Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are key goals at EMILYs List

We are committed to seeking out diverse perspectives and creating a space where people are valued regardless of sex, age, race, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, ability, national origin or religious affiliation. We also celebrate the diverse geographic, economic, and family perspectives that help us meet the needs of our staff, our candidates, and our larger audience. We are committed to practicing an intersectional feminism that fights systemic racism — and moving forward together towards a morally just and equitable society.

As an organization that values increasing diversity in our elected officials, it is even more important that we recognize our responsibility to do so within EMILYs List. We expect our leaders to prioritize an inclusive process when hiring staff and consultants, investing resources, holding candidate trainings, and recruiting candidates.

Anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion are strategic goals as well as just ones. Diversity and inclusion results in better representation which can create better policies. We are a multi-generational community committed to progress, and every year we understand better that progress will not be fast enough, or reach its potential, unless we center the voices of those historically shut out of electoral politics and those most vulnerable to reproductive injustice. We understand that this work does not have a finish line and requires all of us, including our candidates and our coalition of partners in politics and reproductive justice. We will expand these partnerships with allies to find new ways to meet our goals.

Our Impact

We recognize the important role that Democratic women have always played in bringing diversity to our caucus at the federal, state and local levels. We are proud to have helped elect the first Native American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican women in Congress; the first openly gay senator, the first Latina to ever serve in the Senate, the first and second Black women senators, the majority of current Black women House members and the first Asian American woman senator; the first South Asian American woman to serve in the House; and the first Democratic Latina governor among other firsts.

In both the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, EMILYs List’s independent expenditure arm Women Vote spent nearly half of its budget on behalf of women of color candidates. And in 2020, we were proud to help elect the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American vice president, Kamala Harris.

Staff & Board Demographic Data

By sharing this information, we are increasing the stakes of our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We are guaranteeing that no matter how the leadership and staff may change or turnover, EMILYs List will have this public accountability to consider.

Fundamentally, we believe that sharing these numbers and prioritizing these efforts is not only best practice, but the right thing to do, especially for an organization like ours. We pride ourselves on electing underrepresented and marginalized women to all levels of public office, so we must ensure that our internal hiring practices further reflect these values. We always strive to do right by our candidates, supporters, and staff; publishing these numbers on our website and demonstrating how seriously we take our staff demographics is one component of this work.

The below data is effective as of January 2023 and will be updated each election cycle.