Help Wanted: More Women Needed in NJ County and Municipal Elected Offices

If New Jersey counties were graded on their efforts to elect women as freeholders, six would receive honors marks (40 percent or better), and two would flunk with scores of zero. Progress on electing women mayors is even worse, with just three counties at or exceeding 25 percent, most below 20 percent.  Only one county can boast having more than a third of its city or town council seats filled by women (Mercer, with 38%). Five other counties have over a quarter of women on councils, and two counties, Atlantic and Cumberland, are at the bottom with less than 15% of their councils comprised of women.

These are the year-end findings of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. CAWP compiled 2016 data on both numbers and percentages of women freeholders and mayors in New Jersey’s 21 counties. (Detailed tables attached.)

Essex County, with 44 percent women among its freeholders, leads the way; Bergen and Morris (both at 43%), Burlington, Cape May and Monmouth (all at 40%) follow. At the opposite end of the scale, Sussex and Warren Counties have no women on their Freeholder boards. In Ocean County, Virginia Haines is only the second woman ever to serve as freeholder; the first, Hazel Gluck, served from 1977-79. 

At the mayoral level, Hunterdon County leads the way at 27 percent, followed by Mercer and Sussex Counties (25%) and Union County (24%).  Cumberland County has no women among its mayors, and the remaining counties have between 3% and 20% women mayors.

“New Jersey has made significant strides in recent years at the state legislative level, where we’re now 11^th in the country for women’s representation,” noted CAWP associate director Jean Sinzdak. “Unfortunately, in most counties women lag far behind. Where county party chairs hold the keys to ballot lines, they have the power to position women to win and create government that better reflects the population.”

Sinzdak invited Garden State women to learn more about running by attending Ready to Run^®, CAWP’s non-partisan campaign training for women, which takes place March 10-11, 2017 in New Brunswick. “This year we’ve seen an enormous surge of interest from women in running for office,” she commented. “Ready to Run^® will give them essential tools to take the next steps. We need women’s voices at the table now more than ever.”

Information and registration is available on the CAWP website.

Proportion of Women Freeholders by County - 2016
Source: N.J. Association of Counties.

Proportion of Women Mayors by County - 2016
Source: N.J. League of Municipalities.

Proportion of Women Council Members by County - 2016
Source: Center for American Women and Politics