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Fewer women in state government every year

Officials seek ways to increase number of female members

Despite prominent female figures appearing on the national political scene, the number of women in the Wisconsin state Legislature is dwindling.

This fall, as the new state legislators took office, only 29 members — just 22 percent of the total Legislature — were women.

According to Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, this is the third consecutive legislative session that Wisconsin has seated fewer women in the Legislature than the previous session.

“We have slid back to numbers that take us back to the last century,” Lawton said. “Wisconsin cannot afford a status quo where women are so seriously underrepresented in our Legislature because we can’t get smart decision-making unless we have something that’s closer to gender equity.”

Lawton offered a variety of reasons for the decrease in women legislators, including conflicting interests between home and work life and the lack of political role models and mentors.

“Because there’s not a long history of participation, we tend to wait to be asked, and we tend not to be recruited as heavily as men,” Lawton said. “And when we are, there hasn’t been traditionally the same structure of support for women’s candidacy, although it is being developed.”

State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, said she faced some of these challenges when she decided to run for state Assembly for the first time last year.

“I know what the stats are and I knew before I entered,” Roys said regarding the lack of women in the Legislature. “It’s a little disheartening. Here we are at 20 to 25 percent, and our high mark was 20 years ago.”

Roys agreed more should be done to recruit women candidates but said she was encouraged by women’s participation in other level of politics, from grassroots movements to interest groups.

While the number of women in the Wisconsin state Legislature has decreased over the past few years, the number of Republican Women Legislators has decreased at a higher rate than their Democratic counterparts.

Presently, there are only nine Republican women legislators in both the state Senate and Assembly combined.

Wisconsin Republican Party spokesperson Kristen Kukowski acknowledged this fact but said her party is still recruiting women to run for office.

“We do make every effort when it comes to recruiting [women] candidates, especially in competitive seats,” Kukowski said. “They oftentimes make better candidates once we get their foot in the door.”

Kukowski added a variety of third-party organizations work with her party to run workshops, hold meetings and work through the party structure to get women motivated and involved in politics.

Despite the setbacks that face women politicians, Rep. Roys said she is still optimistic about the future role of women in government.

“I do see a lot of hope,” Roys said. “I would encourage as many women, young people, people of color to consider running and putting yourself forward because we need diverse perspectives to make our government run well.”