Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Women make strides in government, but still far from parity

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; International Women's Day

Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer is one of nine women currently serving as governor in the United States.

Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day today, women remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of U.S. government and around the world.

Last year, Kamala Harris became the first female vice president in U.S. history, and President Biden received significant praise for achieving gender balance in his Cabinet. And if the Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, four of the nine justices will be women for the first time.

But elsewhere — in Congress, statewide offices, legislatures and local governments — women hold a far smaller share of elected positions.


There are 26 women serving as elected head of state or head of government around the world (out of 181 countries surveyed), according to UN Women, a United Nations organization focused on gender equity. While the United States is not on that list, it is among the 14 countries that have gender-balanced cabinets.

While 51 percent of the Americans are women, the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University found that just 27 percent of members of Congress are women, including 106 Democrats and 39 Republicans, slightly outpacing the rest of the world, according to UN Women. But the United States is far from a leader.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

"In fact, 20 years ago the U.S. ranked 46th among nations for women's representation but in 2022 the U.S. is tied for 72nd place with Egypt and the Philippines," said Cynthia Richie Terrell, executive director of the advocacy organization RepresentWomen. "Countries ranked above the U.S. don't have better qualified women, rather, they have electoral systems that create more opportunities for women to run and win."

Moving down a level, women perform better in state elections — just not for the top job. While women hold 31 percent of statewide elective positions, they hold just nine governorships. But 44 percent of lieutenant governors and 31 percent over other statewide elected officeholders are women.

Terrell believes that the higher rate of women as lieutenant governors is the result of strategic campaign decisions by men running for governor.

"It's also notable that male gubernatorial candidates of both parties are more likely than not to choose a woman as a running mate because they know intuitively that they must appeal to a wide array of voters to win elections," she said.

Women control 31 percent of legislative seats, performing slightly better in state Houses than state Senates. That share has been slowly rising since 1980, but Nevada is the only state where women have achieved at least parity (they currently hold 59 percent of the legislature there). Women have the smallest share, just 23 percent, in Arkansas.

Eleven Democratic and four Republican women have the top position in state Senates, but there are just six women who serve as speaker in state Houses (five Democrats, one Republican).

CAWP also analyzed local governments and found that 31 percent of all officeholders in cities with populations greater than 10,000 are women. One-quarter of cities with populations above 30,000 have women as governors, including 31 of the 100 most populous cities.

UN Women has data on local government in 133 countries, in which 36 percent of elected members are women.

RepresentWomen works for structural changes to the electoral system that would enable more women to win elections.

"We must employ strategies that address the structural barriers women face so that more women of all demographic groups can run, win, serve, and lead. To ensure that more women run, we need political parties to recruit more women to run and donors to commit to funding their campaigns," Terrell said. "For these women to win, we need to upgrade our antiquated electoral system and replace it with ranked choice voting so that women have a greater chance of winning when they run."

She added that additional changes, such as onsite child care and other benefits are necessary to allow women to serve once elected.

Read More

Road signs that read "Belonging," "Inclusion," "Equity" and "Diversity"

Belonging is the bedrock.

Afif Ahsan/iStock via Getty Images

Amid DEI backlash, belonging plays a key role in future success

Carter is adjunct faculty in industrial and organizational psychology at Adler University.

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have become increasingly visible in U.S. workplaces, especially over the past five years. However, DEI has recently come under attack, with companies scaling back their DEI plans.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pete Buttigieg

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks at the Democratic National Committee.

Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Mayor Pete didn’t say ‘gay’

Tseng is an equity strategy program manager at Google, a Paul and Daisy Soros fellow, and a public voices fellow of The OpEd Project.

In his speech at the Democratic National Convention, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg never said the word “gay.” Not once. He didn’t mention his husband, Chasten, by name or even use the term “husband.” He never mentioned that he is a man who loves another man, nor did he give any explanation of why his family seemed like an impossibility just 25 years ago, beyond saying that it did.

In fact, the only thing that might have tipped you off about his sexuality was his mention of pro wrestling, a very queer sport. The omission of any aspect of his gayness made me long for a much broader pool of candidates onto whom I could project my hopes and dreams as a gay man.

Keep ReadingShow less
Women's Equality Day design
Vitalii Abakumov/Getty Images

Rolling up our sleeves on Women’s Equality Day

Breslin is the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Chair of Political Science at Skidmore College and author of “A Constitution for the Living: Imagining How Five Generations of Americans Would Rewrite the Nation’s Fundamental Law.”

This is the latest in “A Republic, if we can keep it,” a series to assist American citizens on the bumpy road ahead this election year. By highlighting components, principles and stories of the Constitution, Breslin hopes to remind us that the American political experiment remains, in the words of Alexander Hamilton, the “most interesting in the world.”

If I’m asked to rank the centuries based on the importance and impact of constitutional amendments, I’d be hard pressed to choose between the 18th and the 19th. The Bill of Rights, passed at the tail end of the 18th century, is certainly special. Free speech? Free press? Separation of church and state? Fundamental rights for the accused? Heady stuff, to be sure.

Keep ReadingShow less
Maya Harris poses with event attendees

Maya Harris (second from left), a prominent policy advocate and sister of Vice President Kamala Harris, was a featured speaker at an event organized by RepresentWomen and Vote Run Lead.

RepresentWomen

Hope and momentum: Women lead the charge for gender parity in politics

Becvar is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and executive director of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum.

The struggle for gender parity in politics is far from over, but this week I felt a surge of hope for the future. This optimism stems not only from the increasing prominence of women in political leadership, exemplified by the potential for a woman to win the 2024 presidential election but also from a powerful gathering I attended on Tuesday.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jacinda Ardern

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Lynn Grieveson - Newsroom/Newsroom via Getty Images

Kamala Harris’ sudden political rise echoes that of another female politician, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern

Nobbs is a PhD candidate in politics at The New School.

Kamala Harris’ quick, unexpected transformation from a low-profile vice president to the headline-dominating Democratic presidential nominee has upended the 2024 election in just a few short weeks.

Across the Pacific Ocean, Harris’ story may resonate with New Zealanders, like myself, who see parallels with Jacinda Ardern, a young, politically astute liberal, and her sudden rise to her party’s leadership in 2017. Ardern’s swift ascension disrupted the foregone conclusion that her political party was headed for a decisive defeat in an upcoming election.

Keep ReadingShow less