Political Leadership Memo

Sources & Full Citations

QUOTATIONS

  1. Shirley Chisholm (“If they don’t give you a seat at the table…”). Donna Brazile, People, January 2005; provenance discussion in Quote Investigator, December 2, 2022. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/12/02/folding/

  2. Maya Wiley (“there have been 109 mayors…”). “Maya Wiley: The First Woman Mayor of New York City?” NextTribe, reflecting on her 2021 mayoral campaign. https://nexttribe.com/magazine/maya-wiley/

  3. Crystal Hudson (“What really propelled me into public service…”). “The ‘Unapologetic Quest’ of City Council’s Crystal Hudson.” BKMAG, 2023. https://www.bkmag.com/2023/04/24/the-unapologetic-quest-of-city-councils-crystal-hudson/

  4. Pierina Sanchez (“It boils down to a very simple reality…”). NYC Progressive Caucus, “Homes Now.” https://nycprogressives.com/homes-now/

  5. Kathy Hochul (“I worked on Capitol Hill for a congressman and a senator…”). If She Can Make It Here podcast, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

  6. Letitia James (“I have met countless numbers of young women of color…”). If She Can Make It Here podcast, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

  7. Rebecca Bailin (“I didn’t have money, and so I thought, ‘I can’t start…’”). If She Can Make It Here podcast, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

  8. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (“I think of my mother, a woman who because of her gender and her race…”). Opening remarks to the 2019 New York Senate session. “Stewart-Cousins Opens 2019 NY Senate Session,” Patch, January 9, 2019. https://patch.com/new-york/rivertowns/stewart-cousins-opens-2019-ny-senate-session

  9. Maria Torres-Springer (“I really believe that public service is an act of faith and love…”). Recorded remarks, October 2024.

  10. Gloria Middleton (“It will allow them to afford an apartment in New York City…”). CWA Local 1180, “President Middleton Testifies on Equal Pay,” on the union’s $15 million pay-equity settlement for NYC administrative managers. https://www.cwa1180.org/news-popup/local-news-folder/local-news-5-president-middleton-testifies-on-equal-pay

  11. Afua Atta-Mensah (“Basebuilding is a contact sport…”). Philanthropy New York, June 22, 2017. https://philanthropynewyork.org/news/afua-atta-mensah-executive-director-community-voices-heard-says-basebuilding-contact-sport

  12. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“Power structures exist to preserve the power of people who have historically had it…”). Amplify Her rally, Jackson Heights, September 2018.

  13. Ai-jen Poo (“It was step by step, meeting by meeting, story by story…”). If She Can Make It Here podcast, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

  14. Reshma Saujani (“We have to stop trying to fix women and fix the structure.”). If She Can Make It Here podcastt, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

  15. Maya Wiley (“Every time they try to tell you you are not a leader…”). Amplify Her® Foundation event, 2025.

  16. Gloria Steinem (“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”). Nancy Gibbs et al., “How to Revive a Revolution,” TIME, March 9, 1992. https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,975028-4,00.html

  17. Amanda Septimo (“It’s important to bet big, dream big… and jump into the big fight.”). Quoted in “Vanderbilt undergraduate Amanda Septimo wins election for New York’s 84th Assembly District.” The Vanderbilt Hustler, November 3, 2020. https://vanderbilthustler.com/2020/11/03/vanderbilt-undergraduate-amanda-septimo-wins-election-for-new-yorks-84th-assembly-district/

  18. Kathy Hochul (“I walked away from a job because I couldn’t find accessible, affordable childcare…”). If She Can Make It Here podcast, Amplify Her® Foundation, 2026.

