Some minor gains for women in politics
Marcia Fudge, former chief of staff to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who was just elected to Jones' seat, the 11th District of Ohio.
It wasn't exactly a landslide, but some progress for women in politics this year:
U.S. SenateIn other words, we increased the number of women in the Senate by one, and the number of women in the House by 10. No new women governors.
When the 111th Congress convenes in January, 2009, 17 women (13D, 4R) will serve in the U.S. Senate, besting the previous record of 16 set in the 110th Congress. Four women (3D, 1R) won Senate elections this year, including 2 incumbents and 2 challengers. Newcomers Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) will join incumbent Susan Collins (R-ME), who was re-elected. Incumbent Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) lost her race to Hagan. Thirteen incumbent women did not face re-election.
U.S. House of Representatives
A total of at least 74 women (57D, 17R) will serve in the 111th Congress, setting a new all-time high. Ten new women (8D, 2R) will join the 64 incumbents (49D, 15R) who were re-elected, topping the previous record of 71 women set in 2007. The newcomers include 5 challengers (4D, 1R) who defeated incumbents and 5 winners of open seats (4D, 1R). Among the congresswomen will be 12 (12D) African-Americans, 7 (6D, 1R) Latinas, and 2 (2D) Asian-Americans. One race involving a woman candidate (Darcy Burner, D-WA) challenging an incumbent remains too close to call.
Governors
Beverly Perdue (D-NC) was the only new woman governor elected in 2008. She joins Christine Gregoire (D-WA), who was re-elected, as the only women to win gubernatorial races. With six incumbent women governors not facing election, the total number of women who will serve as governors in 2009 is 8 (5D, 3R), matching the number and party affiliations of the current women governors.
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One MAJOR gain in the great state of New Hampshire.
http://ncsl.typepad.com/the_thicket/2008/11/first-female-majority-in-a-legislative-chamber.html
13 of their 24 Senators are now women!!!!
And on another note, at least 3 million ballots are yet to be counted in CA. The fight against Prop 8 isn't over!
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=22198
And a female VP candidate.
Another note on New Hampshire: The only way we are going to see more women and underrepresented minorites in top positions is if they are encouraged to participate in their local government (providing us with a larger pool of qualified candidates). This is a great start.
Perdue is North Carolina's first female governor! As a native North Carolinian (though not a current North Carolinian), that makes me really excited!!! If I still lived there, that sentence would have ended with 10 exclamation points.
It might not have raised the current amount of female governors, but it decreased the amount of states that have never had a female governor.
In Montana we elected the first Native American woman to ever hold state office- Denise Juneau for State Superintendent! And this even though her opponent Elaine Herman called her "an Indian girl" and a local radio host called her "a professional Indian." She has a master's in Ed from Harvard and is also a lawyer! Yay!
"In other words, we increased the number of women in the Senate by one, and the number of women in the House by 10. No new women governors."
Sorry, but I'm still excited for any increase in women in politics, not to mention for these women personally.
I'm disappointed in the negativity of this headline-I'm sure these women worked very hard, may have faced sexism/racism/somekindofism and are psyched to have succeeded so let's not try to take their gains as "minor". As someone who has worked local political campaigns in the past, I can assure you that NO political gains are minor, especially for the candidate!
In light of all yesterdays successes (I'm so proud of SD and CO!), it's so easy to stay positive so let's keep the subtle negativity to a minimum :). Good job in the comments pointing out all of yesterday's good news!
I know! Just because it might be "minor" from the standpoint of national politics, it's not minor to the people living in those states and districts!
In my lifetime!
those are major gains-
MAJOR! YAYE!!!!
Not minor at all.
Let's not dismiss women's achievements and the generations that fought hard to pave the way for these major accomplishments!
As Happy Feminist noted, NC just elected its first female governor---ever. So, there is one new governor. Also, while it didn't increase the total numbers, I think the Senate race was fantastic, both because Hagan defeated Dole (though I hear Hagan's problematic on some issues) and because it's great that two women were running in the first place!!! And while I'm tooting NC's horn (I'm also from, though no longer live in NC:)), we **unofficially** turned it blue!!
