New Congress Reports a Growing Number of Women but Not Republican Women
A recent development with the new Congress is the figures floating around about the number of women. The growing number of women in Congress is generally being applauded, but this growth isn’t seen in the number of Republican women.
According to the figures, about 1 in every 4 women will be in the next Congress session. On their own, these numbers are low, but the growth can be appreciated. However, when you only consider Republican members, the numbers significantly drop down to 1 in 10 Republican women. There has only been little concern expressed for this situation.
Out of the total 435 total voting members in the House of Representatives, nearly 200 belong to the Republicans. Out of those 200, only 13 actually belong to women. That’s less than 7% of representation for Republican women in the House of Representatives – a great low.
These numbers are projected to decline further this year both in state and on the national level. Congress is expected to go down from 29 GOP women to 20. State legislatures will see an equal decline as well. From the 705 Republican women now in state legislature, this number will go as far down as 660.
The lack of women at the legislative level means a low number of Republican women at the national level. This is because traditionally, the state legislative is the picking ground for a lot of national seats. Representatives train and hone their experience while building contacts in the legislative; it’s essentially an internship for the Congress.
There’s also the case of funding. Women in politics come from less moneyed professions and are sponsored by less moneyed networks. As a result, women Republicans get less support as compared to their male counterparts. There’s some concern about anyone offering support to Republican women if it it’ll be seen as a bad sign to a competitor.
This creates a large disparity in the public awareness and media reporting. News of the growing women seats in Congress has been the talk of the country. All kinds of news outlets and journalists have capitalized on the news of the growing number of women in Congress, but at the same time, news of Republican women get sandbagged and lost in comparison.