June 6, 2023

CAWP is the premiere institution devoted to examining women’s role in American politics and expanding their access to power. Be a part of the team making that possible as our new program and events coordinator. A crucial component of CAWP’s mission to increase women’s political representation is through developing education and outreach strategies which translate research findings into action and addressing women’s underrepresentation in political leadership with effective, intersectional, and imaginative programs serving a variety of audiences. The program and events coordinator assists the program and senior staff in managing logistics and administrative tasks relating to CAWP’s public programming and special projects, including educational programs like Ready to Run® and NEW Leadership®, as well as other events like our Senator Wynona Lipman Chair in Women’s Political Leadership lecture. Learn more and apply today here.

With primaries in New Jersey’s elections being held today, CAWP’s 2023 New Jersey County Report Card shows that progress for women’s political representation in the state is at a virtual standstill. Women gained only a single county commission seat since our previous report card and just six municipal council positions among the 3,105 such offices statewide. Meanwhile, women’s representation among New Jersey’s mayors decreased for the second year in a row, with women losing one mayoralty since CAWP’s 2022 report card; the 2022 report showed women’s representation in mayors’ offices falling by seven seats from the year prior. Women now hold 31% of municipal council seats, 37% of county commission seats, and 16.6% of mayoralties.

The top three counties for women’s representation in New Jersey politics in 2023 are Mercer, Middlesex, and Union, with Mercer and Middlesex tied for the top spot. The bottom three counties for women’s representation are Passaic, Cape May, and Morris, with Passaic and Cape May tied for last place. These overall county rankings are determined via an average of rankings for women’s representation in mayoral, county commissioner, and municipal council offices.

Find out how your county ranks, and see the full picture of women’s representation in the Garden State, at our 2023 New Jersey County Report Card, and watch your inbox tomorrow for CAWP data on women in New Jersey primary elections.

For the first time in history, women make up the majority of appointees in a presidential Cabinet. Currently, 52% of Cabinet and Cabinet-level positions in the Biden presidential administration are held by women. In CAWP’s newly-redesigned fact page, Women Appointed to Presidential Cabinets, learn about the current status and full history of women’s role in presidential administrations, stretching back to the first woman appointed to the Cabinet, Frances Perkins, who was tapped for secretary of labor in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This fact page includes:

•  Information on the 13 women currently serving in the Cabinet.
• Historical data on women in the Cabinet.
• Women appointees by party.
• Cabinet or Cabinet-level firsts.
• Data on women appointees by position.
• Data on women appointees by administration.
• A full list and biographical information on every woman who has served in a presidential Cabinet.

See the updated fact page here.

No Black women currently serve in the United States Senate. Just two have ever served. There has never been more than one Black woman senator serving concurrently. But there are new opportunities opening up in the 2024 elections that could pave the way to expanding Black women’s Senate presence. Writing for Forbes, CAWP Scholar and Director of Research Kelly Dittmar discusses Black women’s Senate potential in election 2024. At least three Black women are running, or are likely to run, in Senate races that favor their party and feature an open seat: Representative Barbara Lee in California, Prince George county Executive Angela Alsobrooks in Maryland, and Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware. Blunt Rochester, who has not officially launched a campaign, is Delaware’s at-large U.S. House representative — meaning she already has experience getting elected statewide. “In a country where Black women are about 8% of the total population,” Dittmar writes, “even winning three seats in the 100-member U.S. Senate would still be just a start to resolving their persistent underrepresentation in statewide elective offices.” Read the full piece here.

It’s election day in New Jersey, with voters heading to the polls in the state’s off-year state legislative elections. With at least 12 women legislators leaving their current office this year – with some being Assembly members seeking offices in the state Senate and some leaving the legislature altogether – women’s representation in the New Jersey legislature is in a precarious position. Stay tuned to CAWP for election results for women candidates this week as data becomes available.

Also happening this week: our colleagues at the Eagleton Institute of Politics will be hosting their Morning After event analyzing New Jersey primary results. Tomorrow, June 7th, at 10am ET, Eagleton Associate Director John Weingart will moderate a discussion between Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, New Jersey Monitor Editor Terrence McDonald, NJ Spotlight News Special Projects Editor Colleen O’Dea, and state Senator Steven Oroho. Learn more and register to attend the virtual event here.