by Kathy Groob, Publisher ElectWomen Magazine

Hot off the presses, The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University has released the most comprehensive study ever conducted on women running for state legislatures. Titled Poised to Run: Women’s Pathways to the State Legislatures, the report offers a fresh look at how women reach state legislatures and how their pathways to public office have changed over time.

Director Debbie Walsh said in a cover letter to CAWP supporters “Findings from our nationwide survey compare women and men, examining their decisions to seek office, previous political experiences, and personal backgrounds.”

The focuses on five main areas and trends:

• Women need to be recruited
• Political parties matter
• Organizations help women run
• More women can run
• Resources are important

One significant finding is that women need encouragement to run for office and that approximately 1/3 of women candidates were at one time discouraged to run by an officeholder or party official.

The study tracks women serving in state legislatures since 1971 and while a steep increase is noted throughout the first 11 years (1971-1993), the most recent decade shows a leveling off of those yearly increases.  Among the major political parties, the numbers of Democratic elected women has increased while the numbers of Republican women has declined.

Women voters have continued to increase and constituted 54% of the general election voters in 2008 but only 24% of state legislators.

The Poised to Run project was made possible by a Leadership Matching Grant from the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and project grants from the Susie Tompkins Buell Foundation and Wendy Mackenzie, as well as additional donor.

To download a copy of the study, visit: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/research/reports/PoisedtoRun.pdf.