Group Says Michigan Is at the Cusp of Achieving Gender Parity With Women in Elected Office

This article by Anna Liz Nichols, published in the Michigan Advance, features RepresentWomen's Gender Parity Index. Read an excerpt below. ‍

Michigan ranks third in the country for the state with the best gender parity for women in elected office, according to rankings from RepresentWomen, a non-profit organization tracking gender representation in elected office in the U.S.

With a 49.5 out of 100 score, Michigan is at the edge of gender parity. The two states that outrank Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine, have achieved gender parity with Wisconsin scoring 51.8 and Maine scoring 54.1 this year.

Michigan has never strayed far from the top ten states since RepresentWomen began compiling its annual Gender Parity Index in 2013, but since the 2018 election when women were elected to lead all three of Michigan’s statewide executive offices, the state has been inching towards parity.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s second ever female governor, often speaks on workforce and educational opportunities for women in the state, embracing a “wear pink, get sh*t done” mentality to femininity in politics.

Read the complete article here.