Facts About Women in Office

In 2010, the United States witnessed its first backslide in the number of women in Congress in over 30 years.

• Represenative Nancy Pelosi's historic leadership role as the first woman Speaker of the House came to an end. (Source)
• 3 women committee chairs—Rep. Louise Slaughter on the Rules Committee, Rep. Nydia Velazquez on the Small Business Committee, and Rep. Zoe Lofgren on the Standards of Official Conduct Committee—lost their leadership positions. (Source)
• The number of women serving in the Senate remained level at 17. The number of women serving in the House of Representatives will drop for the first time since 1979. (Source)
• 10 incumbent Congresswomen lost their seats. One incumbent woman Senator lost her seat. (Source)

A few pieces of good news in an otherwise dreary election cycle for women:

• Hawaii elected women to both of its U.S. House seats, making it the first state with more than one congressional district to have all-female representation in the House of Representatives. (Source)
• Five women of color were elected to the House of Representatives. (Source)

Women are still under-represented at all levels of government.

• Women hold only 17% of the seats in Congress. (Source)
• Only 22% of all statewide elective executive office positions are currently held by women. (Source)
• State Legislatures are only 24% women. (Source)
• Only 6 out of 50 states have a female governor. (Source)
• The United States trails behind much of the world—ranking 87th in the number of women in our national legislature. (*Note: The U.S. is listed as 70th, but after accounting for tied rankings of other countries, the ranking for the U.S. is 87th. Source)
• On average, male cabinet appointees outnumber women cabinet appointees in our states by a ratio of 2 to 1.  (Source)
• Women are 50% less likely than men consider of running for office. Of those, 30% less actually run, with only a fraction seeking higher office. (Lawless, Jennifer and Richard L Fox. It Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don’t Run for Office. New York: Cambridge UP, 2005.)
• Women constituted 54% of voters in the 2008 elections, but only 24% of state legislators. (Source)
• Women of color represent only 4% of Congress and 23% of women Members of Congress. (Source)

Facts on women of color in elective office

• Of the 89 women serving in the 112th US Congress, 24 or 27% are women of color. (Source)
• From those, 13 are African American, 7 are Latina, 4 are Asian American and none are Native American. (Source)
• Of the 68 women serving in statewide elective executive offices 10, or 14.7% are women of color. (Source) 
• Women of color constitute 4.7% of the 7,382 state legislators. (Source)

Parties can make or break a woman candidate:

• About one-third of women say that someone tried to discourage them from running—most often an officeholder or political party official. (Source)
• Women are more likely than men to say that party support was very important to their decision to run. Women are also more likely to cite their party, rather than an organization, as the most influential source of encouragement for their candidacies. (Source)

Gender Stereotypes still play a role:

• Both male and female voters are much more judgmental about the appearance and style of a female candidate than of a male candidate. Although all candidates are judged on these attributes to some degree, women have a more difficult challenge in convincing voters to judge them on their merits rather than on their appearance. (Source)
• If a woman candidate is unmarried, both male and female voters perceive her as less likely to share their own family values. (Source)

Money Counts:

• The top three women who enjoyed incumbency advantage in 2008 raised approximately $33 million—$16 million less than the total for the top three male incumbents. (Source)
• In highly competitive races, the gap between the top-raising female and male U.S. Senate challengers in 2008 was almost $14 million (Senator Kay Hagan raised $8.5 million and Al Franken $22.5 million), which is $8 million more than the difference in 2006. (Source)
• Male U.S. House incumbents raised on average $196,281 more than women in 2008. Only five of the 1303 candidates relied on women for more than half their contributions. (Source)
• Most women believe that it is harder for female candidates to raise money than male candidates, while the overwhelming majority of men believe it is equally hard for both men and women. (Source)