Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, listens to debate in the Alabama Senate on a bill to extend immunity to in vitro fertilization programs on Feb. 29, 2024 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Coleman had young children when she was first elected to the Legislature in 2002; a new report says Alabama is the only state without women with school-age children serving as legislators. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
Alabama is the only state whose Legislature has no mothers of school-age children, according to a new report.
The New York-based Vote Mama Foundation said in the report that as of February, 7.9% percent of lawmakers were mothers of minors. Alabama is the only state to lack any legislators who are mothers of young children or teenagers.
But Sarah Hague, chief program officer for the foundation, said that the current numbers reflected a nearly 50% increase in representation of moms of minors over 2022.
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“And we’ve more than doubled the amount of legislators who were pregnant or gave birth since our last data set,” she said. “So we are certain that moms are underrepresented in state legislatures across the country, but also are finding reason for hope that we are creating and seeing incremental change in the representation of caregivers.”
Alabama also had no mothers of school-age children reported in the 2022 dataset.
Hague said that they have heard from those moms that lived experience has guided their policymaking.
“I think that it’s so important that when we are evaluating how diverse our decision making bodies are, that caregiver status is included in that diversity, because we will never accurately meet the needs of American families if American families aren’t represented at the decision making table, and we’re seeing that in Alabama,” she said.
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, who had two young children when she was first elected to the Statehouse in 2002, wrote over text that she was not surprised that the number was still zero.
“I want to encourage women with young children to run for the Legislature,” she wrote. “Your voices need to be heard.”
She referenced a committee meeting from the previous session, when an amendment was added to a parental leave bill to remove paternity leave.
Currently 26 women – 22 representatives and four senators – serve in the 140-member Legislature. A message seeking comment was left with the spokesperson for Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville.
Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Reed, R-Jasper, wrote in a Wednesday statement that young women and mothers are vital to Alabama’s future and there is a place for them in policy making. He wrote that they worked on a number of items that affect young women and mothers.
“It is important for our state’s future that their voices and considerations are not only heard but that they also have a place at the table when legislative decisions are being made,” he wrote.
Hague said that more women are elected within the Democratic Party but moms represent about a quarter of all women elected in both parties.
“I think that the real core of this is that parental struggles are universal,” she said. “Parents in both parties right now are being failed by our policies, and I think that with the national narrative around even just the definition of mother right now, we’re finding that families are motivated to participate in politics because they’re just trying to get by and they want policies that accurately reflect their needs.”
Hague said that their data shows that political representation increases with the age of their kids. She said that circumstances in which families are raising their children are changing so quickly, though, that it’s important to have current moms to young kids as part of the process.
“We’re seeing inflation,” she said. “We’re seeing, in every US state, the cost of childcare costs more than rent. We’re seeing one in four American women going back to work within 10 days of giving birth, the only industrialized country without paid leave. It’s getting harder and harder to raise kids in America, and if we want truly family friendly policies, we need to make sure that families are involved in the policy making process.”
The report said the number of mothers of young children could increase with reimbursements for child care; a living wage for lawmakers; access to paid family and medical leave; remote options for votes and committee hearings; formation of “Mamas Caucuses;” and access to on-site childcare, pumping rooms and changing tables.
Secretary of the Senate Patrick Harris said Thursday that pumping rooms and changing tables are part of the consideration for the new statehouse currently under construction, but they are still working through what it will look like in reality.
Hague said that legislatures were designed for wealthy male land owners in the colonial era and not much has changed.
“Legislative spaces were designed without women and parents in mind,” she said. “So in order to change our policies, we have to change our policy makers, and in order to change our policy makers, we have to change our political system to make sure that it is modern and professional and meets the needs of a broader audience, so that our government can effectively reflect the needs of our families.”
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