California in 2003 was fifth among states ranked by the percentage of its Legislators who were women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. But the state now finds itself mired in a surprising 20th place.

All of the lost ground has come at the expense of Democratic women. At the high water mark a decade ago, 31 Democratic women served in the Legislature. Now, 19 do. At the same time, Republicans have doubled their strength from six women members a decade ago to 12 now.

“It’s obvious to me there’s something not exactly right,” said Mary Hughes, a veteran political strategist. “There are a lot of factors and they converged to create a backslide.”

The first factor is the pipeline. Studies nationally have found that fewer women than men consider running for political office. That’s generally blamed on the toxic environment that envelops many races these days, from beginning contests at the school board level to the presidential level. There is the tendency of women to require themselves to be perfectly matched to a task before embarking on it, and their desire to accomplish something — an ambition that they may not see as possible in a sharply partisan legislature.

“They look at this business of politics and think: Is it worth my time and energy?” said Katie Merrill, a Bay Area Democratic consultant who has taken part in multiple gatherings meant to encourage women to run.

Although views differ, mechanical reasons may account for some of the slump in women Democrats. Term limits have forced out some pioneers. And the primary system, in which two candidates move on to the general election regardless of party, has occasionally pitted women against each other and paved the way for a man’s election.

But if those conditions were the cause, Republican women should be feeling the effects as well — and yet they are gaining ground rather than losing it. Another element may be in play: the potent ambitions that accompanied the “Year of the Woman” in 1992, in which Democratic women senators such as Feinstein and Boxer swept in, have eased as women politicians have become more common. (Among Republican women, who did not see their ranks grow in the 1990s, that fierce desire is evident now.)

“Women are establishment candidates now — look at the presidential race, where Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate,” Merrill said. “There isn’t that sense that there’s an underrepresentation of women in politics, even though there is. There isn’t an urgency like there used to be.”

Women voters, particularly Democrats, may look at their two senators, the plethora of women on their city councils and school boards, and see parity.

http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-california-politics-women-20150823-story.html