A Model for Parity in State Legislatures

The California State Legislature is nearing gender parity, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Earlier this week, CAWP released a report, commissioned by Close the Gap California, that chronicled the recent increases in women’s representation in the state and Close the Gap’s influence on those changes. The full report can be found on the Close the Gap website.

Close the Gap employs a distinctive strategy for increasing women’s representation in government; they focus on direct recruitment for California legislative seats that are either open or flippable, and they recruit with significant advance time. This strategy is replicable in other states, across parties, and at different levels of office.

Through interviews with Close the Gap recruits, programmatic partners, and key political practitioners in the state, CAWP researchers evaluated the Close the Gap model to identify best practices that can be reproduced in varied political environments. This analysis goes beyond the numbers, answering not just what has changed for women in the California State Legislature, but how Close the Gap fostered those changes. Some key best practices identified by CAWP researchers include:

• Targeted and strategic recruitment that engages in early candidate identification and sustained candidate cultivation.
• Building and leveraging relationships with political practitioners, community leaders, potential donors, and party officials to support recruits and maximize impact.
• Alignment, coordination, and integration with organizations who share goals and values.

“For over a decade, we at CAWP have watched Close the Gap build their model and influence,” said report author and CAWP Director of Research Kelly Dittmar. “This project allowed us to leverage our research expertise for a thorough evaluation of the campaign’s impact on women’s political progress. What we found was that Close the Gap’s strategic and targeted recruitment model is among its most effective practices, and it’s a model that could be applied and replicated elsewhere.”

CAWP’s report also includes the following data that evaluates the impact of Close the Gap’s strategy:

• From 2013, when Close the Gap launched, the number of women serving in the California State Legislature increased by 80%. There were 32 women legislators in 2013 and there are 58 today.
• Currently, California is in fourth place in CAWP’s ranking of states by women’s representation in state legislatures, with 48.3% of seats held by women. In 2013, California was in 19th place, with 26.7% of seats held by women.
• Close the Gap focuses on recruiting Democratic women. The number of Democratic women serving in the California State Legislature increased by 104.3% since 2013.
• 27 women recruited by Close the Gap have gone on to serve in the California State Legislature, including three women who have served in both the Assembly and the Senate.
• Nearly half (45.5%) of all non-incumbent Democratic women who have won election to the California State Legislature in this period have been Close the Gap Recruits, and more than a fifth (22.1%) of all non-incumbent Democrats, both men and women, who have won election in this period have been Close the Gap Recruits.
• 25 of the 120 current California state legislators are Close the Gap recruits, meaning Close the Gap recruits account for more than twenty percent of the entire legislature. They also account for 43% of the 58 women serving in the California State Legislature.
• In addition, among Democrats, Close the Gap recruits are 50% of Asian American/Pacific Islander women, 66.7% of Black women, and 47.8% of Latinas in the state legislature.

"This report reveals the results of more than a decade of hard work from the Close the Gap team," said Close the Gap California Executive Director Susannah Delano. "Data from CAWP allows us to tell the story of our success while helping us chart a path to a future of political parity."

Read the full report, Close the Gap California: Origins and Impact, 2013-2025, on the Close the Gap California website.