Women a minority of U.S. elected officials
Advocates say dearth of female officeholders has affected debate on child care and equal pay
Hillary Clinton and Mary Thomas have little in common, except for this: They both hope to add to the meager ranks of America’s female elected officials. You know about Clinton, but probably not Thomas — a conservative Republican, opponent of abortion and Obamacare, former general counsel of Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. She’s running in Florida’s 2nd District to become the first Indian-American woman in Congress. It’s no easy task.
“There is still a good ol’ boys network that is in place,” she says, though she insists that “A lot of people see the value in having different types of people in Washington.”
Even as Clinton attempts to shatter what she has called “the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” women in the U.S. remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of elected office.
“Historically, we have centuries of catching up to do,” says Missy Shorey, executive director of the conservative-leaning Maggie’s List, one of a number of groups supporting female candidates.
Though women are more than half of the American population, they now account for just a fifth of all U.S. representatives and senators, and one in four state lawmakers. They serve as governors of only six states and are mayors in roughly 19 percent of the nation’s largest cities.
There has been progress; as recently as 1978, there were no women U.S. senators, and now there are 20. Still, there has been little headway since a surge of women won office in the 1980s and early 1990s. Sixteen states have fewer women serving in legislatures than in 2005, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
It is another aspect of the gender divide — one of the most glaring in our society. Women still earn 79 cents for every dollar men take home; men outnumber women in higher paying occupations, though even there they are often paid less. And the division plays out politically, as well. Women have tended to vote with the Democrats more often; polls have shown Clinton with a double-digit lead over Donald Trump among women, and Trump leading Clinton by double digits among men.
Advocates say the dearth of women officeholders has had consequences. They say women’s voices have been muted in local, state and national discussions of all issues, from climate change to foreign policy, but particularly of concerns important to women and working mothers: family leave, child care and equal pay, for example.
Whether a Clinton win in November will inspire a new generation of female politicians remains to be seen. Female representation varies significantly around the U.S. Six states have never elected or appointed a woman to the U.S. House of Representatives, and 22 have never had a woman represent them in the U.S. Senate. Mississippi is the only state where a woman has never served as a congresswoman, U.S. senator or governor.
Colorado has the highest number of women serving in a state legislature, but it has never had a woman governor or U.S. senator. And while Nikki Haley is South Carolina’s governor, the state has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate.
A major problem, activists say, is convincing women to run. Researchers say women generally need to be recruited to seek elected office, whereas men are more likely to decide on their own. “We know that when women run for office, they win as often as men do,” says Debbie Walsh, executive director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
In California, Hannah-Beth Jackson had long been active in her community beyond her work as a lawyer and former prosecutor, but it took the encouragement of one of her mentors to convince her to run for state Assembly in 1998.
“Women tend to ask permission, and we’re never quite sure we are good enough or ready enough,” she says. “Men generally don’t have those same concerns.”
Now in the state Senate, she is chairwoman of the powerful judiciary committee as well as the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. Jackson’s accomplishments include what was considered the strongest equal pay legislation in the country.
Despite her influence, the Democratic lawmaker does not always succeed. Earlier this year, a bill she sponsored extending California’s family leave protections to small-business employees died in an all-male committee.