The state Senate’s glass ceiling is about to shatter.
Initial primary election results show enough women are poised to be elected to the state Senate this year that it will achieve — and surpass — gender parity for the first time when the newcomers are sworn into office in December.
Final ballots from the March 5 primary are still being counted — the secretary of state’s office estimated there were about 219,000 left as of Tuesday morning — but enough districts are held by women not up for election this year or have two women who are advancing to the general election that women are expected to hold 53% of Senate seats by the end of the year, according to data from Close the Gap California, a statewide campaign that aims to increase female representation in the legislature.
“For some people, it can just seem like a demographic milestone, but the reality is it’s much more than that because women bring a fundamentally different perspective to a governing body,” said Susannah Delano, executive director of Close the Gap.
Women tend to focus on issues that impact families, health, education and overall well-being, she said, and bring a caregiver lens to policy issues. Still, every legislator brings unique backgrounds and experiences, regardless of gender, to the table, she noted, and women also excel in what has been male-dominated areas, pointing to Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, chairing the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.
“Each woman is so much more than a demographic statistic — she brings her full self to the decision-making table and that’s important,” Delano said.
In California, Census data estimates that 49.9% of the state population is female.
There are 18 female state senators now serving in the California Legislature out of 40 total.
Sens. Toni Atkins, D-San Diego; Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton; and Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, will leave the Senate this year because of term limits.
But primary results show at least five women are poised to be elected in November. Several districts — like the 25th in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties or the 31st in Riverside and San Bernardino counties — have two women advancing past the primary, essentially guaranteeing a woman will be elected come November. In other races, a woman is projected to beat a male opponent in the general election.
And other districts with female senators, like the 28th in Los Angeles County or the 38th in Orange and San Diego counties, are not up for election this cycle.
According to Close the Gap, nearly 90% of the women serving in the Senate by the end of the year will be Democratic women of color.
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat who represents SD-38, applauded the milestone the legislature is poised to set but noted there’s still more work to be done when it comes to gender equality.
“It’s great that the California state Senate can reach this significant milestone, especially because democracy is best served when the makeup of elected bodies closely reflects the populations they represent,” said Blakespear. “We still have a long way to go to reach gender equity across all segments of society where important decisions are being made, such as in corporate boardrooms, on nonprofit boards and in the highest elected offices, including governor, U.S. senator and president.”
Close the Gap is working to achieve gender parity in the Assembly as well, with a goal of reaching gender balance in the legislature as a whole by 2028. But it also wants to maintain the soon-to-be gender balance in the Senate as well, Delano says.
For example, should Sen. Janet Nguyen win an Orange County Board of Supervisors race in the fall, that would create an open seat that could lose that female representation.
Today, women make up 41.7% of the California Legislature, making it 11th in the U.S. in terms of female representation, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. (In the Assembly, there are 32 women serving out of 80 members.)
Both the percentage and number of women serving in state legislatures across the country have grown over the years, more than quintupling the number in 1971, according to CAWP’s data.
Nevada, Colorado and Arizona have the most women serving while West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina have the fewest.
Source: Orange County Register
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