How to get more women involved in politics. It’s one mission of the Center for American Women and Politics, part of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Debbie Walsh directs the center. She told NJTV News Correspondent Michael Hill that New Jersey has made strides to include more women in political office, but she would like to see even greater involvement.
Currently there are 36 women serving in the New Jersey Legislature, which means New Jersey ranks 11th in the nation for the percentage of women serving in the state Legislature.
Walsh said the national average is about 24 percent, so New Jersey is doing better than other states and has improved over the years. “For many, many years New Jersey ranked in the bottom 10. We were in the bottom 10 with states like Alabama and Mississippi and South Carolina. And it made no sense when you think about a state like New Jersey — highly educated, affluent. It’s a state that should, in fact, have more women participating,” she said. “And so that’s actually one of the reasons we launched our program Ready to Run, which is a non-partisan campaign training program for women so we can encourage more women to participate.”
According to Walsh, research her organization has done shows that women in office bring a different set of experiences, perspectives, energy and creativity to the process. “When you don’t have those experiences, you’re missing something from the making of public policy. So they have different issue priorities than their male colleagues and they may see things in slightly different ways,” she said. “And when you think about it, why would we be leaving half of the population and their creativity and all that they can bring to the process off the table?”
New Jersey is not doing as well in terms of females serving in lower offices. About 13 percent of New Jersey mayors are women and about 24 percent of freeholders are female. “So we have a long way to go, which is in some ways part of the challenge. The bench for the women to run for the Legislature isn’t there. And there are other issues within how our political system in New Jersey works that makes it tough for women,” Walsh said.
She explained that New Jersey has a party system that is tightly controlled at the county level, where party chairs decide who will and won’t run for office. “It makes it very tough for newcomers, whether it’s women or people of color, to break in. And so women sometimes think that they’re in line to run for office and then suddenly there’s an opening and they’re completely bypassed. So there’s a systemic problem here in New Jersey as well as the kind of national challenges that we see everywhere else,” Walsh said.
According to Walsh, New Jersey has the same family issues that are present nationally. She said most elected positions are part-time jobs, but women are often working full-time outside the home and are still the primary caregivers at home. “So what we’re asking women when we tell them, ‘You should run for office,’ or ‘Think about it,’ is to take on, in effect, another almost full-time job. And it’s hard. So we know that women run when they’re older, when their kids are grown and not living at home any more,” she said.
When Gov. Chris Christie held meetings in Atlantic City, there were few women at the table. Walsh said that’s not unusual. “If women’s voices aren’t heard, we’re missing something and we’re doing a disservice to our state. We do a disservice to the voters when women aren’t there bringing those perspectives and making the difference that they can to the political process. I mean, you’ve got a huge challenge in Atlantic City,” she said. “Why not have more ideas on the table? Why not have more talent in the room?”