradual rise, executive recruiters and women in leadership have described this rate of progress as a failure.

Read the full story here.

 

Women passing men at the polls

Shia Kapos, Politico

In Illinois, more women than men are voting early for the midterms, according to statistics on vote-by-mail ballots from the State Board of Elections. So far, 54% of women and 45% of men have voted in the state of Illinois. Additionally, more women than men have requested but not yet returned their ballots. The data shows that 58% of women and 42% of men who have requested their ballots have yet to turn them in. This trend in Illinois mirrors a national one, according to the United States Election Project. Issues such as the economy, crime and abortion are all driving voters, especially women, to the polls.

Read the full story here.

States passing abortion bans reflect what only a small minority of their constituents actually want

Jasmine Mithani, The 19^th*

A new analysis from a recent 19^th* News/SurveyMonkey poll shows that in states that have passed abortion bans, only 13% of residents are in favor of the procedure being completely restricted. The analysis also says that no matter the state of residence, women are more likely to support accessible abortion than men. Black Americans are significantly less likely to back restrictions on abortion than white Americans in states that have already banned the procedure. In states with total bans of abortion, 52% of residents support the procedure being legal in all or most cases.

Read the full story here.

 

Women of color running for office face higher rates of violent threats online

Cat Zakrzewski, Washington Post

According to a new study by the Center for Democracy and Technology, women of color running for office are more than four times as likely as white candidates to be targets of violent threats online. Candidates who are women of color are also twice as likely than other candidates to be approached with misinformation and disinformation, and they are five times more likely to be targeted with tweets related to their identity.

Read the full story here.