Election 2008

The dust is starting to settle from the 2008 election, although there are a few races still in question. The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers has compiled the good news and the bad news for women's participation in elected office; their findings include the following.

• A record number of women will serve in the U.S. Senate - 17 total (out of 100), up one from the previous election (OK, this will definitely put us over the top).
  
• The U.S. House of Representatives will also include a record number of women: 74, up from 71 prior to the election. (Note that there is one race - the 15th District in Ohio - that is still outstanding.)
  
• That's 91 women total - or 17% of the 535 seats total. The Inter-Parliamentary Union did their most recent ranking just prior to our elections, and the U.S. was 71st among 188 countries for the percentage of seats held by women (in this case, the "lower house" - our House of Representatives).

The number of women serving in state legislatures will also increase in 2009 to 24.9% of the total.

• New Hampshire achieved a first - the majority of seats in their Senate will be held by women (13 of 24 total).
  
• The South Carolina Senate earned the distinction as the only state legislative body with no women serving.

It was Democratic women, however, who put these numbers over the top. In both state senate and state houses (or assemblies) races, Democratic women gained seats while Republican women lost representation.

• The number of Democratic women serving in state legislatures increased from 1200 to 1261
• The number of Republican women serving in state legislatures decreased from 535 to 509. (If you're doing the math - the number of women identified as "non-partisan" increased by 1, as "progressive" increased by 1 and as independent lost 2).

The Institute has done an initial assessment of the outcome of the recent election on the number of women serving at that state and national level for Ohio. Visit our wiki for the most recent information: http://instituteonwomen.wikispaces.com/Campaign+Watch+2008