Posted by Mollie Simon on Nov. 4, 2019
Across Capitol Hill, you are more likely to find a woman covering women's issues on legislative staffs than a man, but there are differences depending on the party of the office, based on LegiStorm's data.
For both House and Senate staffs, a higher percentage of Democrats have women covering women's issues than Republican staffs.
On the Senate side, 51% of Republican offices with a designated point person for women's issues have a woman assigned to the area, compared to 78% of Senate Democratic offices.
Over in the House, 57% of Republican offices with a designated contact for women's issues have a woman assigned to the area versus 82% of House Democratic offices.
For most Democrats, abortion is viewed as a women's issue while it is seen as more of a morality issue for Republicans. Despite this divide, the gender breakdown for abortion coverage perfectly matches that of women's issues, with the exception that 46% of Republican Senate offices have a woman covering abortion.
There are also differences in the gender of who deals with legislative issues to begin with. Among all congressional offices, there are more men than women employed as legislative directors and legislative assistants. Among all Republican Senate staffs, approximately 37% of those holding one of the two titles are women. On the Democratic side, approximately 47% of legislative directors and legislative assistants are female. For House Republican offices, 35% of those with one of the two titles are women and 48% of Democratic staffers in those roles are women.
Some people and organizations who "caught our eye" last week:
