Executive Summary

In August 2013, RepresentWomen launched the Gender Parity Index (GPI) to help researchers and advocates track progress toward gender-balanced governance and identify opportunities for increasing women’s political representation in the U.S. Each year, we assign all 50 states a Gender Parity Score, letter grade, and ranking according to their proximity to parity. One of the key takeaways from this exercise is that progress toward gender balance is slower and less stable than it first appears. 

In the first Gender Parity Index, 40 states earned a “D” grade (< 25.0) or worse (< 10.0); the remaining ten states were split evenly between “Cs” (< 33.0) and “Bs” (< 50.0), and no state achieved an “A” (50.0 and above). Ten years later, Maine and Oregon have both achieved an “A” for the first time, 24 states are split evenly between “Bs” and “Cs,” 23 states have earned a “D,” and Louisiana is the only failing state. 

The 2023 Index reflects recent record-breaking progress for women in the U.S. government, particularly state executives. Following the 2022 elections, 12 states have women governors, breaking the previous record of nine. Correspondingly, six of the top ten states in the 2023 GPI have women governors, including Maine (1st), Oregon (2nd), Michigan (3rd), New Mexico (4th), Iowa (7th), and Massachusetts (9th). 

While it is true that women’s representation has increased, the 2023 GPI shows that women are still underrepresented at every level of government in the U.S., holding just one-third of all elected positions, despite comprising over 50% of the population. Women of color are further underrepresented, holding approximately one-tenth of all elected positions. This year’s GPI further shows that:

• Record-breaking wins have resulted in incremental gains for women. Headlines that announce record highs for women in politics are often misleading; women remain underrepresented at every level of government. Net gains for women are generally smaller than they appear, slowing progress.
• Not every state is on an upward trajectory toward parity; some states, such as New Hampshire and Louisiana, have even lost progress over time. 
  • New Hampshire ranked first and achieved an “A” between 2015-2018 and again in 2020; it now ranks 10th with a score of 41/100 (grade: B).
  • Louisiana ranked 28th in the first GPI with a score of 16/100 (grade: D); it now has a score of 9/100 (grade: F) and ranks 50th in the 2023 GPI.
• Gains for women are concentrated in the Northeast and West Coast, while women’s representation in Midwestern and Southern states lags far behind. 
• Democratic women are outpacing Republican women in elected office, suggesting that progress toward parity will eventually slow unless a) more Republican women are elected or b) more Democratic women than men are elected.
• Systemic reform is needed to level the playing field and create more opportunities for women to enter and remain in office. Rather than replace existing candidate-focused strategies, systemic reforms can function in a complementary manner to bring out the best of both strategies. 

2023 Report

In the 2021 ranked choice voting primary elections, women in New York City made history, securing a majority on the city council. Two years later, RepresentWomen sought to uncover the impact of a woman majority council, as well as which barriers persist despite these women being in office.

The questions we sought to answer include:

1. What are the primary benefits of having a woman majority council? More specifically, who benefits from a woman majority and why?
2. What challenges and barriers remain, despite a woman majority, and what needs to be done to sustain a gender-balanced council?
3. Which legislation passed by women in the past session is most notable and why? Does this notable legislation disproportionately impact women?
4. Why were women essential in getting these issues to the table? Would these issues have been addressed otherwise?

Our research found that a woman of color majority council had a significant impact on both women’s issues, such as maternal health, menstrual equity, childcare access, and reproductive rights, as well as gender-neutral issues, such as ensuring salary transparency, language access and cost-of-living adjustments for all New Yorkers. Having women in leadership positions as well as a built-in majority on the Women’s Caucus were both instrumental in creating this impact. 

In sum, the impact of a woman majority city council includes: 

1. Women in leadership positions create a ripple effect, enabling women to uplift one another and reducing bias across the council.
2. Diversity on the council leads to a shift in priorities; Since the majority women of color council better mirrors the demographics of the city, this allows for a wider variety of issues to be brought to the table. 
3. A larger Women’s Caucus has become more legislatively efficient, particularly regarding reproductive rights and maternal healthcare. With a built-in majority, the women don’t have to fight to explain why these issues are essential. 
4. Structural barriers persist, impacting the woman council members' day-to-day work. With dated buildings and protocols, women face barriers that are unique and more pervasive than for their men counterparts.

All New Yorkers benefit from a diverse council. The council’s shared lived experiences with their constituents, different legislative perspectives, and representation of their communities make its members prone to collaborate, understand one another, and support each other to serve both their districts and the city as a whole.

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To quantify progress towards gender parity in elected and appointed office, RepresentWomen developed the Gender Parity Index (GPI). Each year, a Gender Parity Score and grade is calculated for each of the 50 states and for the United States as a whole. The Gender Parity Score reflects women's recent electoral successes at the local, state, and national levels on a scale of 0 (if no women were elected to any offices) to 100 (if women held all elected offices). The key advantage of the GPI is that it enables comparisons to be made over time and among states. 

The 2022 Gender Parity Index

As of June 2022, there are 147 (28%) women in Congress: 24 in the Senate and 123 in the House. In 333 statewide elective executive offices, 101 (30%) are either led or co-led by women. Of 7,383 seats in state legislatures, women hold 2,295 (31%). At the local level, 367 (25%) of 1,465 cities are represented by women, and 80 (33%) of the five largest county governments in each state are either led or co-led by women.

And yet, overall progress towards parity is frustratingly incremental in the U.S. In 2022, the average parity score is 24.8. If we round up, this brings us to an average score of 25 out of 100, which means we are halfway to parity. In 2021, the average score was 24.6; two years ago, it was 23.8.

2022 Report Methodology Score Chart State-by-State Graphics

RepresentWomen is a research-based advocacy group that promotes the use of systems strategies to advance women's representation and leadership in the U.S. and around the world. To achieve our mission, RepresentWomen partners with allies across the country and political spectrum who help amplify our work by putting what we've researched into practice. By working in concert with our allies to address the barriers to office, we can ensure that more women RUN, WIN, SERVE, and LEAD. 

In January 2022, RepresentWomen conducted an analysis of the demographic makeup of cabinets in all 50 states. For all but one state (Florida), the governor appoints all or most cabinet members. The average state cabinet has a membership of less than 40% women. Only 12 states have achieved gender balance in their cabinets. 

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RepresentWomen is a research-based advocacy group that promotes the use of systems strategies to advance women's representation and leadership in the U.S. and around the world. To achieve our mission, RepresentWomen partners with allies across the country and political spectrum who help amplify our work by putting what we've researched into practice. By working in concert with our allies to address the barriers to office, we can ensure that more women RUN, WIN, SERVE, and LEAD. 

To inform our own programming on advancing gender-balanced appointments and to establish a scalable, replicable, transformative model for advancing gender-balanced appointments, RepresentWomen gathered learnings from five similar initiatives around the country. 

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Electing more women to government will strengthen our democracy by making it more representative, improving policy outcomes, encouraging a new style of leadership, and cultivating trust in our elected bodies. 

To advance women's representation and leadership in the United States, we must adopt proven policy solutions that address the structural barriers women face as candidates & as elected officials. These institutional strategies are a natural complement to individual candidate training programs.

We built this toolkit based on a survey of about 40 allies and partners in 2021. With this survey, we found that allies and advocates are most interested in: 

• 2 or 1-pager summaries 
• Data visualization graphics
• Full-length research reports
• Best practices for advancing gender balanced appointments 

The target audience for this Equip Toolkit are individuals and organizations who are interested in advancing gender balanced appointments. 

The aim is that this Equip Toolkit will equip you to speak more fluently and confidently to the importance of gender balanced appointments, and current rates of gender balance in appointed positions in the US. It will also equip you with evidence-based strategies for advancing and advocating for gender balanced appointments.

Download the Appointments Equip Toolkit 

Our research shows that while there are record numbers of women running for and serving in government, there is much to be done to ensure more women can run, win, serve, and lead in office in the United States and around the globe. 

As it stands, the United States ranks 72nd (as of October 2022) according to the IPU’s monthly rankings of women serving in national parliaments. Not only is there much to be learned from the systems in place which allow more opportunities for women in office, there is also room to work with organizations, advocating for systems-based reforms. RepresentWomen studies best practices that have been proven to advance women’s representation and leadership around the world, and then advocates for use of those best practices in the United States.

Why should we care about system-based strategies that have worked to increase the number of women in government in other countries? Research in other countries shows that having more women in government has resulted in an increase of laws to protect victims of sexual harassment, rape, and domestic violence. Specific cases in countries like India and Norway also show that women politicians are more likely to address issues such as food security, childcare, and healthcare. This means that work done abroad has not only been successful in bringing more women to the table, but it has also produced policies that benefit entire communities. By observing and adopting some of the best practices that have worked internationally, the U.S. could enjoy similar, positive outcomes for women’s representation.

Are you interested in sharing this important information with your community? This shareable slidedeck is ready-made for your use.

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RepresentWomen is a nonpartisan, 501c3 non-profit organization committed to strengthening our democracy by advancing reforms that break down barriers to ensure more women can Run, Win, Serve, and Lead. As both candidates and elected officials, women continue to face structural barriers that men simply do not; and these barriers require systemic reforms to level the playing field. "RUN WIN SERVE LEAD: Best Practices for a Gender-Balanced Democracy" highlights the topline findings from our research on the systems-level strategies that accelerate progress toward gender-balanced governance. 

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Embodying the phrase “if you can see it, you can be it,” normalizing women in political leadership positions will normalize the idea of women as leaders, period. Over the past decade, progress toward women’s legislative equality has been slow but present. While the number of women running for office and winning continues to be dwarfed by the number of men, there is an upward trajectory nearing the 30 percent threshold associated with the critical mass theory. Despite the growing numbers of women legislators, this progress does not automatically translate into women's uptick in executive or staff leadership positions. It's time we change that with intentional systems reforms. It's time we de-bug our democracy and let women lead.