WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
Study finds women's rise in US state government leadership
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-12 17:30 Montana is the only state where the percentage of women in top state government positions -- 54.5 -- actually exceeds that of women in the state's overall population -- 50.2. Three neighboring states -- South Dakota,Wyoming and Idaho -- are at the other end of the scale. They are among just four states -- the other is Louisiana -- where women hold fewer than a quarter of the top state jobs. In South Dakota, only about about one in every six state leadership jobs were held by women. Cara Eastwood, press secretary for Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, said Wyoming faces a challenge finding qualified people to fill top jobs because the state's economy is booming and government has to compete with high-paying private sector employers in hiring. But she noted that the majority of senior policy advisers on the Democratic governor's staff are women. The university study found that agencies in areas where women have traditionally been better represented -- including health, human rights and education -- still have the highest number of women in leadership. At the same time, it found a growing number of women breaking into areas traditionally dominated by men, including administration and budget. For example, Laura Anglin is New York's budget director. The study found governors across the country have appointed 15 women to head departments of administration, and 10 to lead management and budget agencies. Former Vermont Gov. Madeline Kunin, a Democrat who served from 1985 until 1991 and was the state's first female governor, was heartened to hear of the strides women have made. She noted that some of her appointments "raised some eyebrows" because they didn't have the typical resumes of traditional candidates for the job. "If a woman had 10 years that she stayed at home with her family, a traditional assessment would have been that she did nothing in those years," Kunin said. "My assessment was different because I know when I was home with my kids, I was active in the schools and community organizations, and of course you learn a great deal from bringing up children." As the number of women in high-ranking state policy positions rises, Kunin hopes, there eventually won't be a need to study the issue because it will become generally accepted that women belong in those jobs. |
