The GenderAvenger #WhoTalks Election Night Checklist

Since we started our Who Talks? daily posts six weeks ago and began releasing infographics on the gender balance of six top-rated cable news shows every day, our Facebook posts have reached over 40,000 people, and our tweets almost 80,000. It is clear that people care about how women are represented in public discourse and in media.

The 2016 presidential election will be historic, and GenderAvenger will be watching.

The last few months have shown us that we can have women running for top offices, we can have women moderate primetime historical debates, we can have women host the shows providing the commentary, but they are treated as exceptions. According to the last seven months of Who Talks? data, women continue to be asked for their expertise barely 30% of the time.

Regardless of the outcome, Tuesday night’s election will be historic, and GenderAvenger will be watching. We ask that all of you who have been following, retweeting, and sharing our progress and call-outs for the past few months (or years), don your GenderAvenger capes this Tuesday right along with us.

How you can be a GenderAvenger on election night:

While everyone focuses on predictions and vote totals, make note of who is speaking. Point out all-male panels to your peers. Tweet out GA Tallies of the live commentary. Ask the men around you if they know about the GenderAvenger Pledge and ask them to sign it. We’ve got your back. On Tuesday night, GenderAvenger will be watching the election unfold right along with you, retweeting and sharing, using our platform to amplify your voice and your observations.

So, don’t be anxious watching the votes come in Tuesday night. Be a GenderAvenger instead! We made a quick checklist to show you how to get started:

1. Watching election coverage with friends? Tweet a pic with the hashtag #GenderAvenger.
2. Take note of the gender balance on your favorite news network and point out any exceptional (or eye roll-worthy) panels to your viewing party buddies.
3. Share the GA Tally app with a friend and show them how to tally the gender balance of the election coverage as it happens!
4. Watching the election coverage with men? Introduce them to the GenderAvenger Pledge and ask them to sign it.
5. Be sure you’re following @womensmediacntr and the @GenderWatch2016 Twitter feed for live stats throughout the night.
6. See a balanced roster of commentators? A woman analyst that refuses to be talked over? Have a toast and a tweet using the #GenderAvenger hashtag!

However you choose to be a GenderAvenger Tuesday night, it’s important that our attention does not dwindle after the election. Regardless of who wins the election, we are in for a year of conferences, panels, summits, referendums, and endless opinions on how the country should or should not be run, and we have every right to expect women to be involved in all of it. If or when women aren’t included, we must stick together and demand that they be seen and heard.

Get your GenderAvenging on this Tuesday night and be the person who speaks up for what really matters — the fair representation of women on every platform.