I'd like to take a big red pen and strike through "minor" in the headline.
We gained. And if we do this every election, when we finally hit equal representation, we won't be looking back at each step forward and considering them "minor."
Exactly. Well put.
I hear what you're saying. But I still can't help but be disappointed that, though the totals may be creeping steadily upward, we don't elect increasing numbers of women each year. I mean, we have yet to replicate the "Year of the Woman" landslide in 1992.
Yes, I'm happy about any gains for women in politics. (Absolutely!) But I also don't think that being realistic about the fact that these are relatively modest gains is dismissive of these (or our foremothers') achievements. It's important to be clear-eyed about the pace of our progress.
I hear you Ann---we can disagree over the use of the word minor or not, but I think we should make sure we note the milestone that does exist---there is a new woman governor. Perhaps I'm misreading what you mean by the governor section and last paragraph?
I don't think acknowledging that there weren't large percentage gains in female leadership on a national scale belittles the individual accomplishments of those who did succeed. Since 1984, women have consistently (proportionately, not just straight numbers) outvoted men in presidential and midterm elections. Women are involved! But like any other area, women are not being represented at the highest levels. We want more women CEOs, Graduate and PhD students, Senior Staff, Deans, Congressional leaders. In government it's particularly important because these people make decisions that impact us all and voices from different life experiences (including the experience of being a woman) are critical to good representation. It's ok to be disappointed with the current number of women in politics and to address the fact that we have a long way to go. While we had some amazing firsts for women this year, it didn't greatly shift the balance.
That said, rock on to the women who accomplished great things this election!
I live in NC, and two things are particularly striking about Bev Perdue. One, that the base of her support comes from the more rural and socially conservative areas in the eastern part of the state, and two, that it was she who was the "establishment" candidate in this governor's race, rather than her male challenger. Perdue has been Lt. Gov. for years and is part of the Democrat block that's controlled our state government for decades.
I feel like I need to point out that a woman in office is not always good for women's issues or progressive causes in general. For instance, Virginia Foxx (from NC's 5th district) was reelected last night over Roy Carter. Foxx is one of the most socially conservative members of the House - voting against the emergency Hurricane Katrina relief package, against the voting rights act, violently opposed to civil rights for LGBT people. She's on your list of women in Congress, but I can assure you that women in NC and the rest of the country would be far better off if her male challenger had beaten her.
I live in NC, and two things are particularly striking about Bev Perdue. One, that the base of her support comes from the more rural and socially conservative areas in the eastern part of the state, and two, that it was she who was the "establishment" candidate in this governor's race, rather than her male challenger. Perdue has been Lt. Gov. for years and is part of the Democrat block that's controlled our state government for decades.
I feel like I need to point out that a woman in office is not always good for women's issues or progressive causes in general. For instance, Virginia Foxx (from NC's 5th district) was reelected last night over Roy Carter. Foxx is one of the most socially conservative members of the House - voting against the emergency Hurricane Katrina relief package, against the voting rights act, violently opposed to civil rights for LGBT people. She's on your list of women in Congress, but I can assure you that women in NC and the rest of the country would be far better off if her male challenger had beaten her.
Who did we lose in the Senate?
If we gained 4 and lost 1, how can we only be up 1? Logically 2 more women besides Dole have to have lost their seats or retired. Who were they?
Also, does anyone know if there are any Illinois or Delaware women in the pipeline who might be tapped to serve Obama and Biden's terms? (Double plus good if they are African-American, as Obama's elevation has left the Senate with no African-Americans.) I believe both Illinois and Delaware have Democratic governors or else are bound by law to select a member of the previous Senator's party, because all the projections have said that Obama and Biden will be replaced by Democrats.
Alara: Two incumbents won re-election, one female incumbent (Dole) was beaten by a female challenger (Hagan), and one woman (Shaheen) beat a male incumbent (Sununu). So it works out to one seat net increase.