Political parties can be a barrier to getting on the ballot. Therefore, changes are needed to hold the political parties accountable for broadening the candidates to include more women. 

• Require equal representation at the national party conventions. The 1980 Democratic convention was the first national convention to have equal numbers of women and men. At that convention, the Democratic Party specified in its charter that future national conventions must have equal numbers of female and male delegates. The Republican Party has ruled that at least one-third of the delegates should be women. Although the presidential conventions no longer pick the president, the party platform is decided at the conventions. Even before women won the vote in 1920, they had been advocating for equal representation within the parties.

• Require equal representation within the state party leadership.  At the state level, the Democratic party has a chair and vice chair. In each state, one of the positions is filled by a man and the other by a woman.  In the Republican party, within each state, one of the national committee persons is a woman and the other is a man.

• Ensure the parties are co-chaired by a man and woman in each state.

• Require political parties to have women as at least 40% of their candidates. If political parties in Iraq can be required to ensure that one-third of the candidates are women, shouldn't women in the US expect better from American political parties?

• Ensure political parties support women candidates. Track and publicize the number of women candidates brought forth in local elections, statewide elections and national elections by each party.  These are the organizations for women within the parties:

  National Federation of Republican Women

  Democratic Party Women's Leadership Forum

• Track and publicize whether party funding for women candidates is in the same proportion as male candidates. Likewise publicize corporate contributions for women and men.

• Support legislation to require at least 40% of the party’s candidates to be women, in order to get free television and radio air time.  For instance, by striking the word "education", there could be a "Title IX" for women candidates:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.