Yes, she can...run for office and win

This last election was a very good year for electing Democratic women to national office.

We seated Elizabeth Warren (MA), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Mazie Hirono (HI) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND) in the Senate, and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) will now be serving a full term.

There are new freshwomen in the House:

(AZ)Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema, (CA) Gloria Negrete McLeod, Julia Brownley,
(CT) Elizabeth Esty, (FL)Lois Frankel, (HI) Tulsi Gabbard, (IL) Tammy Duckworth, and
Cheri Bustos, (NV) *Dina Titus, (NH) * Carol Shea-Porter and Ann McLane Kuster,(NM) Michelle Lujan Grisham (NY) Grace Meng, (OH) Joyce Beatty and (WA) Suzan DelBene.

(* has been in Congress before)

And there is a chance that we will see more bids for the White House made by women, in the years ahead.  

That's the good news.

Here's the bad news.

The United States ranks 77th in the world in women's participation in government.

Oh sure, we do way better than Saudi Arabia which has no women's suffrage, so they rank zero, but 77th?  

That, combined with an all out war on women by our other major Party'the Republicans, means we still have a lot of work to do.  

Let me be more specific.

Just because a politician is female does not mean she is going to represent progressive women's values. This is not about ovaries'it's about empathy. We have the Sarah Palin's and Jan Brewer's and Michele Bachmann's who make that perfectly clear.

Obviously there are also men who are feminists. Without them having voted for our issues and our rights we wouldn't have come as far as we have since women got the right to vote and hold office.

I know this is women's history month but it's just as important to talk about the future. We need to get up off our assets and start building it.

Follow me below the fold to take a look at the research, some action plans and two inspiring stories.