Women in La. Legislature decreasing to 16

While political pundits are discussing the Republican gains and Democratic losses in the Louisiana Legislature and what that means for Gov. Bobby Jindal, the Legislative Women’s Caucus has issued a report showing the number of women in the House and Senate for the 2012-16 term has dipped to its lowest level since 1996, The Times-Picayune reports. The research, conducted by caucus Director Trin Johnson, shows that the number of female lawmakers went from 23 in the 2008-12 term to 16 in the upcoming term. The Senate goes from eight women to four while the House drops from 15 women to 12. There are 39 Senate seats and 105 House seats in the Legislature. The report says, “16 women out of 2,314,080 women in Louisiana will help enact laws in the 2012-2016 term of the Legislature. Women are 51% of Louisiana’s total population and will make up only 11%” of the Legislature. Rep. Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette, chairwoman of the caucus, is one of those casualties. Hutter, the first woman to chair the House Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works, was term-limited in the House and lost in a run against Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, in a larger Senate district. Hutter noted that women have never held more than 25 of the 144 legislative seats. That was in the 2005-07 period under Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the state’s first female governor. “There is no one ‘X’ factor,” Hutter says of the reason for the decline. “I don’t know why it went backward and not forward. It may be the cycle. It will change.”