Political experts said efforts to increase the number of women in Congress are also hampered by the small number of women in state legislatures, often the pipeline to statewide and federal offices.
Women make up 13.8% of Mississippi’s state legislature, according to CAWP. “You’re talking about a pretty small pool to draw on to run for these congressional seats,” Walsh said.
Mississippi is among the 10 states, most in the South, with the smallest number of female state legislators. The list includes Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.
“It’s not just a Mississippi phenomenon,” Walsh said.
But other states in the South, including Louisiana and South Carolina, have elected female governors. In Louisiana, Mary Landrieu served as a Democratic senator for 18 years. Alabama has two women in the House, Reps. Martha Roby, a Republican, and Terri Sewell, a Democrat.
“Still Mississippi is sitting there with nothing,” Walsh said. “I’m not sure what is preventing Mississippi from getting out of that club.”
Ondercin said one factor is that the Republican Party is dominant in the state, and Republicans have not historically been as aggressive in recruiting and supporting female candidates as Democrats or special interest groups.
There have only been four women elected to statewide offices in Mississippi, said Republican state Treasurer Lynn Fitch.
“Mississippi is a hard place to serve as a leader in the political arena,” said Fitch, who is serving her second term. “We’re certainly due to have women move to that leadership role in the U.S. Congress … We’ve just been slow to cultivate individuals to move to that next step.”
Fitch and experts say fewer women in the Statehouse or Congress mean some issues, such as pay equity, may not be prioritized.
“It’s critical to have the women’s perspective in the legislature and I think it would be extremely important to have it from a U.S. (Congress) perspective,” said Fitch. “We’ve not been able to close that gap, unfortunately.”
Ondercin said she doesn’t expect change soon, particularly since there aren’t likely to be open seats in the Mississippi delegation.
“It’s a very slow process to get changes in elected bodies,” she said. “That’s true in Mississippi, but it’s also true in other states as well.”
Gregory said efforts to train and recruit more women is a start to someday electing a woman to represent Mississippi in Congress. “It’s something that might not happen overnight, but I definitely believe wholeheartedly that that will happen,’’ she said.
Article Appeared @http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/03/08/mississippi-plants-seeds-elect-states-first-woman-congress/98906424/