State Representatives Look to Encourage More Women in Office

A memo to women looking to have a seat at the legislative table at all levels of government: your time is now.

According to the Center for American Women and Politics, these are unprecedented times as far as women in elected office. In 2023, a record number of women are serving in Congress (150), statewide elected posts (95) and as governor (12). Women also hold 32 percent of municipal offices in cities over 10,000 in population, hold a quarter of mayoral offices in cities over 30,000 and are mayors in a third of the 100 most-populus U.S. cities.

The growth in the numbers of women in state legislatures has been particularly striking. CAWP reports more than 2,300 female state legislators currently in office, or 33 percent of seats nationwide. The total is more than quintuple the number of such elected officials seated in 1971.

At first blush, Arkansas is right in step with this new feminist movement, as for the first time in the state’s history, both the governor and lieutenant governor are women, with the latter election having been contested between two female candidates.

Beyond that, the numbers show Arkansas has some catching up to do. As CAWP reports, Arkansas ranks in the bottom 10 states as far as women serving in their state’s legislature at 23 percent, about on par with North Dakota and Wyoming. Southern states occupy the bottom five slots in the nation, including Alabama (17 percent), South Carolina (15 percent), Tennessee (14 percent) Mississippi (14 percent) and West Virginia (12 percent). Nevada leads on this measurement with more than 60 percent female state legislators.

Recognizing the strides to be made in encouraging more gender diversity in the statehouse, female members of the Arkansas House of Representatives formed #ARGIRLSLEAD in 2018. The purpose of the initiative was to encourage and inspire women and girls to seek positions of leadership and elected office following the examples of the seated legislators.

“My first year, 2017, was a historic year for women in the Arkansas legislature,” said Rep. Carol Dalby (R-Texarkana). “We had the largest number of women in the House that we’ve ever had, but it took us a number of years to get to that historic point, and considering women still make up 50, 51 percent in the state of Arkansas, it was still a relatively low representation.

Rep. Carol Dalby

“My colleague, Sarah Capp, who has now gone on to become a district judge over in Franklin and Johnson counties, wanted to do something about that, and we talked about it. We just felt like it was important to do something to encourage young women to dream and to dream big.”

Sarah Capp

The result, #ARGIRLSLEAD, was coordinated with the House communications team to produce videos of representatives sharing their personal stories, the need for leadership and why they sought elective office.

“We recorded videos here in the House,” said Rep. DeAnn Vaught (R-Horatio). “Each one was a personal story about each of us where we tried to reach people to show them you can get over any mountain. That’s what I tell everybody all the time: don’t look at the mountain; climb over the mountain. On the other side of the mountain, there are good things.”

Rep. DeAnn Vaught

The videos, which can be viewed on the #ARGIRLSLEAD’s YouTube channel, are more than a mere civics lecture extolling the importance of participating in a representative government. House members share intensely personal stories of things they had been through in life, in the hopes of striking a chord of common experience with the audience.

“Mine ended up being about being sexually abused as a child, and how I had no self-esteem and how I had been bullied as a child and how that affected me,” Vaught said. “Then, when God called me to do this, this is not my world. I am a farm girl at heart. I’ve lived on a farm my entire life. When God called me to [public office], I felt like a fish out of water, and I could not see myself doing it. I had to mentally prepare myself to even run for office.”

“We all have our stories of overcoming in some way or another and how we became involved, and we wanted to convey that. We came from different backgrounds. We came from different life circumstances,” Dalby said. “Every woman’s story is as important as anyone who gets elected, and we just wanted young women to know that no matter what their circumstance is, this is a dream that they can have.

“Whether you come to the House of Representatives or whether you’re volunteering in your local community or whether you take a leadership role at school, we just wanted so much for young women to understand that there’s a lot out there for you, so don’t be afraid.”

The movement transcended party lines, and House women on both sides of the aisle recorded stories and dovetailed the effort into various public-speaking opportunities. About the only thing the movement couldn’t overcome was COVID, and the pandemic put #ARGIRLSLEAD on hiatus just as it was starting to gain momentum.

Both Dalby and Vaught said it was time to rev the engines on the movement and resume its messaging to encourage a new generation of women and girls to embrace leadership roles.

“It’s time to get these videos up and going again. I’d also like to see us speak at Rotary Clubs or Lions Clubs about this initiative, or even in the schools,” Vaught said. “September is Bring Your Legislator to School month, and I think that would be a great avenue for us all to use these videos whenever we’re talking to students, especially that sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth grade student who is still very receptive to listening to how you got started in politics, what was the reason you did it, those kinds of things.

“It would help, I think, not only young women, but I think it also helps young men in the fact that maybe they don’t have enough confidence in themselves either. We can also help them to have the confidence to do anything you want to do. It may take a little bit of work on your end, but you are capable of doing it.”

Dalby agreed and said as the pace of progress has quickened in recent years, the message of #ARGIRSLEAD is more applicable than ever to maintaining the momentum.

“In my county, every office is held by a woman except the sheriff. I hope that when someone reads this story, it will spark something in them to say, ‘I can do this, too’” she said. “I think if you ask every woman in the House of Representatives, and probably in the Senate, they would probably say this is not something they planned on when they were in junior high or high school.

“I think the possibilities are limitless, but I also thing that sometimes we don’t do a great job telling our story and encouraging young women, and young men for that matter, on the importance of volunteering and public service. I hope that this will be a way that they do begin planning on it because it’s important and the sky’s the limit.”