Hillary Clinton and Mary Thomas have little in common, except for this: They both hope to add to the meager ranks of America’s female elected officials come January.
You know about Clinton, but probably not Thomas — a conservative Republican, opponent of abortion and Obamacare, former general counsel of Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs. She’s running in Florida’s 2nd District to become the first Indian-American woman in Congress. It’s no easy task.
“There is still a good ol’ boys network that is in place,” she says, though she insists that “A lot of people see the value in having different types of people in Washington.”
Republican candidate for Florida’s Second Congressional District Mary Thomas, right, talks to supporters at DSH Firearms in Tallahassee, Fla., on July 19, 2016. As a conservative, she is an opponent of abortion and Obamacare. The general counsel of Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs is running to become the first Indian-American woman in Congress. (AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser)
Even as Clinton attempts to shatter what she has called “the highest, hardest glass ceiling,” other women like Thomas are testing other, lower ceilings. There are many: Women in the U.S. remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of elected office.
“Historically, we have centuries of catching up to do,” says Missy Shorey, executive director of the conservative-leaning Maggie’s List, one of a number of groups supporting female candidates.
Though women are more than half of the American population, they now account for just a fifth of all U.S. representatives and senators, and one in four state lawmakers. They serve as governors of only six states and are mayors in roughly 19 percent of the nation’s largest cities.
In this Friday Dec. 7, 2012, photo, the five women holding New Hampshire’s top political offices, from left, Gov. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-N.H., Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H., U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., discuss what their lives are like as female politicians at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. All three northern New England states do better than the national average in electing women to their state Legislatures. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
There has been progress; as recently as 1978, there were no women U.S. senators, and now there are 20. Still, there has been little headway since a surge of women won office in the 1980s and early 1990s. Sixteen states have fewer women serving in legislatures than in 2005, and five others have shown no improvement, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Advocates say the dearth of women officeholders has had consequences. They say women’s voices have been muted in local, state and national discussions of all issues, from climate change to foreign policy, but particularly of concerns important to women and working mothers: family leave, child care and abortion, for example. They point to instances where women in office have made a difference.
In this Thursday, March 3, 2005 photo, Reps. Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville, and Tre Hargett, R-Bartlett, watch the voting board as they address the House of Representatives in Nashville, Tenn. McMillan was first elected in 1994 when she was 32 – a working mother of two children under the age of 3. She was motivated to run after visiting the state Capitol as part of her law practice. “I went up to the gallery upstairs and you could look out at the entire House of Representatives. I remember standing up there and looking at the House floor, and I didn’t see anybody who looked like me,” McMillan said. “There were no women that I could see.” (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Former Rep. Kim McMillan , D-Clarksville, takes part in a gubernatorial forum on Jan. 14, 2010, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Kim McMillan was first elected as a Democrat to her seat in Tennessee’s House of Representatives in 1994 when she was 32 years old, a working mother of two children under the age of 3. More than once, she was told she couldn’t win because she was a woman. She eventually served six terms, rising to become the first woman majority leader. A major accomplishment: expansion of pre-kindergarten education around the state.
“I felt like I represented people who didn’t have any representation, working mothers like me,” says McMillan, now the first female mayor of Clarksville, the fifth largest city in Tennessee.
Whether a Clinton win in November will inspire a new generation of female politicians remains to be seen. While the election of a woman as U.S. president would be unprecedented, at least 52 other countries around the world have had a female head of state in the last 50 years.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, attends a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Tunisia, Habib Essid, as part of a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, left, and Mongolia’s President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, right, review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Sunday, July 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf addresses the Sustainable Development Summit, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Female representation varies significantly around the U.S. Six states have never elected or appointed a woman to the U.S. House of Representatives, and 22 have never had a woman represent them in the U.S. Senate.
A major problem, activists say, is convincing women to run.
“We know that when women run for office, they win as often as men do,” says Debbie Walsh, executive director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “The number of women running isn’t going up, and so the number of women in office isn’t going up.”
A support network has been instrumental throughout Ellen Rosenblum’s career, beginning as a lawyer in Oregon and continuing as she was appointed a state court judge and later during her successful bid for state attorney general. Two of her early mentors were former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts and Barbara Roberts, the first woman elected governor of Oregon.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum poses for a photo at her office in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 13, 2016. She says a support network has been instrumental throughout her career, beginning as a lawyer in Oregon and continuing as she was appointed a state court judge and later during her successful bid for state attorney general. Two of her early mentors were former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts, the first woman to serve on an Oregon appellate court, and Barbara Roberts, the first woman elected governor of Oregon. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)
Rosenblum says she worked to pay it forward, helping to build up a statewide group of women lawyers. When it came to deciding in late 2011 whether to launch her first bid for statewide office, that same network was instrumental.
“I needed women to talk to, to make sure I was not completely out of my mind to do this,” says Rosenblum, who at the time had just retired as a judge.
In California, Hannah-Beth Jackson had long been active in her community beyond her work as a lawyer and former prosecutor, but it took the encouragement of one of her mentors to convince her to run for state Assembly in 1998.
