Women on Governor-elect Murphy's Transition Team: A Mixed Review

Governor-elect Phil Murphy’s transition team is now largely in place, and the picture for women is decidedly mixed, according to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

The transition is led by a ten-member team, of whom three are women, including two women of color. That team includes titles such as: director of transition policy committees; senior advisers for strategy and policy, strategic communications, and outreach; chiefs of staff to the lieutenant governor-elect and first lady; director and deputy director of personnel; directors of communications and political affairs.

Among the 81 transition committee co-chairs, 51.9 percent are women and 27.2 percent of are women of color. Women make up 37.1 percent of the 687 transition committee members, with women of color only 14.9 percent of committee membership. Of all the women appointed to the committees, 41.4 percent are women of color. (Detailed tables are appended to this release.)

Murphy signaled his intention to create an inclusive administration early on by naming Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver as his running mate. Oliver will serve both as Murphy’s lieutenant governor and in the powerful role of commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs.

Since that time, the Governor-elect’s appointments have also included his chief of staff and chief counsel, both of whom are men.

So far, women are especially well represented on transition committees in areas such as Human and Children Services (71.4 percent), Healthcare (54.4 percent), and Education, Access and Opportunity (50.9 percent), all fields where women have traditionally been heavily concentrated. Two women also constitute the entire Law and Justice Immigration Subcommittee. Women are far less visible on teams addressing issues including Budget (18.6 percent), Transportation and Infrastructure (19.2 percent), and Urban and Regional Growth (24.1 percent). The Law and Justice Social Justice Subcommittee has two members, both men.

“Women have been appointed in significant numbers in certain areas, and that’s valuable,” noted Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP). “But knowing from our extensive research that women bring distinctive expertise and experience to policymaking, we are concerned that there won’t be enough women’s voices in some of the most critical policy discussions.

The governor-elect met during the campaign with representatives of the Bipartisan Coalition for Women’s Appointments (BCWA), a group of prominent women from both parties convened by CAWP before the election to ensure that whoever was elected governor would appoint women in substantial numbers. In that meeting, Murphy expressed his commitment to diversity in both his transition team and his administration. He also pledged that members of his transition team would meet with BCWA representatives, who would present resumes of potential appointees, including diverse women offering a wide range of expertise and professional backgrounds.

BCWA, first established in 1981, was reconvened earlier this year by CAWP in anticipation of the gubernatorial election. BCWA’s goal is to ensure the appointment of women in key positions in significant numbers throughout government in the new administration. 

More details about the Coalition can be found at: www.cawp.rutgers.edu/bcwa