Discussion: Voting Rights and Election Law

In recent years, women have been making history more often in Pennsylvania, with progress being made in bringing the number of elected officials into closer alignment with the state’s demographics. Yet in a state where half of the 12.9 million residents are women, there still is an imbalance — 68% of the positions in the Legislature, for example, are filled by men.

For some candidates — and voters — it’s not a focal point.

But advocates from Republican, Democrat and nonpartisan projects created in the past few years with the goal of boosting the percentages of women in office argue that it does make a difference.

“Parity in numbers is one measure and one indicator of women’s political influence and their power in the political system,” said Kelly Dittmar, a political science professor at Rutgers-Camden and director of research at the Center for American Women in Politics.
Among the 50 states, Pennsylvania ranks 26, the center says, in terms of female representation in politics, which includes members of state legislatures and Congress.

It’s a marked improvement from where the state was just a few years ago. In 2016, Pennsylvania was ranked 40.

 

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