Colorado ranks near the top for our relatively high percentage of female lawmakers, a trend that has continued with the Democrats in power even as the number of Republican women under the Gold Dome has dwindled. As the Denver Post reports:
Colorado ranks third nationally in the number of women in its state legislature, but at 35 percent it’s hardly equality.
“There is still an old-boys network, and it’s real,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, one of just six female senate presidents in the country…
The national average is 23.5 percent, with mainly Southern states rounding out the bottom 10. South Carolina was the lowest with 8.8 percent female lawmakers.
The analysis shows Democrats in Colorado and across the nation are doing a better job recruiting women to their ranks.
Of the 11 female senators in Colorado, only one is a Republican. And in the House, there are 19 female Democrats compared with five Republicans.
“Republican women, many of them tend to prioritize families over careers, and that would mean political careers as well,” said Sen. Nancy Spence of Centennial, the lone female in the Republican Senate caucus.
House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, has her own theory about why Colorado had higher-than-average numbers of women in the legislature, even in the 1970s: “Bad pay.”
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Spence may be the only Senate Republican female right now, but after ’08 there might not be any Republican women in that chamber. The GOP in this state is purging moderate women from their party and elected extremists males, such as Mike Kopp beating Kiki Traylor in the ’06 primary.
Spence has become more hawkish on issues lately directly due to the fact that she’s afraid of a primary next year.
And Spence’s insult that only republican women prioritize family over careers is Bull Shit. I would contend that the overwhelming majority of americans put family first; regardless of party, religion, race or sex.
No pun on political spectrum intended.
I think that due to income, for one reason, more R women have the option of staying home. The D’s have traditionally been the party of workplace equality, so there is a bent to get out there into the workplace, which so often means not being at home.
How a couple “puts family first” is subject to the work around. I am one of those rare libs that doesn’t think day care is just fine. I’ve heard some people say that having Mommy and Daddy both working is good for the family because then they can buy more stuff. “Putting family first” is a meaningless phrase because of the many interpretations.
hasn’t been more aggressive here or gotten more traction.
Perhaps one of the reasons more ladies have sung the Blues is because the Democratic Party has been more successful in encouraging women to get involved with the party structure. Dems probably have had more female county chairs, campaign managers, precinct captains, etc, etc in the past decade than their Republican counter parts.
Evenutually, some of these lady leaders step up to run for office after developing a campaign machine and becoming comfortable fundraising.
Also, the Dem femmes may be more successful recruiting from their social and business ranks–a “good ole girl” network that may attract more Democrats just because of the issues involved–environment, child care, housing, health, yadda yadda.
The key word here is “activism” on social issues–not exactly a huge segment of a man’s world overall and not on the top ten for the Republicans just because of its “warm and fuzzy” connotations. Yet, those household problems are getting voters to the polls supporting Democratic lady politicians.
just have to point to people like Buffy I think she cares more about prisons than about “female” issues.
That’s the nice thing about being a western democrat–the party is inclusive. we need to remember that as the GOP turns cannibal and the D’s get more entrenched. The D’s see power in diversity and the R’s see power in orthodoxy.
Does Madden mean bad pay for women in the state, or a willingness to take the bad pay of legislators?