Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Women lost ground in the Illinois House

Posted in:

Illinois

* I pointed this out to subscribers the other day, but here’s the BND…

Women are set to make up 36 percent of the general assembly when the next class of legislators is sworn in. That is up from 35 percent in 2018. […]

In the 100th General Assembly, which adjourned its 2018 session on Thursday, there are 15 women in the state Senate and 47 women in the House.

When the next general assembly is sworn-in, there will be 20 women in the Senate and 44 women in the House.

In other words, despite this being the “Year of the Woman,” there will be fewer women in the House next year than there are now.

* Click here for a handy list of all the new legislators and the people they replaced.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 11:54 am

Comments

Looks like they forgot Ellman and Glowiak.

Comment by Jack Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 12:09 pm
“In other words, despite this being the “Year of the Woman,” there will be less women in the House next year than there are now.”

Fewer, not less.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 12:10 pm
===Ellman and Glowiak===

That may have been put together before the Repubs conceded.

===fewer===

Corrected. Thanks.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 12:11 pm
Ugh. I’d love to read this story, but the BND wants me to pay $13 a month for digital access. I think that’s quite high. There needs to be a different model — I’d pay 2 or 3 bucks a month, but not 13.

Comment by Soccermom Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 12:50 pm
The “handy list” doesn’t seem to include Edly-Allen? Technically that doesn’t affect the number of women in the House. But given that Walsh was recently appointed, it’s a pick-up as compared with this time last year.

Comment by Soccermom Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 12:53 pm
Looks like Anne Stava-Murray is missing as well from the list?

Comment by Cromulent M. Biggens Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 1:03 pm
Less is more.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 2:00 pm
What is fascinating is the party breakdown. If I haven’t made any mistakes here is the breakdown by party

House
Dems go from 34 women to 37 exactly 50 percent of 74 seats
Reps go from 13 women to 7 16 percent of 44 seats

Senate
Dems go from 13 Women to 18 Women 45 percent of caucus
Reps stay even with 2 women 11 percent of caucus

These are pretty stark results for Illinois Republicans which have long had good representation of women.

Comment by Archpundit Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 2:14 pm
Arch, my take is that, as the number of Republicans diminishes, so does the number of Republican women.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 2:49 pm
Six–somewhat the cause, but even then they percent of women is decreased more than the decrease in Republicans. There are a few reasons for that including women generally being more moderate in polarized environment (see Ives, Jeanne for exception proving the rule).

However, for a long time the IL GOP had a very good record at electing and nominating women to all levels of Illinois Govt. I would generally say going back to the 80s and early 90s better than ILDems. This is their bench so it’s not a good sign.

Comment by Archpundit Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 2:59 pm
The difference between the parties in female officeholder representation nationally has grown stark since 1994, when you first see it. Bad news for the GOP.

Comment by Tired Friday, Nov 30, 18 @ 3:45 pm