In private-sector women’s leadership, not so badly: the United States ranks number four in women’s economic participation and opportunity on the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Gender Gap Index of 142 countries. But in the public sector—and in the percentage of female legislators in particular—the United States lags far behind many countries.
In more recent election cycles the percentage of female candidates has essentially plateaued. In the decade leading up to 2012, the number of women elected to Congress remained basically flat, and the number of women in state legislatures actually decreased.
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