Status of Women in NC Politics

by Tim Boyum, News 14 , Capital Tonight. This morning, the Department of Administration’s Council for Women released its Status of Women in North Carolina.  According to a news release, it’s “the latest research on women in North Carolina and tracks the progress and disparity in opportunities and outcomes for women since 1996.”

If you’re interested, the part pertaining to politics runs from pages 57-67. Here are some of the highlights and keep in mind this was done in September 2012 so it includes Gov. Bev Perdue and the legislature has changed some which I will address later.

- In 2008 and 2010 women voted at a rate of 69 percent compared to 66 percent of men

- In 2012, women made up 23.5 percent of the state lawmakers

- Four of seven NC Supreme Court justices are women but just 12% of Superior Court judges are women.

- Six of 10 in statewide elected offices, or Council of State are women (compared to only 1 in 1996)

- Four of 15 represent NC in Congress

- Forty of 170 state lawmakers are women (fairly even with other states but far below population split)

- North Carolina one of 17 states with a formal women’s legislative caucus

Since this study was done, there was obviously an election so here’s a few updates to that list.

- Council of State is down to 5 of 10 with Gov. Perdue leaving office.

- Thirty-nine of 170 state lawmakers are women versus 40 last year (23% overall, 26% in house, 16% in Senate)

- Three of 15 in Congress (Rep. Sue Myrick retired and Rep. Robert Pittenger won election)

I also decided to take a peek at leadership on committees at the General Assembly.  These are my best calculations based on committee lists found on the legislature’s website.

House

- Women hold 11 of the 63 chair or co-chair positions (17 percent)

- Women hold 31 of the 145 vice chair positions (21 percent)

Senate

- Women hold 2 of the 44 chair or co-chair positions (5 percent)

- Women hold 3 of the 17 vice chair positions (18 percent)

Of course, this just adds to the discussion of women from this weekend’s 60 Minutes story on Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.