Women Political Appointees

In recent years the movement of women into state-level offices has slowed after several decades of gains. Efforts to actively recruit women for elective and appointive positions will be critical in determining what the future holds for women in state government.

Women have significantly increased their numbers among state government officials over the past several decades. However, despite a recent increase in the number of women governors, women’s progress, especially at the statewide elective and state legislative levels, has slowed. The future for women in state government would seem to depend, at least in part, upon the strength of efforts to actively recruit women for elective and appointive positions.

This collection of essays investigates the impact of elected and appointed women officeholders at the local, state, and national levels.

This monograph documents the formation and activities in 1981 and 1982 of New Jersey's Bipartisan Coalition for Women's Appointments, an ad hoc group organized after CAWP convened a meeting of politically active women to discuss how to get more women appointed to state-level posts.

This study examines appointed state cabinet-level officials. Based on data collected through telephone surveys, it compares the first-ever national profile of women in state cabinets to a profile of a sample of all appointees.

This report focuses on the roles that political parties, women's organizations, and individual women have played in recruiting and supporting women candidates and appointees. 

This first-ever profile of women who have held high-level appointive offices at the federal level analyzes data about all the women and a sample of the men who served in high-level appointed positions under President Jimmy Carter. Women who served in selected positions on the president's and vice-president's staffs are also included.