Where does NJ stand with women in politics?

👩 Women need to be represented more in NJ's legislature, according to CAWP

👩 The number of women holding seats in NJ fell by two

👩 Republicans need to do a better job in recruiting women, CAWP reports

Where does your state stand when it comes to the number of women serving in legislatures?

The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University has updated its rankings of states by women’s representation in state legislatures.

Their rankings are determined by the proportion of state legislative seats held by women.

How did things fan out? Let’s put it this way. New Jersey has a lot of work to do when it comes to female representation in politics.

The Rankings

New Jersey is only one of four states that had state legislative races in 2023, said CAWP Director, Debbie Walsh. The other states that held such races last year were Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia.

She said New Jersey was the only one of these states to see a decrease in women’s representation in its state legislature.

The number of women holding seats in the New Jersey Legislature fell by two. That means currently, 41 women hold these offices in the Garden State, Walsh said. With women holding 34.2% of seats, New Jersey falls in CAWP’s rankings from 21st to 23rd place.

Meanwhile, women gained six seats in Louisiana, two in Mississippi, and two in Virginia, as a result of the 2023 elections.

“Once again Nevada is at the top of the list where 60.3% of its legislature is female. It is the only state where women are the majority. There are a couple of states that are nipping at their heels, Arizona at 49% and Colorado at 48%,” Walsh said.

West Virginia is at the bottom of the list where only 12% of its legislature is female.

Why the drop in New Jersey?

Part of the reason is because New Jersey lost a lot of incumbent women. Many of the women who were serving in the state legislature chose not to run for re-election, either because they were retiring or running for another office, or they lost whether it was in a primary or in a general election, Walsh explained.

There was a total of 15 incumbent women who did not return to the New Jersey state legislature, which means to even stay exactly the same, the state would have needed 15 new women to take their places, which is a lot in any one cycle, Walsh said.

The findings were not a surprise to CAWP, but a disappointment, nonetheless, she added.

What does this mean for New Jersey?

It means women’s voices are not being heard as much now as they were in the past, Walsh said.

But there is a glimmer of good news.

“There is great diversity among the women who are serving in the legislature. Of those 41 women who are serving, 22 of them are women of color,” Walsh said.
Also, there are increases among Latina women serving in the state legislature.

The Message

If there isn’t vigilance and if there is not enough work by both political parties to very intentionally recruit and support women in winnable races around the state, this is what can happen. The numbers go down, and we lose something as a state when we don’t see more women in office, Walsh pointed out.

She said the state needs to see more diversity, different perspectives, and different life experiences.

“We want more women, more LGBTQ folks, women of different professions, women of different socio-economic backgrounds, different races and ethnicities, so all of those perspectives are part of the conversation when policy is being made,” Walsh said.
While many women are interested in politics in New Jersey, she said the challenge in New Jersey is unique.

The Challenge

The parties, particularly at the county level, are making decisions before the primary and endorsing before the primary who is going to get the party line, Walsh said. The party line does not really exist in other states.

With that line, it means women are well-positioned on the ballot. They are running with a whole ticket of either Democrats or Republicans. They also get resources that help get the vote out and get their name recognition up, she said.

The parties have a huge role to play in New Jersey politics. Walsh said it’s up to the parties to run women in places where folks from their party can win.

“So, it’s not enough to say, you know, on the Republican side, to say we’re running women and then they’re running them in Hudson County or Democrats saying, we’re running women and they’re running them in Sussex County. These are really tough places for folks from those parties to win. So, you’ve got to run them in winnable places,” Walsh said.

When looking at the New Jersey numbers, Walsh said Democrats do a better job than Republicans representing women. About 43% of all the Democrats who serve in the New Jersey Legislature, are women. On the Republican side, it’s only 18.6%.

“So, while work needs to be done on both sides of the aisle, there needs to be some extra efforts on the Republican side to recruit and support women running in winnable races,” Walsh said.

Check out CAWP’s full rankings here.

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