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Sparkle (2)
For months working up to yesterday's Midterm election races, headline after headline sported some version of "year of the woman" or "year of the GOP woman" or "Dem women face losses due to year of the GOP woman" or "Mama Grizzlies growl through year of the woman" or...you get the idea.
So how did women do?
Quick hits (information based on data from the Center for American Women in Politics)
U.S. Senate:
Neither the baseline number (17 total women in 2010, 15-17 in 2011) nor the balance of left and right (13 Ds, 4 Rs in 2010) will swing much. However, self-funders for the Senate, Linda McMahon (R-CT) and Carly Fiorina (R-CA) both lost. And two tea party favorits, Sharron Angle (R-NV) and Christine O'Donnell (R-DE) also lost.
U.S. House:
The preliminary guess is that the House total from 2010 (73) will only decline by three once the undecideds are called. However, the estimate right now shows a loss of nine Democratic women (from 56 down to 47) and a gain in GOP women (from 17 up to 23). One of the newcomers will be one of the few female GOP Young Guns, Kristi Noem for South Dakota's at-large seat.
Governors:
There's actually no net change -- there were six women governors in 2010 and there will be six in 2011. The Democrat/Republican split will go from three and three, to four Republicans and two Democrats (both incumbents). The important thing to note here is that there were 37 governorships up for grabs this year and yet in the general election, only eight of those contests had women in them (albeit two of those were women v. women matchups). Still, if women are looking to make gains and get executive experience as they head to obliterate the White House glass ceiling, they need to field more candidates at this level.
For the specifics, we turn to the Rutgers' Center for American Women in Politics (open the pdf at that status update):
U.S. House
In 2010, there were 73 women (56 Democrats, 17 Republicans)
In 2011, CAWP states that there will be at least 70 women (47 Democrats 23 Republicans), with another four women (two from each party) still in races that have yet to be called. Of those, at least 12 new women (4 Democrats, 8 Republicans) will enter the House.
U.S. Senate
In 2010, there were 17 women (13 Democrats, 4 Republicans)
In 2011, depending on outcomes in Alaska and Washington, there will be a total of 15-17 women (11 or 12 Democrats, 4 or 5 Republicans)
Governor
In 2010, six women serve as governor (3 Democrats, 3 Republicans).
In 2011, the total number of women governors will be six. Of those six, 2 are Democrats, 4 are Republicans and three of the Republicans are new governors (Jan Brewer being the exception as having been re-elected). Those three new governors are all first female governor for their states (Susana Martinez in New Mexico, Mary Fallin in Oklahhoma and Nikki Haley in South Carolina). Martinez is the first-ever female Hispanic governor in the country, and Haley is the first-ever Indian American female governor in the country. Women's eNews wrote more extensively about it this morning here.
Next, let's look at numbers from the National Conference of State Legislatures. This information is critical for many reasons but not the least of which is related to how many states' chambers flipped from blue to red last night. Katie Ziegler at NCSL's Women's Legislative Network cautions that these numbers are only preliminary due to the number of races yet to be decided. However, what we still can see easily is a very steep decline in the total number of women in the 50 state legislatures (more than 100), a very big drop in the number of Democratic women officeholders (more than 200) and a large increase in the number of Republican women officeholders (more than 100):
2010 2011
Total seats: 7,382 7,382
Total women: 1,808 1,693
Total Dems: 1,263 1,043
Total GOP 529 633
*minor parties' totals not listed here but can be seen on the NCSL website
