The number of women holding governor positions is set to hit a new record next year, marking historic highs for women political leaders.
This moment comes as New Hampshire’s Republican governor-elect Kelly Ayotte won the state’s election this month Ayotte, who is a former U.S. senator and former attorney general of the state, will now bring the country’s total of women governors — which include Arizona Gov. Kattie Hobbs, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — from 12 to 13, following 2022 elections. Eight are Democrats while four are Republicans.
In celebration of her win, Ayotte, 56, took to X, formerly Twitter, writing that she was “humbled” to have residents’ support and is looking forward to the journey ahead.
“Together, we’ll tackle our housing crisis, protect our economic advantage, and keep our state moving in the right direction,” she wrote.
Ayotte’s recent win reflects women’s overall growth in politics over the past five decades. According to 2023 data from the Pew Research Center, only 49 women in U.S. history had served as governor as of Jan. 10, 2023. — with Wyoming’s Gov. Nellie Tayloe Ross serving as the U.S.’ first woman governor in 1925. Years later, Nevada became the first state in 2019 to have a legislature made up of majority women, and in 2023, women made up 62% of the state’s legislature, the largest in any state. Furthermore, three women held top Cabinet positions for the first time under President Joe Biden’s administration.
At the same time, data shows that women’s representation in politics has room for improvement – and many believe that Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid to become the first woman U.S. president was derailed, in part, by sexism. More than half of Americans in Pew’s 2023 report said that there are still far less women in politics, and acknowledged that women continue to face many barriers to serving. While women make up half of the U.S. population, only 28% made up officeholders in Congress during 2023, the Ballard Center for Social Impact finds. Racial disparities among congresswomen continue to remain prevalent, with only 55 Black women having served in U.S. Congress throughout history.
Part of this problem, researchers say, lies in women’s view of themselves. They are five times more likely than men to undermine their qualifications and skills when thinking about their career in politics, although they have similar educational and professional backgrounds as their counterparts, according to Ballard’s data. And until both sexes have equal roles in policies, “democracy will not reach its full potential,” researchers wrote.
That is why organizations like She Should Run, a national nonpartisan nonprofit working to increase the number of women running for public office, seem more needed than ever. The organization says on its website that more than 153,000 women have utilized its tools and more than 44,000 have explored the possibility of running for office. Others include Emily’s List, which helps Democratic pro-choice women get elected, and the National Women’s Political Caucus, which is a grassroots organization that helps identify, recruit, train and support women so they can get elected or appointed into office. .
Organization leaders like NWPC’s founder Gloria Steinem has said she hopes more girls will work under women in politics, just as she once did.
“The problem is the feeling that [women are] divided from politics, that our vote doesn’t count or what we do doesn’t count,” Steinem has said. “In fact, everything we do counts.”
