1 week Ago By Olivia Cleal
The United States has set a new record for the most number of women state governors, but experts are still calling for better representation in leadership. Following the 2024 US election last week, 13 women were elected as state governors for 2025, breaking the record set in 2022 of 12 women. Republican Kelly Ayotte, who is now the Governor of New Hampshire, was the 13th woman elected to the position.
State governors act as the chief executive of all 50 states in the US. They are responsible for implementing state legislation and overseeing the state executive branch. Governors often go on to hold higher positions of power: in the 2024 election, Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, was a strong candidate to be the Democratic nominee for president following Joe Biden bowing out of the race.
Krisi Noem, Governor of South Dakota, was also believed to be in the mix as Donald Trump’s running mate, before Vice President-elect JD Vance was chosen. Kelly Dittmar, director of research at the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, told said the broken record for women governors will do well to to vie for leadership positions. “It matters to have women in those roles to normalise the image of women in political leadership and even more specifically in executive leadership, where they’re the sole leader, not just a member of a team,” Dittmar said.
In the US, there are still 18 states that have never elected a woman to be governor, and as Dittmar pointed out, 13 out of 50 governors being women is still not good enough. “This is another side of political leadership where women continue to be underrepresented. Thirteen out of 50 is still underrepresentation,” she said.
Results from the 2024 US election show women will account for a little over a quarter (27.5 per cent) of all positions in Congress, to analysis from the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. There will be 147 women in congress – 108 Democrats and 39 Republicans – with ten women congressional candidates still too close to call at this stage.
The record number of women in congress was set last year with 153 women. The people elected 25 women Senators – 16 Democrats and nine Republicans – at this election, with one woman candidate still in a contest that is too close to call. This means a quarter (25 per cent) of the Senate will be made up of women Senators.
In the House of Representatives, there will be 122 women – 92 Democrats and 30 Republicans – a little under the record set last year with 126 women. With nine women candidates still in contests that are too close to call, at least 28 per cent of the House will be made up of women. Analysis of presidential election outcome: Kelly Dittmar Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris to President-elect Donald Trump.
Harris was the second woman to run in a presidential race, and the first Black, South Asian woman to vie for the top spot. Whilst there are of course other things to consider when analysing Harris’ defeat, Kelly Dittmar from the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics said the torrents of sexism and racism she faced throughout her 107-day campaign must be taken seriously. “I would not suggest to you that Kamala Harris lost a race because she was a woman, because she was a Black and South Asian woman,” Dittmar told .
“We would also fail to tell the correct story if we didn’t acknowledge the ways in which both gender and race shapes the campaign overall, and also had a direct effect on how Kamala Harris was evaluated by voters, treated by her opponents and even in the media and other spaces. “Executive roles, especially the presidency with its associations like commander in chief, often carry masculine stereotypes that women must work harder to overcome.”.
