In the News
July 31, 2024
This article by Nicole Maxwell published in NM Political Report features RepresentWomen's 2024 Gender Parity Index (GPI) Report. Read an excerpt below.
New Mexico ranks fourth overall in gender parity for elected officials according to a report released Tuesday.
The Gender Parity Index listed New Mexico as fourth place, tying with Nevada, in the nation for gender parity, the first time in three years it was not ranked first place. New Mexico also scored a B with a parity score of 45.6 out of 100 points.
New Mexico has never scored an A.
Gender parity happens when 50 percent of those elected to public offices are women.
Up until January 2023, New Mexico had an all-woman U.S. House delegation which ended when Yvette Herrell, a Republican, lost her re-election bid to Democrat Gabe Vasquez in the 2nd Congressional District.
The two are facing each other in a rematch in November.
“New Mexico has had the second-most total women (30) serve as statewide executives in the country; since 1923, all twenty of its secretaries of state have been women,” the report states.
The number of women serving in the state legislature has grown from 20 percent in 1994 to 44 percent in 2024.
“(New Mexico) is one of three states where their lower house has achieved or surpassed gender parity (54 percent in New Mexico). Of the women serving as state legislators, 84 percent of them are Democrats and 16 percent are Republicans,” the report states.
Read the complete article featuring the GPI here.
