Nationwide, women make up about 1/3 of state lawmakers, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.

There are nine women governors, though 19 women are major party candidates for governor in 2022.

In Congress, 24 of 100 U.S. Senators are women (24%) – 16 Democrats and 8 Republicans. In the U.S. House, 123 of 435 members are women (28.3%) – 91 Dems and 32 Republicans.

The political website FiveThirtyEight says the likely GOP swing in House races will reduce the number of women in Congress. But the governor count is expected to move into double digits.  

In Oregon, women are the governor, secretary of state, attorney general and commissioner of the bureau of labor and industry. The only male in executive office is Treasurer Tobias Read.  The gender lineup will stay the same after Nov. 8 since all three candidates for governor and both candidates for BOLI are female.

Oregon ranks sixth in terms of the percentage of state lawmakers who are women. It’s just under 44% here. Nevada is tops at 59% women. No other state is more than half (Colorado is No. 2 at 45%)

After the 2020 election, women held 33 of the 60 seats in the Oregon House. Women account for 9 of 30 state senators.The House speaker, majority leader and minority leader were all women. Barring a leadership shake-up, the House Speaker is now male (Dan Rayfield took the place of Tina Kotek). Though there are new caucus leaders, women are still leading both parties. The House majority leader (now Julie Fahey, was Barbara Smith-Warner) and minority leader (was Christine Drazan, now Vikki Breese-Iverson) keep the gender split the same.

The Senate is going through a lot of changes, so current lineup is shifting. But women are less than 1/3 of senators and all three top positions –  Senate President, Majority Leader and Minority Leader – are all men. The Dems are aware of this and there is a likelihood that either the president or majority leader will be a woman. But in a system that works on seniority, that isn’t a sure bet.

One theme that FiveThirtyEight underlined is that while two-thirds of women lawmakers are Democrats, the GOP is catching up with the trend. Gender isn’t as constant an ideological marker as it once was.In the U.S. House, the most right-wing member is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia. The most left-wing is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY.