Untitled Document

Dear Friend

Since 1996, the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society has published a series of reports as part of the Appointed Policy Makers in State Government project. Center researchers collect original data from the 50 states on the gender, race and ethnicity of two key leadership cohorts in the executive branch of state governments: gubernatorial appointees at the helm of departments, agencies, offices, boards, commissions, and authorities; and top staff advisors with policy-influencing responsibility in governors' offices.

We reported in 1997 that women held 28.3% of top policy leadership posts; in 2003 the percentage was 32.0%. A net gain of 3.7 percentage points over a seven-year period is surely a very slow rate of advancement, especially because it represents a drop of almost three percentage points from two years earlier. Furthermore, as indicated in this publication, only five of the 50 states are even close to parity in terms of the degree to which women are represented in top policy positions.

Much progress remains to be achieved before women hold the proportion of top-ranking gubernatorial appointments in each state to which they would be named, if the proportion of women appointees were equal to the proportion of women in each state’s population.

Later this year, the Appointed Policy Makers in State Government project will release additional publications, including a new set of reports, Women's Leadership Profiles, for every state. These reports present overviews, based on data from a variety of sources, of the current status of women in five major categories of political leadership in state governments: statewide elected officials; highest state court judges; department heads; top staff advisors; and state legislators.

Stay tuned and please let us know if we can assist you in any way to disseminate these reports.

Judith R. Saidel, Ph.D
Project Director
Executive Director
Center for Women in Government & Civil Society

Highlights
In the aggregate, women's progress as holders of top-ranking appointee positions in state governments has not been steady. Between 2001 and 2003, women's share of executive branch leadership posts dropped almost three percentage points, but remained above the 1999 level. Even as the 2000 census recorded substantial changes in the race and ethnicity composition of the U.S. population, the demographics of executive branch policy leadership changed very little between 1999 and 2003. African American women advanced substantially in the number of policy leadership positions to which they were appointed by the nation's governors. African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians continue to hold remarkably few top advisor staff positions in governors' offices. White men lost the largest share of department head positions between 1999 and 2003. The percentage of agency head posts held by white women, African American women, and Asian American women rose slightly. Only five states (Massachusetts .96; Oregon .95; Florida .88; Iowa .85; Missouri .83) are close to parity in terms of the degree to which women are represented in top policy positions. (Parity is achieved when the representativeness ratio = 1.0). In eleven additional states (Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming) women hold about three-quarters of the top policy posts to which they would be appointed, if the proportion of women appointees were equal to the proportion of women in the population of those states. In nine states (Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota), women hold less than half the top policy posts to which they would be appointed, if the proportion of women appointees were equal to the proportion of women in the population of those states.	*Dear Friend* Since 1996, the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society has published a series of reports as part of the Appointed Policy Makers in State Government project. Center researchers collect original data from the 50 states on the gender, race and ethnicity of two key leadership cohorts in the executive branch of state governments: gubernatorial appointees at the helm of departments, agencies, offices, boards, commissions, and authorities; and top staff advisors with policy-influencing responsibility in governors' offices. We reported in 1997 that women held 28.3% of top policy leadership posts; in 2003 the percentage was 32.0%. A net gain of 3.7 percentage points over a seven-year period is surely a very slow rate of advancement, especially because it represents a drop of almost three percentage points from two years earlier. Furthermore, as indicated in this publication, only five of the 50 states are even close to parity in terms of the degree to which women are represented in top policy positions. Much progress remains to be achieved before women hold the proportion of top-ranking gubernatorial appointments in each state to which they would be named, if the proportion of women appointees were equal to the proportion of women in each state’s population. Later this year, the Appointed Policy Makers in State Government project will release additional publications, including a new set of reports, Women's Leadership Profiles, for every state. These reports present overviews, based on data from a variety of sources, of the current status of women in five major categories of political leadership in state governments: statewide elected officials; highest state court judges; department heads; top staff advisors; and state legislators. Stay tuned and please let us know if we can assist you in any way to disseminate these reports. Judith R. Saidel, Ph.D Project Director Executive Director Center for Women in Government & Civil Society


Acknowledgements We acknowledge with appreciation the Ford Foundation’s generous support of The Appointed Policy Makers in State Government Project	Project Staff Judith R. Saidel, Ph.D. Project Director Julia Koschinsky Senior Research Associate Alison C. Olin Project Associate Haidy H. Brown Krista Roff Graduate Assistant Jamie Iuliano Undergraduate Assistant Krista Roff Undergraduate Assistant