To mark the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage several years ago then Kentucky Secretary of State Bob Babbage commissioned a report on women’s political involvement in Kentucky. Toward Balance: Women and Politics reported that Kentucky women are in many respects model citizens. There are 100,000 more women than men registered to vote in Kentucky and, since 1980, women have been casting more ballots than men in the state. In addition, Kentucky women are precinct captains, party workers, and campaign volunteers.

Women’s grassroots political engagement makes the near absence of women in elective office in Kentucky quite puzzling. Kentucky rivals Alabama for the worst record in the United States in electing women to the state legislature and statewide offices. In 1997, Kentucky ranked 49th in the nation for the number in the General Assembly. With two in the Senate and 11 in the House, women constitute just nine percent of Kentucky’s legislators, significantly less than half the national average of 21.5 percent. In the 1995 election, neither the Democratic nor the Republican party nominated any woman for a statewide elective office. When Kentucky’s Third Congressional district (the Louisville area) elected Anne Northup in 1996, Kentucky sent a female U.S. representative to Washington for the first time since Katherine Gruder Langley was elected in 1926.

Why so few women among Kentucky’s elected officials? Babbage offered the following explanation: "Women choose not to run for office for the same reasons many men choose not to offer themselves as candidates. The most cited obstacles include the cost of campaigning, the invasion of privacy, the difficulty of public challenges, and numerous competing facets of their lives, including professional obligations and geographic separation from the government—especially in the case of citizen legislators—since many Kentuckians live quite a distance from their capitol." In emphasizing gender-neutral factors that discourage both men and women from seeking elective office, this explanation masks the possibility that women may confront unique obstacles. It also subtly transforms the issue from one of public concern to a private decision.

Women's grassroots political movements makes the near absence of women in elective office in Kentucky is quite puzzling.  Kentucky rivals Alabama for the worst record in the United States in electing women to the state legislature and statewide offices.  In 1997, Kentucky ranked 49th in the nation for the number of women in the General Assembly.  With two in the Senate and 11 in the House, women consitute just nine percent of Kentucky's legislators, significantly less than half the national average of 21.5 percent.

Over the past 25 years, research on women and politics has revealed far more illuminating explanations other than choice. The electoral advantage of incumbents, the lack of party support for women candidates, the state’s level of socio-economic development, and the prevailing political culture can all disadvantage women.

In Women’s Political Voice: How Women are Transforming the Practice and Study of Politics (Temple University Press, 1997), Janet Flammang summarizes obstacles to women’s electoral success. Chief among them is male incumbency. When elected officials choose to seek re-election, they win their contests more than 90 percent of the time. Greater name recognition, an established record of constituent service, demonstrated policy preferences, and a reservoir of partisan favors provide incumbents with significant advantages at the polls. Because women in most states were barred from public office by law until 1920, incumbency transformed men’s former privileged legal status into continuing electoral advantage. During the past 75 years, more than 85 percent of incumbents have sought re-election. At this rate, the Fund for Feminist Majority estimates that it will take another 200 years to eliminate the privilege incumbency affords men and achieve gender equality in elective office.

Although women have done the bulk of the invisible work required to keep parties functioning between and through elections, political scientists have documented that party elites manifest greater sexism than the general public. Women trying to work their way up through the party ranks report experiences that range from indifference to hostility. Party leaders have denied endorsements and material support to women candidates and have asked women to demonstrate their party loyalty by supporting male candidates. Neither the Democratic nor the Republican party in Kentucky was reluctant to offer all-male slates for statewide elections in 1995—a symptom of a profound indifference to gender equity.

Women’s routes to electoral office differ in important ways from those of men. Political appointments have served as stepping stones for women, helping to offset male incumbency advantages. Data gathered from all 50 states indicates that women elected to state, county, and municipal offices have previously held more government appointments than their male counterparts. The power to make these crucial political appointments lies in the hands of elected officials.

In Kentucky, political leaders have been slow to appoint women to office. In 1995, women held only 22 percent of the appointed positions on state boards and commissions. Although Governor Paul Patton has made important strides in this area, appointing seven women (26 percent) to his cabinet and making women 45 percent of his appointments to state boards and commissions, staggered terms have meant that no one governor could reverse past discrimination.

Without strong party support, women in other states have relied on women’s groups and political networks to forge winning electoral coalitions. National data suggest that women’s networks flourish in states where the population is highly educated, where women have achieved economic independence, and where both men and women recognize that the perpetuation of male dominance in politics deprives women of a fair share of public roles and unnecessarily limits the talent available to solve pressing public problems. Kentucky, unfortunately, lags behind the nation in the percentage of its population completing higher education, in pay equity for women, and in the development of a political culture that recognizes equality as a political value.

Incumbency, indifference, and politics that fail to use the full potential of all citizens in Kentucky disadvantage women. All of these factors can be changed, however. Kentucky could choose to emulate the state of Washington, where women hold 39.5 percent of the seats in the state legislature. Perhaps the 1998 General Assembly will chart a new course for a more equitable century in Kentucky.

Mary Hawkesworth is a professor and chair in the Department of Political Science at the University of Louisville. She also chairs U of L’s Commission on the Status of Women.

The Kentucky Center for Public Issues is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public-policy organization based in Frankfort, Kentucky's capital. KCPI has teamed up with the University of Louisville to provide internships for students and faculty, to identify and coordinate research projects, and to develop public affairs programs. The overall purpose of the partnership is to enhance a shared mission to serve Kentucky by offering information, expertise, and opportunities for the public to learn about and discuss issues of concern throughout the Commonwealth.