Republican women occupy some high-profile political spots, with lieutenant governor candidate Janet Rowland on the ticket with gubernatorial hopeful Bob Beauprez. If elected, Rowland would succeed another GOP woman, current Lt. Gov. Jane Norton.
But in the state legislature, Republican women aren’t faring nearly as well. Their numbers over the past two decades show a sharp decline.
Twenty years ago, Republican women in the Colorado General Assembly outnumbered female Democrats 2-to-1. But this year, there were only six Republican female legislators, compared to 27 Democrats, in the 100- member legislature.
The shrinking role of Republican women also is apparent in the rolls of GOP legislative candidates. Up until the start of the 21st century, the two parties were roughly equal in numbers of women running for the legislature every two years. For example, it was 24 Republicans, 24 Democrats in the 1986 election.
But this year, only 16 female Republicans – compared with 45 Democratic women – were declared candidates before the Aug. 8 primaries. And a number of the Republican women lost to men.
Where have all the Republican women gone?
John Straayer, a political scientist at Colorado State University, compiled the figures. He had been studying the effect of term limits on the legislature’s demographics.
He found that the ratio of women in the legislature was relatively constant during the 1990s (around one-third, one of the highest in the country). But the political balance shifted markedly – the ranks of Republican women shrank while the number of Democrats grew.
Straayer struggles to explain it. One possible answer is that the philosophy of the Republican Party has shifted from a “quasi-libertarian” emphasis on fiscal policy, minimal regulation and small government to a more “theological” emphasis on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues such as gun rights, prayer in the schools and open displays of patriotism.
Straayer says women are more focused on issues like health care, families and education. They’re also put off by what he calls the “posse politics” of always looking for some villain to chase down.
“I guess women aren’t knee-jerk enough,” said former state Sen. Norma Anderson, a Jefferson County Republican who surprised everyone by resigning last year. “Unless,” she adds, “the Republican women are just leaving the party because it’s too severe and too strident.”
She says “the boys” in the party have “walked away from” the real social issues – the ones Straayer named. “Abortion is a moral issue, not a social issue,” she said.
Nancy Spence, who has no problem calling herself pro-choice, will be the only female Republican senator when the 2007 legislature convenes next January. “I’ll look around and say, ‘wait a minute,”‘ she said. The other had been Kiki Traylor, who was appointed to succeed Anderson but lost in a nasty primary.
Traylor, says Spence, was “a fabulous candidate and a wonderful person,” but she was targeted in the primary by men (such as former Jeffco legislators Don Lee and Rob Fairbank) who felt she wasn’t conservative enough.
The mailings attacking her were “awful, just awful,” said Anderson. They lied, said Spence. Spence noted that two of the three Republican women who lost legislative primaries were pro-choice, and “that bothers me a lot.”
Anderson, Spence and Straayer think there’s another component to the diminished role of women in the Republican Party.
“The Republican Party has become so religious,” said Anderson, “and a lot of religion is for women to be subservient. Assertive women don’t belong anymore.”
Anderson, first elected in 1986, doubts she could win today. “When I first ran, everyone thought I was too conservative.” Now, conservative Republicans consider her a liberal. She isn’t, she insists. “We aren’t the ones that have changed; it’s the party that has changed.”
Fred Brown is retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post and a political analyst for 9News.