FACTUAL, HISTORICAL & RESEARCH SOURCES

  1. Historic firsts — Pauli Murray (Liberal Party, 1949), Ella Baker (1953), Mary Pinkett (first Black woman on the New York City Council, 1974), and the 2021 women-majority Council (31 of 51 seats). Sarah Seidman, “Thirty-One in ’21.” Museum of the City of New York, 2021. https://www.mcny.org/story/thirty-one-21-new-york-women-office-past-and-present

  2. Shirley Chisholm — party work; New York State Assembly election in 1964; first Black woman elected to Congress in 1968; presidential campaign in 1972. Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn Women’s Activism, Brooklyn College. https://www.brooklyn.edu/wgst/chisholm/

  3. Bella Abzug — 1970 campaign slogan and National Women’s Political Caucus co-founding. U.S. House of Representatives, History, Art & Archives, “ABZUG, Bella Savitzky.” https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/8276

  4. New York state firsts — Kathy Hochul (first woman governor), Letitia James (first woman elected attorney general),

  5. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (first woman to lead a legislative majority conference). New York State Senate, January 9, 2019. https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/articles/2019/andrea-stewart-cousins/history-made-senate-majority-leader-andrea-stewart

  6. Hochul–Adams all-women major-party ticket. Katie Honan, “Hochul Taps Adrienne Adams as Running Mate…,” THE CITY, February 4, 2026. https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/02/04/kathy-hochul-adrienne-adams-lieutenant-governor/

  7. Julie Menin — first Jewish Speaker of the New York City Council, elected January 7, 2026. New York City Council. https://council.nyc.gov/press/2026/01/07/3051/

  8. Women in the New York State Legislature — 74 of 213 legislators (34.7%) in 2026; New York ranked 24th nationally. Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers University, “New York.” https://cawp.rutgers.edu/data/state-state-information/new-york

  9. Entry-point framing — encouragement, lived experience, and relationally embedded candidacy. Susan J. Carroll and Kira Sanbonmatsu, More Women Can Run. Oxford University Press, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199322428.001.0001; Danielle M. Thomsen and Aaron S. King, “Women’s Representation and the Gendered Pipeline to Power,” American Political Science Review 114(4), 2020, 989–1000.

  10. Structural openings, recruitment, and open seats. Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox, It Still Takes a Candidate, 3rd ed., 2025; Carroll and Sanbonmatsu, More Women Can Run, 2013; THE CITY, “What to Know About the 2021 NYC Council Races”; Represent Women, “Ranked Choice Voting.” https://www.representwomen.org/ranked_choice_voting_rcv

  11. Party gatekeeping and recruitment gap. Lawless and Fox, 2025; Richard L. Fox and Jennifer L. Lawless, American Journal of Political Science, 2004; Center for American Women and Politics, Rethinking Women’s Political Power, Chapter 4. https://rethinkingpower.rutgers.edu/chapter-4-structural-barriers-and-opportunities/

  12. Legitimacy tax. Jennifer L. Lawless and Richard L. Fox, It Takes More Than a Candidate, 3rd ed., 2025. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009598248.

  13. Higher external standards for women of color: Center for American Progress, Opening the Gates: Clearing the Way for More Women to Hold Political Office, 2017. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/opening-the-gates/

  14. Campaign finance. Center for American Women and Politics, Women, Money & Politics. https://cawp.rutgers.edu/research/cawp-women-money-and-politics-series

  15. Black women’s fundraising gap. Grace Haley and Sarah Bryner, Which Women Can Run? The Fundraising Gap in the 2020 Elections’ Competitive Primaries. OpenSecrets, June 9, 2021. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/2020-gender-race

  16. Occupational segregation and the political feeder pool. Lawless and Fox, 2025; Carroll and Sanbonmatsu, 2013; Women Creating Change, Unequal Ground.

  17. Racialized pay gap. New York City Council, Equal Pay Day statement, 2025; New York State Department of Labor, 2022. See also Women Creating Change and The New School Center for New York City Affairs, Closing the Gender Pay Gap, 2024.

  18. Second shift and motherhood penalty. Lawless and Fox, 2025; Pew Research Center (Fry et al.), 2023; TriplePundit,

  19. “Women Run Less Than 25% of Nonprofits,” 2024; AAUW, Broken Ladders, 2018. https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/broken-ladders/; Candid, The State of Diversity in the U.S. Nonprofit Sector, 2024.

  20. Online toxicity and officeholder abuse. Brennan Center for Justice, Intimidation of State and Local Officeholders, 2024. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research/reports/intimidation-state-and-local-officeholders

  21. Amplify Her® Foundation, “Grantee Partners.” Source for the organizations named under “Building the Ecosystem” on the final back panel. https://www.amplifyherfoundation.org/grantee-partners