California state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, poses in front of portraits of two former California governors, Republicans George Deukmejian, left and Pete Wilson, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Jackson had long been active in her community beyond her work as a lawyer and former prosecutor, but it took the encouragement of one of her mentors to convince her to run for state Assembly in 1998. “Women tend to ask permission, and we’re never quite sure we are good enough or ready enough,” she said. “Men generally don’t have those same concerns.” (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“Women tend to ask permission, and we’re never quite sure we are good enough or ready enough,” she says.
Now in the state Senate, she is chairwoman of the powerful judiciary committee. Despite her influence and tenure, the Democratic lawmaker does not always succeed. Earlier this year, a bill she sponsored extending California’s family leave protections to small-business employees died in an all-male committee amid concerns of regulatory burdens.
She is undeterred.
“Let’s see what happens when I bring the bill back,” Jackson says. “Hopefully, that committee will have some women members.”
This Thursday, May 22, 2014, photo, shows U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D- N.J., at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J. While New Jersey is making progress toward getting more women involved in politics, analysts and female lawmakers say much more can and should be done to increase the number of women who hold elected office. Only 36 of 120 seats in the state Legislature are held by women and Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman’s election in 2014 made her the first woman to represent the state in Congress in more than a decade. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
In this Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, photo, New Jersey Assemblywoman Pamela R. Lampitt, D- Voorhees, N.J., casts her vote during an Assembly session at the Statehouse, in Trenton, N.J. While New Jersey is making progress toward getting more women involved in politics, analysts and female lawmakers say much more can and should be done to increase the number of women who hold elected office. Only 36 of 120 seats in the state Legislature are held by women. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
In this May 8, 2004, photo, Utah Gov. Olene Smith Walker speaks at the state Republican convention in Sandy, Utah. Women make up half the state’s population, but only 16 of 104 lawmakers are female in Utah’s state Senate and House of Representatives. Since it became a state in 1896, Utah has had just one female governor- Republican Walker. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
In this Nov. 4, 2014, photo, Republican Mia Love celebrates with her father, Jean Maxime Bourdeau, after winning the race for Utah’s 4th Congressional District during election night, in Salt Lake City. Utah has never had a female U.S. senator and only four women have served in the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Love, who now serves along with three men holding the remaining congressional jobs. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
This Monday, June 2, 2014, photo, shows Hoboken, N.J. Mayor Dawn Zimmer in Little Ferry, N.J. Zimmer said that when she first ran for mayor in 2009, her male opponent portrayed her as a naive, stay at home mom who wasn’t up to the job. She lost by 161 votes, but then assumed the post less than a month later after the mayor was arrested in a corruption probe. She won an election to complete the unexpired term and was re-elected to a full four-year term in 2013. Zimmer said she has encouraged more women to get involved in politics and community matters, but noted that many people have been turned off by the ‘viciousness’ of today’s political campaigns. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
In this Wednesday May 6, 2015, photo, legislators wait for a bill to be brought to the floor in the state house on the closing day of the 2015 Colorado legislative session at the Capitol in Denver. Colorado has the highest number of women serving in a state legislature, with 42 percent, but it has never had a woman governor or U.S. senator. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
In this Nov. 6, 2000, photo, then-U.S. Senate candidate first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton meets Rob Buck of the 10,000 Maniacs during a campaign stop in Buffalo, N.Y. No other first lady had been elected to public office when she won the 2000 election for Senate in New York. And she was the first woman to serve as a senator from New York, followed when she left office by the second, Kirsten Gillibrand. Hillary Clinton has officially become the first woman to be the presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party. (AP Photo/David Duprey)
State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, responds to a question from Sen. Anthony Cannella R-Ceres, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on Thursday, June 30, 2016. She is chairwoman of the powerful judiciary committee as well as the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. Jackson’s legislative accomplishments include what was considered the strongest equal pay legislation in the country. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
This Nov. 17, 2015, photo, former Utah lawmaker Jackie Biskupski speaks with reporters after she was elected Salt Lake City’s mayor, in Salt Lake City. Women make up half the state’s population, but only 16 of 104 lawmakers are female in Utah’s state Senate and House of Representatives. Utah women also have few politicians to emulate, making them less likely to aspire to run for office, said Biskupski, one of Utah’s three female mayors for the state’s 246 cities and towns. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In this Nov. 9, 2000, photo, Arizona Gov. Jane Hull signs a call for a special session to change the State’s costly alternative fuel vehicle program at the Capitol in Phoenix. Arizona voters broke the gender barrier in 1998 when they voted five women, including Hull, into statewide elected office and turned the state into the first in the nation to have an all-female elected line of succession. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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AP Images is the world’s largest collection of historical andcontemporary photos. AP Images provides instant access to AP's iconic photos and adds new content every minute of every day from every corner of the world, making it an essential source of photos and graphics for professional imagebuyers and commercial customers. Whether your needs are for editorial, commercial, or personal use, AP Images has the content and the expert sales team to fulfill your image requirements. Visit apimages.com to learn more.
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