Women, historically kept from the corridors of power, have often been said to be the power behind the throne.

And why can’t we just be satisfied with that?

If that sounds quaint and outmoded to you, consider this comment by phio gistic on The 30% Solution:

I was talking politics with a friend and mentioned this 30% solution, for women’s issues but also for general progressive issues. He said, “I wish people would just stop playing selfish, divisive identity politics. The progressive men in Congress have a great record and are doing everything that needs to be done for women’s issues.”

I didn’t have a good response for him but it felt very demoralizing.

Allow me to translate:

You women—you’re just never satisfied, are you? Don’t you know that the progressive men in Congress are taking care of you? Demanding, demanding, demanding…

But according to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney we can’t simply be satisfied when others, however benevolent, wield power on our behalf:

After working in the New York State legislature for some time, Maloney says, “it soon became clear to me that you really have power only when you actually have a seat at the table as the elected official.”

In the recent UN study, Who Answers to Women, a concept touched on again and again is that governments and service providers and institutions must be made accountable to women.

The power to compel accountability is a very specific form of power, and as women demand accountability from those who hold power, that accountability is also the way to power for women. To increase our access to the electoral process—to get beyond the 16%, to get to 30%, or even 52%—women must have the means to compel accountability, or we will forever have someone telling us, “The progressive men in Congress have a great record and are doing everything that needs to be done for women’s issues.” If this were true, women would not be earning just 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.

In order to compel accountability, women must have leverage. One way to build leverage is to affiliate with other women in a non-partisan voting block and to insist that if a candidate wants our vote, he or she must become accountable to us.