Rural local governments are more likely than cities to be led by women; how does your community stack up?

Percentage of top appointed officials who are women by
size of local government (CivicPulse chart)

Women are more likely to lead local governments in small, rural communities than in more urbanized areas, Nathan Lee reports for local-government research outfit CivicPulse. Nevertheless, fewer than one-third of local governments with more than 1,000 residents have appointed women to top roles, though women make up 47 percent of the U.S. workforce. How does your community stack up?

Women are most likely to lead the smallest towns: 38% of communities with a population of 1,000 to 5,000 are led by women, compared to 27% in communities of 5,000 to 10,000, Lee reports. Women are least likely (21%) to lead communities with 50,000 to 100,000 residents. The share of women in such roles has been increasing by less than 1% per year, meaning the nation as a whole won't reach gender parity among local government leaders until around 2048.

At the state level, only Alabama (which has a female governor) has reached gender parity among top local appointed officials, with 57 of 109 local governments led by women. Notably, the states with the highest share of women local leaders are disproportionately rural: "The next closest states are Idaho (48% of 33 governments), West Virginia (47% of 73 governments), New Hampshire (45% of 162 governments), and Maine (43% of 208 governments)," Lee reports.

CivicPulse bases its research on U.S. Census data compiled by market researcher Power Almanac.