A nonpartisan conversation about the importance of…
voting
participating in the process
running for office
CelebrateTheVotePA is an effort by a group of neighbors in Crafton, PA. We believe that we all need a place to talk about the importance of our democratic process – no matter our differences in viewpoint. So we created the “E-Quali-tea”, an online salon, as a way for friends and neighbors to get together to have a nonpartisan conversation about our role in the democratic process by looking through the lens of history.
Find out how you can attend an E-Quali-tea or start the conversation among your friends and neighbors by hosting an E-Quali-tea of your own.
This effort is inspired by the suffragists who fought for 72 years to win the right to vote and by our recognition that the battle continues on.
While women are turning out in increasingly higher percentages (nationally 55% of eligible women voted in 2018) they have not made the same inroads into local, state, and national government either in elected or professional positions. Why is that?
What barriers keep more women from voting?
The E-Quali-tea provides a platform for exploring these and other important questions affecting women and their civic engagement.
We are here to support these conversations and to provide resources for a fun, informative, and pandemic-safe event. If you are our neighbors in Crafton, PA we can provide “Celebrate the Vote” E-Quali-tea tote bags, conversation booklet template, agenda, as well as our personal support. If you are interested in hosting an E-Quali-Tea in a community other than Crafton, we will provide you with the templates for the Conversation Booklet, Agenda and PowerPoint Presentation and provide what guidance we can. You may put your personal stamp on your E-Quali-tea!
Ready to take the next step?
E-Quali-teas can help on so many levels:
Enable us to communicate with each other about voting and running for office and leave the politics out of it;
Reconnect with our friends and neighbors during this long COVID isolation time;
Demonstrate that we are indeed a community where we support each other.
Women weren’t
“given” the vote.
They fought for it.*
*Dr. Amanda Tewes, an interviewer/historian for UC Berkeley’s Women in Politics Oral History Project.
A few statistics
Women make up slightly more than half of the US population.
There have only been 57 women in the United States Senate since its establishment in 1789.
In 2020 only 127 women hold seat in the United States Congress. Twenty-six are senators (26%) and 101 serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. See who they are.
Pennsylvania has sent two women to the U.S. Senate and 19 to the U.S. House of Representatives starting in 1941 with the election of Veronica Grace Boland who won her seat in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband.
There are 64 women in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Fifty-two (26%) are members of the State House or Representatives and 12 (24%) are state senators.