In 2023, we have 175 current students from five NYS regions, representing 23 high schools.

It’s been over 100 years since passage of the US Constitution’s Amendment XIX when women won the decades-long struggle for the right to vote. Women make up 51% of the current US population, yet continue to be substantially underrepresented in elected office, across-the-board, at an approximate 3:1 ratio of men to women. The recent Congressional elections in America marked an unprecedented time regarding the number of women running for and elected to national office. However, there’s still a long way to go to close the almost 23% gap necessary to achieve gender parity in elected office at the local, state and national levels. 1st Amendment-1st Vote, Inc is an innovative educational offering addressing this gender gap. 

While the program is politically non-partisan, it IS an early opportunity for high school girls to begin to seriously imagine themselves as candidates for elected office, and to begin their engagement in the American political process. In doing so, teen girls ensure, that in their not-too-distant future, more and more women will be ready, willing, able to run for office, win, and hold an equal number of seats as their male counterparts at these all-important leadership tables.