Women in County and Municipal Government: NJ Must Do Better

The latest census of women elected to county and municipal offices in New Jersey raises an urgent question: Why is progress painfully slow — or non-existent?

The new data, including women in office as of January 2018, come from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. The numbers have edged upward since 2017, but women – who constitute more than half the state’s population – still hold only 29 percent of freeholder positions (compared with 26 percent in 2017), 25 percent of council seats (compared with 24 percent), and a paltry 14 percent of mayoralties (compared with 15 percent).

Click here to read the full release.

The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), a unit of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is nationally recognized as the leading source of scholarly research and current data about American women’s political participation. Its mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding about women’s participation in politics and government and to enhance women’s influence and leadership in public life. CAWP’s education and outreach programs translate research findings into action, addressing women’s under-representation in political leadership with effective, imaginative programs serving a variety of audiences. As the world has watched Americans considering female candidates for the nation’s highest offices, CAWP’s over four decades of analyzing and interpreting women’s participation in American politics have provided a foundation and context for the discussion.