Year of the woman? In NC politics, not so much
While some commentators are describing 2018 as "the year of the woman" in national politics, a new report from Meredith College says the numbers don't bear that out in North Carolina.
According to the 2018 "Status of Women in North Carolina Politics" report, women hold less than a quarter of the 5,000 or so elected offices in North Carolina. That's a slight decline from numbers the school found in 2015 in its previous women in politics report.
In addition, the percentage of women candidates running in North Carolina in 2018 has dropped slightly from the 2014 election.
"Women make up 51.4 percent of the population in North Carolina and almost 54 percent of the voters in the state," David McLennan, the political science professor who authored the report, said in a press release. "These demographic data points might make many citizens think women are going to start making headway on the gender disparity that has existed between men and women officeholders. However, North Carolina remains a male-dominated state in terms of officeholders and candidates, especially in rural areas."
The report does note signs of progress: The mayors of the state's three largest cities – Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh – are all women, as is the chairwoman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. The number of Republican women in the North Carolina legislature is at a record high, and the percentage of women serving in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government are higher than the national average.
The report makes it clear that women have the voting strength to change those numbers. Among registered voters in North Carolina, women outnumber men by more than 550,000.
