Rhode Island is making strides in increasing the number of women in elected office, according to Representation 2020, a Maryland-based nonprofit that advocates for women in elected positions. A new study ranks Rhode Island 16th out of the 50 states in terms of "gender parity in elected office." Last year, Rhode Island ranked 31st.

In 1998 the United States ranked 59th in the world for women’s representation in legislature. That isn’t a good number given that we are 3rd in population. And things are not moving in the right direction. We currently rank 95th, according to Representation 2020, a non-profit organization whose mission is raise awareness about the underrepresentation of women in legislatures.

Representation 2020 — a project of FairVote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on structural changes to make elections more participatory and representative at every level of government — ranked Vermont 41st out of 50 states on its gender-parity index.

Michigan has slipped from No. 8 to 11th in its gender-parity rank for electing women to public office, according to an analysis by the group Representation 2020. The index considers the number and proportion of women elected to office at the local, state and national levels.

Maryland’s score has dropped in an annual ranking by Representation 2020, a project by FairVote, a nonprofit that researches how voting systems affect participation, representation and governance, Ovetta Wiggins of the Post reports.

Cynthia Terrell, the chair of Representation 2020, said the percentage of women in the General Assembly peaked in 2005 at just under 36 percent. Over the last decade, the number has gradually declined. At 31 percent, the percentage is higher than the national average in state legislatures, the report found.

New York is moving closer to achieving gender parity as the number of women who hold spots in state elected offices has increased, according to a report released last month. In its second annual report, Representation2020 found that New York had scored 23.8 out of a possible 100 points and ranked 14th in the nation in terms of gender parity. This is an increase compared to last year’s numbers, where the state earned a score of 17.1 and placed 20th. New York has moved up from ranking 24th in gender parity among states in 1993.

Representation 2020, named such because 2020 is the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote, is an organization dedicated to raising awareness of under-representation of women in elected office.

Following the 2015 political elections, Michigan’s gender parity score dropped from 27.4 and a national rank of 8th to 25.8 at 11th place. 18 out of 50 states have gender parity scores at 15 or below, and only one state has achieved gender parity: New Hampshire with a score of 57.1. Representation 2020, an organization that works to increase public awareness of women’s underrepresentation in politics, calculates gender parity scores for every state annually.

Female students of University of Cincinnati were encouraged to run for political office and student government and given the tools to do so at an Elect Her workshop Saturday.