Tracking the number of women in elective office represents only one measure of political power, two Rutgers University researchers told the 2024 National Press Foundation Women in Politics Fellowship.

They say entrenched inequities persist in legislative leadership, fundraising, and the outsized influence of unelected gatekeepers.

“We know that keeping track of women’s political representation, specifically the numbers of women in elective office, is just one piece of a larger puzzle to understanding and addressing disparities in women’s political power,” said Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science and director of research Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Dittmar and Kira Sanbonmatsu, a political science professor and senior scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics, cited recent research revealing long-standing obstacles to growing women’s political influence.

“So, the strength of governors, the influence of state legislators, the power of local and municipal officeholders, for example, differ across the just the five political ecosystems that we studied, but surely across the country,” Dittmar said.

Across all of those institutions, Dittmar said the research found that “the patriarchal and white roots… are stubborn, and the motivation to maintain the status quo is strong, even when and where record numbers of women serve.”

Even in Nevada, the first state with a majority women legislature, the numbers don’t always support gender equity.

“I think that was really something we wanted to make clear: that just because you change who is in this space doesn’t mean the space itself and the gendered and racialized dynamics and biases of the place change,” Dittmar said, citing interviews with Nevada lawmakers who referred to the outsized influence of “unelected actors,” to include lobbyists.

Sanbonmatsu said a separate analysis spotlighted a “donor gap,” in which men were outpacing women donors by “roughly two to one.”

Referring to states holding elections in 2022, the analysis found that in every instance men were giving more than women.

“So, this is a national situation with women’s voices being underrepresented in this way, and we think that this has something to do with who has influence in their state,” Sanbonmatsu said.

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