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Women Gain 1 Seat in Senate, 3 in House; SD Legislature Still 76% Dude

Published 2018-11-09 by Cory Allen Heidelberger

If Tuesday’s election results stand, South Dakota’s Legislature will have four more women in the 2019 Session than it did in the 2018 Session.

  • The number of women in the Senate rises from 5 to 6.
  • The number of women in the House rises from 16 to 19.

The total of 25 women in the Capitol leaves the 105-seat Legislature 76% male. Governor-Elect Kristi Noem could push the women’s share of the Legislature over a quarter by filling the vacancy by the death of subsequently second-place District 31 candidate Rep. Chuck Turbiville with the most logical choice, District 31 third-place finisher Naveen Malik. But no; expect her to name a fellow Republican, like Tom Nelson.

The Republican caucus in Pierre, House and Senate together, is 21% female. The Democratic caucus is 37% female.

Published in South Dakota

10 Comments

  1. Debbo

    Balance is a very good thing. The best legislative bodies have diversity in age, gender, skin color, income, rural/urban, etc. The legislative body needs to have numbers commensurate with the populace it serves. SD, and pretty much every state legislature in the USA, has work to do to achieve that standard of good governance.

    2018-11-09
  2. mike from iowa

    Who the devil is Brian Wirth, District 25? His ads have followed me all over the internet today.

    2018-11-09
  3. 96Tears

    That’s about as balanced and representative of genders as the gerrymandered districts are of party affiliation — just like the Republicans like it. Let’s all hope and work for changing that.

    2018-11-09
  4. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    Ads today, Mike? That’s weird. What did those ads from the D-25 independent say?

    Wirth was one of two indies in that race; Democrat Peter Klebanoff threw in as an indy as well. Incumbent Kris Langer is part of the GOP caucus, and she clobbered ’em both.

    2018-11-12
  5. mike from iowa

    I don’t remember what the ads said, but I have had ads for your state’s tourism follow me allover the net as well.

    2018-11-13
  6. OldSarg

    I’m not against “diversity” but I am against just making crap up of repeating crap that was made up in the first place. “The best legislative bodies have diversity in age, gender, skin color, income, rural/urban, etc. ” That is made up bull crap.

    2018-11-13
  7. mike from iowa

    OldSassafrasteapotdome’s normal side is showing through loud and clear.

    Ideas from non-white males is not helpful to the general well being of the Reichstag.

    2018-11-13
  8. Donald Pay

    OldSarg,

    There is no reason to argue this. There are data out there to be found, and some political science doctoral candidate could do a real study of various sessions across states to determine this. Maybe someone already has done this research.

    My own experience being around legislative sessions from 1981 to 2000 was that the best years were precisely those years in the late 1980s to mid 1990s when there was more diversity in the legislature. Much of this had to do with party split, and the need to compromise, but a lot of it was that women and minorities were bringing their concerns forward, getting bills heard, bringing amendments, being able to kill bad bills, etc. I have to hand it to Governor Mickelson, who worked well with all sorts of people, even though we never went soft on him.

    2018-11-13
  9. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    “made up bull crap”? Let me at him:

    …Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, Sara Fisher Ellison, suggests that this strategy might hinder productivity and even reduce company profits!

    Working with George Washington University’s Wallace P. Mullin, the two economists analyzed eight years of revenue data and employee surveys from one large professional services firm and found that going from an office of either all female or all male workers to one with an equal mix of both genders, a business could look forward to a 41-percent bump in revenue.

    The researchers believe that the coed teams may excel because they bring more varied perspectives and skills, which may very well be the reasons they outperform same-sex groups [Abel HR, “In the News: Same gender work groups less productive than mixed gender groups,” 2018.04.20].

    …Recent evidence strongly suggests that team collaboration is greatly improved by the presence of women in the group, and this effect is primarily explained by benefits to group processes. The evidence concerning the effect of gender diversity on team performance is more equivocal and contingent upon a variety of contextual factors. In light of the importance of collaboration in science, promoting the role of women in the field can have positive practical consequences for science and technology [Julia Bear and Anita Williams Woolley, “The Role of Gender in Team Collaboration and Performance,” Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, June 2011].

    A 2014 experiment within the Norwegian military found, “Men who had spent intensive amounts of time alongside their female colleagues became significantly more egalitarian in their attitudes.”

    Besides, we guys just behave better when there are ladies around.

    2018-11-13
  10. Debbo

    So take that!!

    2018-11-13

Comments are closed.