Where are all the women?

From left: Reps. Michelle Davis and Elizabeth Rowray laugh in the House chamber on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)

A woman’s place is in the House and the Senate (as lauded political science scholar Barbara Burell famously quipped). And though this year ushered a record number (13!) of female governors across the country, women remain chronically underrepresented in elected office. 

While the number of women elected typically increases slightly in most election cycles, the success of female candidates at the state level was not mirrored in the federal races. 2024 marked a decline in the number of women serving in Congress, compared to the previous session.  Debbie Walsh, director for the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University stated it plainly: “2024 is clearly a stasis year.”  

For women in state legislatures, institutions often cited as a stepping stone for prospective future office, the year was anything but stagnant. This year, across the country 2,467 women are representing constitutions in 99 legislative chambers (all states except Nebraska have bicameral legislatures). This was a 2% increase from the previous year and another record-number for female representation. Three states–Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico–already achieved gender-parity in their institutions, meaning women’s representation reflects its proportion of the general population and now actually have more women than men in their legislatures.

While these national trends are encouraging, Indiana seems to be behind. Only two women (Representative Erin Houchin and Representative Victoria Spartz) serve in our 11-person Congressional delegation; two women (Comptroller Elise Nieshalla and Secretary of Education Katie Jenner) serve in statewide executive office, both as gubernatorial appointees. Our state legislature ranks 36th in the country for female representation, stagnant with women representing just 26.7% of the IGA, the exact same number as 2023.

It is not for lack of effort. The state Democrats and Republicans sponsor their own recruitment and training programs, Hoosier Women Forward and the Lugar Series, which invest in prospective female candidates. Nonprofit and nonpartisan groups provide programing to motivate new women leaders, including national organizations She Should Run, Running Start, and locally, the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana’s Inspire Her summit. Their success is laudable, yet Indiana remains at the bottom of most lists for representation.  

Where are all the women?  

Indiana is not short on talent or void in interest. We have great female leaders in every industry, often several in each serving as the president or in the CEO role. Our state has a legacy of great female leadership in public office but women are simply underrepresented compared to their male counterparts.

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Research suggests that women undervalue their qualifications as prospective candidates relative to men, who are more likely to compare themselves to actual candidates while women make comparisons to the ideal candidate. The economic impact of women running for office, specifically for those who are breadwinners for their household, has a direct negative relationship with their political ambition. This is exacerbated if the woman is a mother. Studies conducted by Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox consistently show that women are less likely than men to consider running for public office (35% to 48%).  

There is hope, however, on the horizon. David E. Campbell and Christina Wolbrecht studied the impact of female politicians in their new book See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People and found that the presence of women in elected office has a positive effect on both young girls and boys, regardless of partisanship. Professional pipelines, long credited with bolstering female representation, remain a viable solution for identifying and encouraging prospective candidates.  Institutional mechanisms, such as multi-member districts and ranked-choice voting, can promote more gender diversity but those systems are limited in both their scope and application.

When women run, they win. We all benefit when we have the best candidates on the ballot and our democracy benefits when we have competitive elections with more of them. 2025 is a non-election year for statewide and Congressional races so now is the time to reconvene and recruit; next year, it is time to run.

When thoughtful, qualified women run for public office in Indiana, we all win.