Debates weren’t enough, so Fortune and Time’s Up asked the 2020 candidates about gender equality
13 presidential contenders answer questions about gender equality.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! J. Crew and the Match Group choose new CEOs, caucusing can be hard for Iowa parents, and Fortune and Time’s Up ask the 2020 candidates the questions you want answered. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
– Time’s Up and the 2020 questions we care about. As you watched the Democratic primary debates last year, did you wonder: When will these politicians answer questions about women’s working lives?
So did we. Only eight out of the 4,000 presidential debate questions asked from 1996 to 2016 addressed the core economic and workplace issues of sexual harassment, childcare, equal pay, or paid family leave, according to a Time’s Up analysis. This cycle, it took until the fifth debate for most of those issues to come up at all.
That’s why Fortune partnered with the Time’s Up Now, the nonprofit dedicated to promoting safe working conditions for women, to ask all 2020 candidates—not just the Democrats—the questions we wanted answered. Four of the 15 remaining candidates for President joined us for video interviews. Another eight answered our questions via email or recorded their own videos. Two—Republican primary challengers Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, and Joe Walsh, former Illinois congressman—did not participate in any form, while President Trump answered select questions through a White House spokesperson. We’ve also published four video interviews with candidates who have since dropped out of the presidential race, but remain part of the political conversation.
This project has been months in the making, and—with the first primary less than a week away—we hope that it helps inform voters’ views on candidates. Read and watch our interviews here, and keep an eye out for those videos on Time’s Up’s social media as well.
From Pete Buttigieg’s Women’s Agenda to Elizabeth Warren’s plan for universal childcare, these are issues that are central to candidates’ visions for the country. Let’s give them the airtime they deserve.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe