Status of Women in the WA State Legislature

With the late loss of Rep. Dawn Morrell in the 25th legislative district the results of the 2010 election are final and while women did not fare as badly as we had initially feared, the outcome is not a trend we want to see continue.

In the House we will have a net gain of one woman, and in the Senate a net loss of two women for a total loss of one woman. Women now make up just  31.97% of our Legislature.

Some painful losses in 2010:

• Loss of our only native American woman in the Legislature, Sen. Claudia Kauffman
• Loss of our only African American woman in the Legislature, Rosa Franklin (retired)
• Loss of Rep. Lynn Kessler as Majority Leader (retired), and the loss of Rep. Dawn Morrell as Caucus Chair

Some Bright Spots:

• We gained our first open lesbian in the Legislature with Rep. Laurie Jinkins in the 27th LD
• We gained another woman in our congressional delegation with Jaime Herrera, though Herrera is not pro-choice and wasn't endorsed by the Caucus
• Washington is ranked 6th in the nation for women in our state legislature

We must stay vigilant in our efforts to identify opportunities for women to run and to make sure we have a great pipeline of women who are ready!