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.

Kansas led the nation in the overall number of women elected to government offices in 1993, according a report by Representation 2020. Since then, the state’s rank has fallen to 24th in the nation. Kansas received a gender parity score of 18.6 out of 100 in the report. A score of 50 would indicate gender parity, which is “the point at which women and men are equally likely to hold elected office in the state.”

According to national rankings, Arizona places fifth in the country for gender parity. Last Monday, Representation 2020 assigned all 50 U.S. states a Gender Parity Score, which was evaluated on the balance of male­ and female elected officials. The score intends to measure the electoral success of female candidates running for positions in all levels of government on a scale of zero to 100. A score of 50 would indicate that both men and women are represented equally in government positions.

But that may mistakenly lead folks to conclude women have made more progress in politics than they actually have. According to FairVote’s Representation 2020 project, it will take 500 years for women to reach parity with men in elected office in America. Some states have never elected a woman to Congress or the governor’s mansion. And that’s the tip of the iceberg.

Radio interview with Cynthia Terrell