Tag: hurdling

“Boys make the rules?” Centanni recalled her daughter asking her during that visit after quickly noticing that men greatly outnumbered women in the Legislature. “She, of her own accord, noticed the difference – even at that age,” Centanni said during a panel discussion at LSU that was part of an event Wednesday examining hurdles that women have to overcome when they run for office and the disparities between genders in state government. In addition to the state’s all-male Congressional delegation, there are no female statewide office holders in Louisiana currently, after no women ran as major candidates for statewide office in 2015. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, about 15 percent of the members of the Louisiana State House and Senate are women — up from 12.5 percent at the end of the last term in 2015, according to figures tracked by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “So the question is, why the disparity?” “The data proves that women don’t run at the same levels,” she answered. Laura Cox Kaplan, Republican co-chair of Running Start, a non-profit that encourages female candidates, said women are often less likely than their male counterparts to see themselves as possible public leaders. “We have to think very differently about how we encourage women and engage them to run for office.” The event took a closer look at how a recent debate among the Louisiana Ethics Board whether child care should be allowed as a campaign expense illustrated the gendered political environment candidates face. “People feel like they can just say anything in the world,” Stokes said. “I think as a woman I bring gifts to the table.” Mizell is the first woman to represent her district, and she said no woman has ever served on the local Washington Parish council. “I believe there will be more women (in the state Legislature),” she said.