Changes in gender demographics in Michigan local governments: Michigan Public Policy Survey 2009-2021

April 2022
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Lorena Zajmi

The Michigan Public Policy Survey (MPPS) is an ongoing research program that surveys the top elected and appointed officials in every local government jurisdiction in Michigan. This report aims at understanding how the gender demographics of these officials have changed since the survey first started in 2009. This project would analyze patterns and trends for gender, tenure, education, etc. among MPPS respondents.

In this report, information is based on the responses to a series of surveys sent to all counties, cities, townships and villages in Michigan from 2009 to 2021. In the US, women are underrepresented in the majority of elected and appointed posts in municipal government. This paper summarizes what we know about women's representation in cities and counties, as well as the attributes of women's higher or lower representation.