Building the GOP bench: no girls allowed
by digby
[A]ll 11 state lawmaking chambers that flipped to Republican control in this month’s elections –- six senates, five houses or assemblies — will be led by men. In 10 of the 11, the new Speaker or Senate President (or President Pro Tempore, depending on the state’s particular quirks) has been chosen; in the other, all the reported contenders are male.
But give the GOP some credit where it’s due. Republicans in Montana and Wisconsin have selected Debby Barnett and Mary Lazich to the top state senate posts, joining Susan Wagle of Kansas and Tonya Schuitmaker of Michigan to put women in charge of four of 35 Republican-controlled state senates next year. That’s 11 percent (for you women, who I hear are not so good at math); not great, but not as bad as it could be, considering that women make up just 15 percent of all GOP state senators in the country.
Women hold closer to 18 percent of all lower-chamber Republican seats, but there the boys are definitely in charge. Republicans will control 33 state houses and assemblies now, including five they’ve just taken over, and 10 more where they’ve just chosen a new Speaker. All 15 of those newly crowned leaders are men. It appears that the only female Republican Speaker in the country will be Beth Harwell of Tennessee — assuming she withstands a reported challenge. That’s one woman and 32 guys, a 3 percent/97 percent gender split.
Barring some possible late developments, it appears that men will hold the top post in 93 percent of all GOP-led house legislative chambers — the exact same percentage as before these elections, but now covering more than two-thirds of all the country’s lawmaking bodies.
There’s a lot of talk about what a great “farm team” the Republicans have in the states compared to the Democrats. Maybe so. But they certainly aren’t grooming any women for the big leagues.
Perhaps they subscribe to the Turkish president’s belief that women need “equal respect rather than equality.” That was, as Rick Perlstein reminded me, one of Phyllis Schlafly’s main arguments for rejecting the Equal Rights Amendment. And Schlafly won that one. It looks as though she’s still winning.
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