Number of Republican women in Missouri House grows

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri House Republicans will enter the next legislative session with more than double the number of women than a decade ago, a development that follows GOP efforts to recruit more female candidates.

House Majority Leader John Diehl, who was nominated recently as the next speaker, said his party has made strides toward upending a gender gap that has traditionally worked against it.

"What it demonstrates is that women across the state recognize that the Republican Party is the party of economic and educational opportunities," Diehl said. "Those are the types of issues that are important to a large cross segment of the population."

The number of Republican women in Missouri's House has grown to 23 from 11 in 2004. Nine served in 2009, the recent low.

The rise comes with an overall increase in the number of Republicans in the chamber. Voters this year elected more GOP members than ever to the state House, putting in 118, up from 110 this session.

A few more female Republicans ran for the Missouri House this year compared with a decade ago, but there hasn't been a huge increase. Four more women ran for the chamber this year than in 2004. What makes this year different is the success rate of those candidates.

Becky Ruth, a Republican from Festus, is among the new batch of women representing the GOP in the House. She said upping the number of women better reflects the state's demographics, but she said ultimately a qualified candidate is more important than their gender.

"I see my role not so much as a woman legislator, as a legislator representing my district," she said.

Likewise, the next General Assembly will have more women than it's seen in 14 years, although the uptick is slight. In 2000, data from the National Conference of State Legislatures shows 44 women served in the Missouri Capitol. This year, 48 will.

Female GOP candidates for Missouri's Senate didn't show a similar increase to their House counterparts. The total number of women in the Senate has wavered between five and eight since 2000, with six serving next session.

Rebecca Richardson, treasurer and former president of the Missouri Women's Political Caucus, cautioned that having more female Republican lawmakers might work against what Democrats consider women's rights issues, such as abortion rights.

For example, state Rep. Linda Black of Desloge after her re-election this year switched over to the Republican Party. She cited stronger ties with their values opposing abortion.

Despite gains, women still are underrepresented in the General Assembly.

With bolstered numbers women make up about 25.8 percent of the legislature -- about half the 51 percent of female Missourians, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's about a 2 percent increase from 2000.

"We're glad to see an increase," Richardson said. But "until women are fully represented, our job is not done."

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