Why the State Legislature?
File under “ongoing outrages:” women make up a growing, but still far-less-than-equal percentage of elected officials across every level of government in our nation, from local office to the federal level. There are zero Black female U.S. Senators. We rank 72nd in the world for gender parity. The toplines from the private sector are not any better.
With many organizations dedicated to women’s leadership, we are sometimes asked why Close the Gap California works entirely at the state level to achieve equal representation. Ours is an intentionally complimentary, but uniquely strategic contribution to the growing ecosystem of support for more representative leadership at every level.
Our campaign focuses on state legislature because it is an essential stop along the path to achieving transformative change in politics.
1. State Legislature is a launchpad for statewide and federal office.
The state legislature is an integral segment of the leadership pipeline for women, ensuring flow up from local leaders and out to Congress and even the White House.
21 of all 48 California Congresswomen first served in the Legislature, as did 5 of the women President Biden vetted for the Vice Presidential nomination.
If we want to see a woman Governor in California for the first time in our history- if we want to continue seeing California women lead in Congress and achieve new “firsts” like Vice President Kamala Harris- we need to ensure the women who have what it takes also have the opportunity to hone their craft in the legislature first.
Further testament to the importance of the pipeline is the fact that nearly 70% of women who served in the California state legislature after 1960 held local office prior. The state level is very often the connector, and CTG is working to develop talent in light of that: 74% of the prospective candidates for legislature we brought together at our Sacramento Symposium in Spring 2021 were local officeholders.
There is always some movement up and down the political pipeline, but without robust numbers of women in this integral middle segment, women don’t move up, and the gap doesn’t close, period.
Diverse, progressive women need to be asked to run in districts they can win, and guided early on how to compete at this scale.
Even in California, with an overwhelming Democratic majority and a reputation as a progressive state, less than a decade ago women didn’t even make up one-quarter of our state legislators. As a result of our proven recruiting strategy, Close the Gap was able to reverse the 20-year low in women members (21.5 percent) as of 2017, alongside our allies statewide. And our work has driven the climb to California’s all-time high of 42 percent women representatives since then!
We are proud of the progress we have made thus far, but research has shown that progress is frighteningly slow and difficult to sustain, especially when we rely on those in power to enact change. The state legislature provides women’s surest opportunity for upward momentum.
We work as allies with many national partners including Emerge and EMILY’s List, as well as important California PACs such as Fund Her, Latinas Lead, BWOPA, and California Women’s List. Our campaign is numbers-driven: our calculation is that by flooding the field with competitive progressive women candidates for state legislature, the entire pipeline will benefit and the needle for women’s representation will move.
2. The State Legislature is a powerful engine for progressive policies that impact lives.
“The state legislature is where the majority of decisions around issues progressives care most about are made.”
— Jane Kim, 2016 CTG Recruit & current Board member, April 2020
State legislators serve on the frontlines of government. Even in years not defined by redistricting, public health pandemics, or long-overdue reckonings on racial injustice, state houses often function as laboratories of democracy. Especially in safe blue states, they reliably produce, test, and refine policies that go on to directly impact the way people live. With widespread gridlock at the federal level, state houses fill the policy vacuum in areas where Congress has refused or not been able to act, such as minimum wage and gun reform.
State legislatures will continue to be the likeliest venues for action and forward movement on the policy front for the foreseeable future.
Female state legislators have long produced groundbreaking policies in California that go on to move the entire nation forward, including:
- Former State Senator Fran Pavley’s Bush-era carbon emission standards, which the Obama administration went on to adopt
- The CROWN Act, first passed in California after being introduced by then-State Senator Holly J. Mitchell, that has led to laws in eight other states with at least two dozen more introducing legislation to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture
- Former State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson’s groundbreaking law to require corporations to include women in their boards of directors
- And so many more.
Due to California’s term limits — another strategic reason why we focus our work in California! — 80% of state legislative seats will open between 2022–2028, and that turnover will transform the entire leadership roster up and down the pipeline across our state, opening up unprecedented opportunity for newcomers. With that in mind, it is crucial that we be intentional about how we are going to shape this new generation of state leadership, and importantly, ask what it will add up to.
The mass term-out and redistricting that kicked off in 2022 IS the opportunity of a generation. It’s the clearest opportunity we’ve ever had to cement a new progressive majority in CA, to stop endlessly perpetuating our communities’ worst nightmares, and instead clear a path for their wildest dreams.
The only way we can achieve this is by flooding the field with more progressive women who reflect and champion their communities. Join us in closing the gap to make equal representation in the state legislature a reality.
Close the Gap California is committed to building on progressive women’s historic momentum by recruiting them statewide and achieving gender parity in California by 2028. Join us!
About Close the Gap California
Close the Gap California (CTG) is a statewide campaign to close the gender gap in the California Legislature by 2028. By recruiting accomplished, progressive women in targeted districts and preparing them to launch competitive campaigns, CTG has been changing the face of the Legislature one cycle at a time since launch in 2013.
Twenty CTG Recruits (14 of them women of color) are serving in Sacramento today. CTG Recruits are committed to reproductive freedom, public education funding, and combating poverty.
