Jeremy Alford and David Jacobs: 'It still feels like a boys club'

By Louisiana standards, the Legislature has reached a high-water mark for electing women to office, with 35 serving between both chambers.
When Renee Amar, executive director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, started Louisiana Women Lead about six years ago to elect more conservatives, women made up only 18% of the Legislature, compared to 24% today.
Yet despite the all-time high for women in the House and Senate, Amar said she still sees a long road ahead until this topic is no longer a novelty. 
“I still feel like it’s a boys’ club at the State Capitol every time I walk in there,” she said. “I still hear conversations of men about the fact that they don’t think that we belong there. In 2025, that is still happening.” 
Louisiana also has two women in statewide office, Attorney General Liz Murrill and Secretary of State Nancy Landry, and one in the congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, a member of the budget-crafting House Appropriations Committee. 
While voters here are electing more women than ever, there hasn’t exactly been another notable and unmissable milestone since late Gov. Kathleen Blanco became the state’s first female chief executive two decades ago. 
More to the point, Louisiana still ranks in the bottom 10 nationally for electing female lawmakers.
Liz Mangham, lobbyist and managing partner with SSG, helped manage Blanco’s landmark campaign for governor. She knows all about the successful archetypes and unattractive tropes such candidates face. 
“Women have to walk a very fine line when they run,” Mangham said. “You can’t be too assertive. Otherwise, you appear aggressive, which makes you a b*tch. Aggressive men are seen as powerful.”
Marie Centanni, a former Blanco staffer who directs governmental and external affairs for UL-Lafayette, nonetheless sees a more professional environment for women in Louisiana politics, especially compared to when she was a legislative page in 1997. 
“It was a much different world,” she said. “Innuendo and gossip were laughed about, whereas today it’s unacceptable.”
Though she’s not currently involved, Centanni is the founder of BackPAC, which launched with a tea at the 2024 Washington Mardi Gras honoring Landry, Letlow and Murrill. The PAC’s goal is to cultivate female donors through events that are more appealing to women.
For example, Centanni described a reception and guided boat tour organized for the Legislature’s Women’s Caucus at this summer’s Legislative Rodeo in Grand Isle, which is organized by the Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana.
“Most of them were not setting foot on a boat to fish,” she said “But they wanted to be in town for the event because it was a significant political gathering.” 
While the overall trend, particularly in the Legislature, is pointing in the right direction for folks like Mangham and Centanni, others are concerned about how term limits might affect their numbers.
“I’m really worried,” said Sen. Beth Mizell, who chairs the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus. “This is my last term. This is Regina Barrow’s last term. The Senate only has five women, and we have a lot of women’s issues.”
The Women’s Caucus is staunchly bipartisan, and only gets behind an issue when at least 75% of the members agree, Mizell said. 
She and others argue that female representation makes an unmistakable difference when it comes to policymaking.
“How many rape kit bills have you seen men file?” she asked. “How many sexual assault bills? How many trafficking bills? [Former] Sen. Ronnie Johns was a hero in fighting trafficking, but he was a rare guy.”
Working with the Caucus on some of those issues is Laurie Marien, Gov. Jeff Landry’s director of women’s policy. She said addressing domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking are priorities for the Landry Administration. 
Marien likewise worked with Speaker Pro Tem Mike Johnson on legislation she described as the first of its kind in the nation. The law requires vehicle manufacturers to shut off vehicle tracking in certain cases involving domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking. 
Johnson’s bill was inspired by a woman who was an abuse victim being tracked by her ex-husband, but the company wouldn’t shut the feature off because the vehicle was still in his name. 
Looking ahead, Marien said the administration plans to unveil a program called Safe Wheels Alliance, partnering domestic violence centers with community and technical colleges. The schools will provide free labor for vehicle repairs and upkeep to ensure victims have safe and reliable transportation — which will allow the centers to save money for other purposes. 
Within the Landry administration, four of the 13 cabinet secretaries are women, including Courtney Burdette at Environmental Quality, Rebecca Harris with Children and Family Services, Susan Bourgeois over at Economic Development, and Susana Schowen at the Workforce Commission. 
The Governor’s Office as a whole is majority female, with 40 women and 32 men, according to a spokesperson. 
As for the state’s electorate, about 55% of Louisiana’s voters are women, according to the secretary of state’s latest tally. While American women tend to be more liberal than men, the difference is not as stark in Louisiana, pollster John Couvillon said. While Republicans and unaffiliated voters are roughly a 50-50 split, more than 55% of Democrats are women, he added.
As a way to connect these voters and elected officials, former Rep. Julie Stokes founded Ellevate Louisiana to bring together women leaders for nonpartisan policy discussions.
Part of the challenge, Stokes said, is that women shoulder a disproportionate share of the caregiving in many families, which makes it more difficult to run for office or travel to Baton Rouge for legislative sessions.
Other discouraging factors include lower pay and a shortage of affordable child care.
At the risk of stereotyping, men often display irrational confidence, while women can be more cautious, some interview subjects said. A man only has to hear once that he should run for office before taking a plunge, Mizell said, while women often have to be asked several times.
Mangham said she often encourages women to become candidates and to seek advice from others who have done the same. But she’s no fan of vacillation in the face of gender-based barriers and admires those who choose to see their own routes to success that are independent of social norms and expectations.
“If you go into it thinking you’re already beat as a woman, then you’re not going to get anywhere,” Mangham said. “Just go for it.”
For more Louisiana political news, visit www. LaPolitics.com or follow Alford on X @ LaPoliticsNow.