June 1 is Equal Political Giving Day. But what does that mean exactly?
You’re already familiar with Equal Pay Day—the day of the year that a woman’s earnings would finally equal what a man made doing the same job the previous year.
And you know about the political gender giving gap—the difference in the amount of money men and women give to political campaigns. During the 2024 cycle, men gave 63 percent of total donations to federal candidates, while women gave 37 percent.
That means it would take an extra 151 days into 2025 for women’s political spending to reach parity with men’s, putting (what we’ve termed) Equal Political Giving Day on June 1.
And that’s just the gap between men and women’s political giving: Women candidates face other, related gaps. They rely more on women donors, meaning their base of financial support is giving less from the start. And they rely disproportionately on small contributions, meaning women candidates must spend more time and resources fundraising than men.
This struggle is especially acute for non-incumbent women. In 2024, incumbent Democratic women in the US House actually raised more than their male counterparts. But male House challengers and men running for open House seats outraised women. In the Senate, men outraised women in every race type.
There is one bright spot in women’s political giving: We are actually showing progress in the number of donors.
According to research from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) and Open Secrets, during the 2024 cycle, 45 percent of donors giving $200 or more to all US House and Senate campaigns were women. Further analysis from CAWP showed 59 percent of small-dollar donors to just Democratic campaigns were women. Again, the discrepancy here is the size of a woman donor’s contribution—even though women make 85 percent of consumer purchasing decisions in the US.
If more of us start giving, and in greater amounts, we can close the political gender giving gap and help more women candidates get elected.
That’s what WomenCount is doing every day: Working to close the gender giving gap in politics by connecting women donors and women candidates, through a giving platform operated by women, featuring only women candidates, running at all levels—from school board to president.